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TRADED

SPACEThe political geography o the

Haitian-Dominican Border

Melisa Vargas Rivera



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IndexPrologue

Traded Space

1. Operational dimensions

2. Seas

2.1 The Caribbean: a small map o the world2.2 A political archipelago2.3 The Hispaniola: an introverted island

3. Territories3.1 The history o the line3.2 The birth o a trauma3.3 Language and ethnic margins3.4 The blurred line

4. Sites

4.1 Labour

4.2 Trade4.3 Spatial implications4.4 The markets: commerical exodus4.5 The politics o Rice4.6 The ree trade actory and the eorts to control a part o bi-national territory in the lack o State authority

5. Projective Conclusions

5.1 Disconnected development

5.2 Flow without accumulation5.3 The city as strategy5.4 The border as strategy

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4Prologue



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A pick up truck let Santiago, a northern Dominican city, the12th o January o 2006, carrying on its back the bodies otwenty-ve people along the highway that connects the citywith the border region. It was on its way to Ouanaminthe,in Haiti, a day ater a small wagon had brought the bodiesinto town among another group o 45 survivors.

They were dead by the time the wagon had reached Santiago,they were illegally brought into the country through theborder town o Dajabón and had suocated and died insidethe hermetic back o the vehicle on the way.

Ater ailed attempts to save the twenty-th victim in theemergency room o a public hospital in Santiago, the ocialdecision was to bury the tracked, anonymous, discoveredbodies in Ouanaminthe, the Haitian mirror city o Dajabón

in the northern segment o the border, where they camethrough.

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An agitated ambience was waiting or the dead migrantsin Ouanaminthe. A group o people had gathered on thegate o the local cemetery to impede the entrance o thetruck and the burial o the bodies. It was “inhumane andundignied to bring them back in such conditions” the mob

expressed.

In the absence o any local mediating organism, the UnitedNation soldiers that have been in Haiti since 2004 escortedthe truck to the cemetery once it reached the Haitian town,assuming and anticipating trouble.

Moments later, three bodies had to be let on the dustyfoor o the cemetery as the truck escaped the gunshots and

stones directed at it rom the angry mob in the gate.Nearly escaping death, the driver took the remaining bodiesback into the Dominican Republic and the bodies weredisposed o in the common pitch o Dajabón’s cemetery.

Though not all o such a bleak nature, many other stories ostruggle, confict, power, transgression, but also o exchangeand cooperation populate the everyday lie o the Haitian-Dominican border. In its unctioning this space reveals the

ever present possibility o violence but also the inescapablenecessity o negotiation.

The border, ar rom being a sealed barrier, is a permeablespace that it’s constantly being crossed. First literally, asthousands o Haitians and Dominicans everyday commuterom each other’s border towns to the neighbouring onesto trade and to access health, education and religiousservices.

Moreover, its natural eatures, its landscapes and resourcesgo across rom side to side indierent to its politics. Butthis crossing has then taken a political turn, since theproblematic and emergency state o Haiti’s environmentsand ecosystems is by no means contained within its politicallimits, deeply aecting the Dominican Republic.

On the other hand, the strategic cartography o the borderis intersected by the diagonal lines o a globalized economicsystem that administers its existing territorial advantages: its



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potential cheap labour orce, the absence o governmentalregulation and its almost barren condition make it a blankcanvas or capital investment and exploitation.

At the border, violence, death, smuggling, disease, migration

and illegality are in constant trade; the world intervenes asit attempts to regulate it, mobilizing and placing instanceso global organizations, NGOs and military structures thatmediate and try to civilize the ebullient orces o this space.

All o these transactions, as they are individually preormed,collide and actualize the others.

Two inept governments are exposed by 25 dead migrants as

they are killed by their negligence; these bodies are movedacross an imaginary line and they activate a political strugglein the local communities. They ignite the violence thatthey themselves were victim o; they produce internationaldebate among the world organizations and the NGOs thatthey are a concern o. But more importantly, beore beingdead but potentially labouring bodies, they were propelledto cross in such conditions, against all odds by the inertia oan economic system that is in act sustained and supported

by all o these paradoxes.

The border, though only ocially open twice a week or aseries o market airs between the two countries, is in acta space in constant negotiation. Its openness is bargainedon a daily basis regulated and determined by the rules o aruthless economy o survival. In the absence o any otherorm o organization its cultural and political potentials areterribly undermined.

The ollowing research ocuses and argues that as the spaceo the border perorms and arbitrarily adjusts to the orcesthat operate at it, it not only hosts trade and transactionbut inevtiably becomes the object o trade and transactionin itsel.

