An announcement made on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola has sparked controversy. The island is shared by two countries: the Dominican Republic (Note 1) and Haiti. In March 2021, the Dominican Republic’s new president, Luis Abinader, announced that in the latter half of the year, construction would begin on a 400-kilometer fence along the entire border with Haiti to crack down on illegal cross-border activities such as drug smuggling and human trafficking. The fence project has faced opposition at home and abroad, but why are such tensions arising in the first place? The Dominican Republic’s international challenges are not limited to friction with Haiti. There are also issues with the United States regarding the labor market, as well as the country’s role within drug trafficking that links North and South America. This article touches on issues with neighboring countries and looks at how they are affecting the Dominican Republic.

Bridge (checkpoint) used as the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti (Photo: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid / Flickr  [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

A turbulent history

Hispaniola, where the Dominican Republic and Haiti are located, has an area of 76,192 square kilometers, is about 650 kilometers at its longest point, and roughly 241 kilometers wide. The Dominican Republic occupies about two-thirds of the island and has a population of 10.6 million. The island was originally settled by the Taino (Note 2), who formed five chiefdoms in the 15th century. Spain invaded after the landing of Christopher Columbus in 1492, and in 1496 Santo Domingo (now the capital of the Dominican Republic) became the first colony in the Western Hemisphere. Located on the northern edge of the Caribbean, the island was seen as an ideal base to control Spain’s expansion into Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and South America during the colonial era. The Taino kingdoms were devastated by conquest, diseases brought by Europeans, and colonial rule. The Taino language disappeared, and very little of the ethnic culture and customs remain today.

In Hispaniola, Spain ran plantations of sugarcane, tobacco, and more with the labor of European settlers and enslaved Africans. The Caribbean became a theater of conflicts among European powers, and as a result of the Nine Years’ War in 1697, the western half of the island was ceded to France. This territory later gained independence as the Republic of Haiti following a slave uprising. However, rivalries among France, Spain, Britain, and others in the Caribbean did not abate, and disputes over control of the island continued through territorial incursions and the use of state-sanctioned privateers.

In 1821, an independence movement arose on the Spanish-controlled side, and the Dominican Republic declared independence once. The following year, however, it was occupied by Haiti, which had already won independence from France in 1804. After a war of independence, the Dominican Republic broke away from Haiti in 1844, and by then it was no longer effectively under Spanish control due to increased autonomy. Spain tried to reassert control in 1861 but ultimately abandoned the territory and withdrew in 1865. The border finally stabilized with Haiti on the west and the Dominican Republic on the east.

As Latin American countries, including Hispaniola, achieved independence one after another, the United States began to intervene. From the 19th century the United States viewed Latin America as its “backyard.” From the late 19th century, U.S. corporations advanced into Latin America, which was well suited to plantations of bananas, other fruits, and sugarcane, and established large-scale operations. Protected by the U.S. government, these companies came to exert great influence over local politics and economies. As regimes favorable to the United States and U.S. plantation interests took hold, these countries became known as “banana republics.” The United States also built the Panama Canal in 1914, expanding its influence across the region. Together with the plantation economies run by foreign capital, the United States secured favorable conditions in Latin America and repeatedly intervened militarily to block European influence and interference.

The Dominican Republic was no exception. In response to an uprising by anti-government forces in Santo Domingo, the United States intervened in 1903, engaged in hostilities in 1904 and 1914, and occupied the country from 1916 to 1924. Although U.S. forces withdrew in 1924, the political situation remained unstable. In 1930, General Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina won the presidency by a landslide and established a dictatorship, ruling as a strongman from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. Trujillo had served in the national police force established by the United States during its rule, and he enjoyed U.S. support due to his anti-communist stance. The United States imported sugarcane at preferential low prices and exported weapons to Trujillo’s regime, supporting him to contain nearby communist forces. The “banana republic” era continued into Trujillo’s time. However, after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the United States grew wary that dictatorships might shift toward communism. Seeking a more moderate regime, the CIA was involved in Trujillo’s assassination.

After Trujillo’s assassination, Juan Bosch, founder of the left-wing Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), was elected president in the first democratic vote in about 40 years. While the Bosch administration pursued policies favoring the poor and workers, the United States deemed them communist, increased its vigilance, and helped topple Bosch. When Bosch supporters later rose up, the United States again intervened militarily, occupying the Dominican Republic from 1965 to 1966. The U.S. withdrew ahead of elections that year, but Organization of American States (OAS) forces remained. In 1966, Joaquín Balaguer of the center-right Christian Social Reform Party (PRSC), aligned with the Trujillo camp, was elected president. Though not as extreme as Trujillo, Balaguer displayed authoritarian tendencies and committed human rights abuses.