Division as a orm o identity

The border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti is a391 kilometers long line (Paez Piantini, 2007) that contains in



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its irregular extension rivers, lakes, and other natural physicallimits; it goes through a series o towns and landscapeso varied characters, it divides the Hispaniola Island goingacross it in a north-south direction and demarcates thelimits o Haiti in the East side and Dominican Republic on

the West.

Like any other nation-state border, even in its physicaldenition the Dominican-Haitian border synthesizes anongoing history o negotiation, confict, diplomacy,war, economic interdependence and cultural and ethnictension that have enabled, even coerced or obstructed itscartographical delimitation.

The partition in itsel is a birth mark that distinguishes boththe current republics and an insular totality that can onlyunction within a cultural-political paradox: its division iswhat essentially determines the unity (and uniqueness) othe island within the Caribbean and even global contexts.

This condition is an essential particularity that providesenough bases or a still immature and clumsy relationshipbetween the two States to evolve into one that is construct-

ed precisely upon the embracement o the complexities anddierences between each other.

Dierence has been persistently treated with mistrust andear throughout the history o both nations when actuallydierence is in act the one constant actor throughout thecourse o their parallel existence.

When speaking o the Dominican-Haitian rontier region itis not possible to rely on the conventional paradigms thattend to inorm any debate about borders —such as theUnited States-Mexico or Spain-Morocco ones— since theseare cases in which the border condition has reached a muchmore “mature” state.

The border isn’t or instance yet populated by any “culturallymixed band that would represent the symbiosis implied in

any border” (Dilla, 2008, p.172) and is still evidently caughtup in a transitory and ambiguous status that maniests in arelationship that shits rom inter-dependence and a certain



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degree o openness (mostly o commerce, goods, servicesand labor)1 to denial and closure (in certain cultural andsocial terms or instance).

In the Dominican popular perception the border region is a

kind o no-man’s land, a dessert, a dangerous and poor areao the country characterized by an institutional and inormalporosity. This porosity allows the latent threats o HIV-AIDS, drug and human trac, environmental degradation,prostitution and illegal immigration to inltrate in the resto the country. This perception is aggravated by a strongpresence o ethnic stereotypes, a language dierence 2 anda history o abandonment: it contains 17% o Dominicanterritory that is inhabited by 4% o the population. It is

not a politically attractive region since it doesn’t representan important voting population; and historically, through itshermetic treatment, has been used as a means o deninga national identity especially during the course o the 20thcentury (mainly up until the 1990’s).

The Haitian side o the border is completely the opposite:more densely populated, the region concentrates peoplethat are attracted by the possibility o emigrating and/or

greater work and survival opportunities.

Border and Citizenship

The border region is articulated institutionally in about 22 to25 local non-governmental organizations on the Dominicanside that ocus on specic issues that go rom local shingto sexual education. In Haiti the development o the rontier

region has incrementally been included within parliamentaryconcerns. Today it is mostly regulated by external entitiessuch as international monetary organizations and Europeanand American governmental cooperations.

1 Examples o this relative openness are the act that Haitians requently accessDominican medical services and in a smaller degree education, especially technicalcourses. On the other hand, Dominicans surreptitiously use Haitian religious services.State agencies in a more ormal way have contact especially in the case o crisis (themilitary, municipal and migratory authorities or instance) (Dilla, 2008, p.192).

2 In the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as a result o a parallel yet distinct colonialhistory three dierent languages are ocially spoken, in the rst Spanish and in thesecond French and Creole.



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These two main orms o involvement, one at a local leveland the other at a governmental one, respond to twodistinct approaches within the realm o politics in bothsides; a set o politics that in act, are a refection o thecountries’ attitudes towards each other.

Simultaneously there has been a historical interest in deningand clearly demarcating the legal limits o the nations romthe Dominican Republic, o developing the region in orderto “dominicanize“ it hence constructing a buer protectivezone rom that space o otherness that is incarnated inHaiti. A militarization o the border has taken place withthe creation o the CESFRONT which stands or CuerpoEspecializado Fronterizo (Specialized Border Unit) a unit

ormed within the Dominican Army that has been placedin the border since September o 2007 with the mission o“controlling the trac o illegal migrants, drugs and rearms as well as merchandize smuggling, vehicle thet andanimals in the border with Haiti”.

In contrast to the State’s imposition o a military controlmechanism, the local communities have managed toestablish a code o relations in which there isn’t in act an

interest or a symbiosis yet a comprehension and peaceulacceptance o reciprocal interdependence; where riendshipbetween Haitians and Dominicans is mostly perceived as anacceptable orm o interaction and others such as marriageand childcare aren’t.

In anthropological terms this orm o “agonistic” (Moue,2000) relation is still to evolve into a better articulated onesince ethnic discrimination and abuse still take place thus be-coming obstacles to more progressive ways o exchange.

These abusive tendencies have been harshly conrontedby international NGO’s such as Amnesty Internationaland Human Rights Watch and have raised worries in theDominican Republic o it being portrayed as an enslavingcountry where the rights o illegal Haitian immigrants arehighly violated.

But on the other hand much more positive kinds o culturaland economic interaction start to modiy the mutual



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perceptions o the countries, once again, specially within thelocal quotidian dynamic o the border regions: internationalairs, religious exchange and other constructive movementsdo increasingly take place.

“Today, however, there does need to be a orm o citizenshiplinked to transormations in the demos. Because o theprocesses o globalization, there is an important need ororms o democratic governance which are transnational orcosmopolitan.” (Moue, 2001 p.111)

The Greek concept o demos, a political unit that relates toa specic people and their link to a state (which in ancientGreece was at the same time always linked to a specic

place) rom Chantal Moue’s point o view doesn’t have tonecessarily be linked to the Nation-State logic.

Citizenship is in act a orm o identity that has to beconstructed always in relation to a group (a people) and aplace but is not exclusive to countries or nationality.

Since the border region is yet to be properly articulated as aplace, to think o a local orm o citizenship is premature. But

i its conormation were to be anticipated it would denitelyhave to incorporate the idea o movement and dierence asdorsal elements.

In “Poetics o Relation” (1997) Edouard Glissant conrontsthe concepts o root identity (associated with the westerntradition o occupation) and relation identity (an alternativemodel proposed by the author) as two possible readings othe links between community and land.

While in the rst there is a transcendental denition othis link that raties possession o land and determinationo otherness through conquest, in the second, there is aninclusion o “contradictory experiences and contacts amongcultures” (Glissant, 1997, p.144)

Relation is embraced without negating its chaotic and

confictive nature which prevents the emergence o “thehidden violence o liations” (Glissant, 1997, p.144)



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Relation identity can be understood as orm o localcitizenship, as a orm o association that implies togethernessbut not necessarily total mixing; it leaves room or expansionwithout invasion, o confict without war.

A kind o citizenship that dees the logic o xation andimmobility, in which movement becomes a “political registeras well as a orm kinetic passage” (Neilson, Mitropoulos.2007, p.473), in which the moving bodies that currentlymigrate or simply move anonymously and devoid o theirpolitical character regain their capacity o action.

In the border between the Dominican Republic and Haitithe ormation o citizenship will have to necessarily allow

or even encourage the radical opposition o dierence andmovement as two categories that don’t have to stand orexclusion, exploitation or alienation but that propel andcatalyze the existing extraordinary dynamics o a region thatrepresents two peoples sharing one island.



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Borders are spaces, geographical datum in which politicsbecome explicit. This not only maniests in their spatialorganization but also —and primarily— through thetransactions, exchanges, blockages and movements that intheir quotidian perormance hint towards the much more

complex set o power relations that operate at them.

Borders are, as dened by Steano Harvey, “mechanisms oadministering labour, useul not to distinguish but to movepopulations rom one side to the other” Taking as premisesgeographical, political and economic standpoints how canwe read the border? Studying and approaching this arenarom the geographical and spatial point o view necessarilyimplies a problem o scale. Studying and approaching it

rom a political point o view involves questions o history;and when economy is inserted within the equation, theconsideration o labour and goods is inevitably central.

These approaches are by no means clearly separate romeach other, on the contrary, they relate to the extent obeing impossible to address individually without taking theothers into account. This research enters into the notion othe border by including these three points o view withinwhat has been dened as operative dimensions.

The choice o the term dimension derives rom the act thatit is generous enough in its possible meanings to suggesta sense o magnitude, proportion and scope but also oquality, importance and extent. Seas, territories and sitesare essentially the three dimensions or categories thatorganize the research. Each provides symbolic and literal

representations o both the physical and geographicalcomponents o the Haiti-Dominican Republic border (as wellas its regional and global contexts) and the more abstractsystem o orces that determines the current condition othis complex space

O p

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S e a s

“Seas” is the category that reers to all the processes thattogether build up the idea o the Caribbean Archipelagoand the Hispaniola Island.