Trujillo inspects a Marine guard during a visit to the United States in 1954 (Photo: Harris & Ewing / Picryl [Public domain])

In 1978, the return of the PRD to power set the Dominican Republic on a more democratic path. The PRD governed for the next eight years. However, economic contraction led to the PRD’s loss of momentum. In 1979 the country suffered damage from two hurricanes; gasoline prices rose due to oil shocks, and sugarcane prices fell. In 1985, austerity measures proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including price hikes for basic foods and gasoline, sparked widespread riots. Against this backdrop, the PRD lost the 1986 election, and Balaguer returned to power, serving as president for another 10 years. In 1996, Leonel Fernández Reyna of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) was elected president, and the PLD held power until 2020.

Relations with Haiti

Although the Dominican Republic and Haiti share Hispaniola, their political and economic paths have diverged greatly. Despite numerous political challenges, the Dominican Republic experienced a degree of democratization, and from the 1990s onward it saw economic growth. For several decades until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the economy expanded rapidly; between 2015 and 2019 the Dominican Republic’s annual GDP growth averaged 6.1%. Haiti, by contrast, won independence after French colonial rule but, as a condition for recognition, was saddled with a massive indemnity to France in 1825 (fully paid off in 1947). It also endured a prolonged period of dictatorial rule, lasting into the 1990s, and suffered repeated U.S. interference and military intervention. Today, Haiti is often described as the poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For a long time, the Dominican Republic has been a refuge for people from Haiti fleeing political turmoil or economic hardship, and a destination for migrant labor. This has been a source of friction at both the national and personal levels, including issues of racism. In both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, people’s roots are diverse—Indigenous, European, African—and physical characteristics, including skin color, vary widely. Despite this diversity, Haitians are often regarded as “blacker” and are subject to discrimination in the Dominican Republic. The 1937 massacre of 9,000 to 20,000 Haitian migrants under the Trujillo regime still casts a shadow over relations today. At the same time, the Dominican Republic’s thriving economy depends on Haitian labor. Yet Haitian workers face numerous challenges: many work in precarious, low-wage jobs, such as on sugarcane plantations. While employers value this labor, low-wage Dominicans may see Haitians as taking their jobs, fanning resentment. When the Dominican economy worsens, frustration has frequently been directed at migrants.

People doing laundry in the river that also serves as the border, known as the “Massacre River” (Photo: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

Ties with the United States through the textile industry

The Dominican Republic is heavily influenced not only by its neighbor Haiti but also by other countries. As noted in the historical section, U.S. influence is very strong in Latin America, including the Dominican Republic. As democratization progressed and the economy diversified, the strict control characteristic of the “banana republic” era became untenable, but similar dynamics remain in the form of economic policies favorable to U.S. corporations and relationships that exacerbate inequality. A typical example is the textile industry. Starting in 1969, free trade zones (FTZs) that exempted exports from taxes were established, easing export regulations. As a result, the share of manufacturing in exports rose dramatically from 1980 into the early 1990s. A key factor was the influx of foreign companies—especially from the United States—seeking cheap labor thanks to the elimination of export taxes. In 1988, 78% of manufactured exports were apparel. Of the companies related to those exports, 63% were U.S.-owned, while only 10% were domestically owned. The textile industry exporting garments to the United States pays low minimum wages and has harsh working conditions. Manufacturers producing “fair” products under decent labor standards are so rare that they have received media attention as exceptions.

As market demands for ever-cheaper, higher-volume production accelerated, the labor market shifted to Asia, and textiles are no longer among the Dominican Republic’s main exports. The industry shrank as the country could no longer compete in wages and labor with places like Bangladesh.