It is impossible to understand islands without addressing

the sea. The word archipelago literally means “chie sea”,derived ultimately rom Greek arkhon (arkhi) (“leader”) andpelagos (“sea”).

In the case o the Caribbean archipelago adicult relationship with its waters is narratedthrough its current dilemmas as a regionthat still doesn’t manage to consolidate

itsel. The islands and continental coasts othe Caribbean are joined and separated bythe sea, a sea that brings to land, at times,uncontrollable and unpredicted turbulence.This unbridgeable, yet not so great, aseparation determines a sense o almostinescapable isolation in each o the islandsbut also a sense o distant belonging to acommon political and cultural space. This

space invades the insular territories as itbangs their shores with the waves o the sea,arriving always ull handed, bringing with itnew languages, music, ethnicities, politicalstruggles and trade. The sea has doubtlesslyconstituted in our insular countries anindispensable support or lie, but at the sametime it has been synonym o destruction.The sea has connected and disconnected

us; it has protected, cleaned, rereshed andrelieved us but it has also attacked, fooded,corroded and overwhelmed us. This dual



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condition in which the sea aects Caribbeancities has determined its perception rom rmland as something to mistrust. Most o theliterature based on international relations

reers to our countries as “vulnerable insulareconomies”. The same way, the sea has beenused as a metaphor allusive to the economicprocesses o globalization: “rst, secondand third wave” (Tofer), “the tsunamieect”, “archipelago economies” (Veltz) and“metarchipleagos” (Benitez Rojo), just tomention a ew. But what is really intriguingis why in the Caribbean there is such a ear o

the sea, or at least, why with the exception obig tourist cruise-boats roaming our coasts ormercantile ships extracting our raw materials,the Caribbean economic production isn’tspecially linked to it. Almost none o theCaribbean countries have exploited shingneither or their own consumption noror exportation. It is also rare to see localmercantile ships; and maritime transportation

systems between islands are very scarce, notto say inexistent. (Barinas)



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The Caribbean: a small map o the world

…the Caribbean, more than Arica or Europe, hasbeen the vortex and testing ground o both the

integrity and ecacy o both Arican and European perceptions, denitions and applications o philosophy in the real world away rom the certainties o theacademies and citadels o the Sorbonne or the great civilizations o Kush, Zimbabwe and Ile Ie. In thisnew world, this supposedly no man’s land i.e. theextermination o the Caribs, the Arawaks and theTainos, something strange and beautiul was orged here. At least, unlike in the USA, the melting point where, Tony Kushner tells us, nothing ever melted, something did melt and merge here. (IROBI, p.11)



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Trying to trace the multiple appendages o the Caribbean’smulti layered character is by no means an easy task. It isat present geographically dened as a region that containsparts o the coasts o North, Central and South America,The Great and Lesser Antilles, The Caribbean Sea, The Gul

o Mexico and a part o the Atlantic Ocean. In these termsit is indeed a small sample o a big part o the whole worldbut even more so culturally as it pretty much synthesizes itcompletely.

Winds, ocean currents and Europe’s power struggles,determined its inclusion in the engine o history, as denedby the west, in the XVth century, making it the rst laboratoryo European colonization in the Americas.

This collision o dierent peoples determined its modusoperandi, activating a space o constant ebullition. Notdriven by “natural” nomadism: its population process, romthat point on, was engineered and articial. Starting withthe ethnic tabula rasa resulting rom the total erasure o pre-columbian societies and the later introduction o slave tradeand production; the orced global exodus that culminatedin the islands transormed them into productive machines.

For our centuries (rom the XVth till the XIXth) the regionwas under several orms o colonial exploitation. Coloni-alism was indeed not uniorm within its sub-regions. TheGreater Antilles and the Lesser ones experienced dierentprocesses primordially by being colonized and disputedbetween various European powers: by the VXIIth century,Spain —being the strongest colonial empire— dominatedthe Greater Antilles and most o the continental territories;Followed by England occupying or most o the XVIIth andXVIIIth centuries what today are The Bahamas, Jamaica andwhat later would become the West Indies Federation in themost south eastern arch o the Lesser Antilles. France, alsopresent in the smaller islands o the south, conquered whattoday is the Republic o Haiti in the Hispaniola Island (whichis shared by it and the Dominican Republic). Holland andDenmark also intervened in a much smaller degree.



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With dierent approaches to slavery, dierent languagesand dierent modes o occupation, these colonial experi-ences produced varied degrees o ethnic mix and culture; aswell as parallel and distinct historic processes.