Alta Gracia’s factory in Santo Domingo (Photo: Living-Learning Programs / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

A transit point in the drug trade

Beyond its political and economic relationships with Haiti and the United States, the Dominican Republic is also tied into the darker side of the Americas through cross-border organized crime, primarily drug trafficking. These ties relate to the routes of the drug trade. In the Americas, cocaine flows from south to north. Coca is cultivated in the Andes (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia), processed into cocaine by criminal organizations, and transported to the United States, which has a large consumer base. There are multiple routes, including overland through Central America and Mexico routes, and maritime or air routes through the Caribbean. The routes shift over time in response to enforcement. Within the Caribbean route, the Dominican Republic serves as a transshipment point. With the development of overland routes from Colombia to Venezuela, the volume of cocaine passing through the Dominican Republic is said to have increased. From the Dominican Republic, traffickers can ship to Puerto Rico—U.S. territory just 381 kilometers away—which is an additional advantage for reaching the U.S. market. With British and French territories scattered around the Dominican Republic, it is also ideally positioned for shipments to Europe, making it an important transit point. It is said that as much as 120 tons per year, equivalent to 15% of global production, pass through the Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile, the passage of drugs has fueled small but growing local markets in major cities such as Santo Domingo and Santiago. Much of the distribution has fallen into the hands of local gangs, contributing to urban crime and violence. In May 1988, the Dominican government established the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD), an agency focused on large-scale narcotics enforcement and prevention. However, the vast flow of money and drugs has led to cases of corruption within law enforcement, with police officers and judges taking bribes or stealing seized drugs.

Port of Santo Domingo (Photo: Brent / Flickr [CC BY 2.0])

Politics and corruption

The Dominican Republic needs a solid political foundation to face the kinds of cross-border challenges described above. What are the recent political trends?

Since 1996, the PLD has held power except from 2000 to 2004. Supported by the conservative elite and the United States, the PLD adopted neo-liberal (Note 3) policies friendly to big business, rather than prioritizing the welfare of ordinary citizens in areas like health care and education. However, from 2012, PLD president Danilo Medina gained popularity by investing in social welfare, including education. At the same time, the government hardened its stance toward Haitian migrants, including forced deportations of many migrants from Haiti in 2013.

As Medina approached the end of his second term in 2020, he attempted a constitutional amendment in 2018 with a third term in mind, but was blocked by the opposition, the faction of fellow PLD member Fernández, and public opinion. A falling-out with former president Fernández led the latter to leave the PLD and run in the 2020 presidential election, causing the PLD’s popularity to plummet. The opposition Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) won in August 2020, leading to the first change in government in 16 years.

Corruption was also a major factor in the PLD’s defeat. The relationship between politics and money is widely criticized at every level of society, and citizens’ anger has mounted over recurring scandals. A typical case is the Odebrecht (a Brazilian construction company) scandal over government construction contracts: in exchange for campaign financing, companies received preferential access to public works contracts, a scheme that became a major problem across Latin America, including in the Dominican Republic. In the conduct of elections, too, it was discovered during the February 2020 local elections that opposition names had been omitted from voting machines, forcing a postponement and sparking large-scale demonstrations. According to Transparency International, an NGO that tracks perceptions of corruption, in 2020 66% of Dominicans felt corruption had worsened over the previous year. The Dominican Republic ranked a low 130th out of 180 countries on the NGO’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2020.

In addition, the PLD’s popularity was further eroded by its poor handling of the global spread of COVID-19.

President Abinader delivering a speech (Photo: Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz) / Wikimedia [CC BY-SA 4.0])

The Dominican Republic’s present and future

Today, the Dominican Republic is suffering various blows from the pandemic that began in 2020—from tourism to manufacturing. In the textile sector, Alta Gracia, a company said to operate under uniquely “fair” labor conditions, has been hit hard but is striving to protect jobs.

The new administration faces many challenges. While COVID-19 and economic policy loom large, the public is particularly focused on anti-corruption measures promised by the new president, and is keeping a close watch. It is also unclear whether the fence with Haiti will actually be built and what results it might bring. From many angles, the question is whether the government can meet public expectations; we will continue to watch closely.

Note 1: There are two different countries—Dominica and the Dominican Republic. In this article, country names are omitted for other countries, but to avoid confusion, we write “Dominican Republic” with the country name attached.

Note 2: Taino: An Indigenous people who lived in the Caribbean islands; part of the Arawak peoples of Latin America. The Taino language is considered part of the Arawakan language family of northern South America.

Note 3: Neo-liberal: A view that emphasizes minimal government regulation and free competition. It criticizes regulation, excessive social security and welfare, and redistribution of wealth as leading to bloated government and hindering the free economic activity of companies and individuals. It holds that free competition in the market increases wealth and spreads it throughout society. Also called neoliberalism.

Writer: Yuki Yamagata

Graphics: Hikaru Kato

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