It is possible to assert that countries such as Cuba, DominicanRepublic, Puerto Rico3 and Haiti are much more inserted withinthe struggles o continental Latin America, sharing Spanishlanguage (with the exception o Haiti as a Creole and Frenchspeaking country) and a similar history in political and socialterms: they were immersed in the independence wave o theXIXth century, also victims o the later American military andeconomic interventions, their support o dictatorships, also

possessing similar ethnic patterns o European and Aricaninheritance (and the complex results o them).

Jamaica, Cayman Island, The Lesser Antilles and The Baha-mas on the other hand are part o a later cycle o British,French, Dutch and Danish rules. Mostly English and Frenchspeaking, in their majority they gained independence in theXXth century, during very dierent political and economiccircumstances to those that surrounded the rest o the Latin

American struggles.

The post-colonial experience o these two groups —especiallyin the way they currently relate to their ex-colonial powers—is thereore quite distinct.

Nevertheless, there are many common points mostlydetermined by the geographic and climatic conditionsshared by the whole region as well as by their proximity.This proximity has been propitious or dierent waves omigration between them, which nally has determinedconstant cultural exchanges and infuence in terms o ood,music, language and religious practices.

5 Puerto Rico was also a colony o the United States rom 1898 until 1947 when itbecame a Free Associated State o it, which makes it a special case in the region interms o its colonial history and current political status.



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A political archipelago

Today the Caribbean islands are also political islands: roma socialist regime in Cuba, a constitutional monarchy in

Jamaica and liberal democracies in The Dominican Republicand Haiti, to a commonwealth association with the UnitedStates in Puerto Rico, and overseas territories o France,England, The United States and The Netherlands in Jamaica,Bahamas and the Lesser Antilles, the region collages theresult o it’s politically intense history.

As a sort o alter reality, the continental powers o the globe,have ound in the Caribbean a space to strategically place

instances o their political systems.

The Caribbean hasrepresented a space ootherness especially or theUnited States. The regioninvades the imagination o theworld as a natural paradisethat is simultaneouslyexciting and dangerous. Itsvolcanoes and hurricanaesare as much potential threats

as its strategic position andgeographic disconnection.



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A strong example o this orm o power was the crucial rolethat Cuba played during the Cold War, presenting the UnitedStates with serious nuclear threat in what is commonlyreerred to as the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a result o theCuban-Soviet alliance in the 1960s, Cuba represented a

next-door extension o the Soviet Union in the region.

Always serving as a strategic bridge to the rest o the worldor the continental Americas, it has been in the interest obigger countries like the United States to keep the Caribbeanunder as much military and economic control as possible.

The XIXth and XXth centuries were strongly marked by themost aggressive American attempts to install its hegemony

with various military interventions, the imposition oeconomic embargos, the support o corrupt governmentsand dictatorship and the promotion o harmul economicpolicies in the islands.

Let and right: images romthe CIA mapping the missilebases and the possible impacto an attack.



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The Hispaniola: an introverted island

In the center o the archipelago, The Hispaniola Island is thehost o two nations: Haiti and The Dominican Republic. The

division o the island is a living trace, rstly, o the arbitrarynature o colonialism; and consequently, it is evidence ohow this historical turning point generated a continuum osocial and political permutations. These permutations stilltoday strongly inhabit the popular imaginary and politicalrealms o both countries.

The island has to look inwards, the border, though ignoredand abandoned or decades during the mid-XXth century,

today recovers the lost attention o the societies thatintervene and operate in it.

Right: North coast o “LaHispaniola” as drawn byChristopher Colombus in theXV century.

Let: Image o the Hispaniolaisland taken by the GOESsatellite on the 22 o

September o 1998 duringthe passing o hurricaneGeorges.



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WindwardChannel

Cuba

Bahamas

Jamaica

Caribeean Sea

50 mi

100 km



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Atlantic Ocean

MonaChannel

Caribeean Sea

NorthTurks and Caicos

Puerto Rico



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Linked to land, the territory and all the natural eaturescontained in it are essential or the identity o a country. Theword territory is crucial or the ormation o the Nation Stateas such, a orm o government that is the backbone o theRepublic.

The orm o the Republic, was yet another Europeanconstruction that landed in the Caribbean, arriving in theXIXth century as a new technology to be tested, this timenot as an imposition, but as a liberating gesture borrowed bythe peoples that emerged in the region, peoples that orgedand brewed or centuries under the weight o colonialism.

This category reers to the process o emergence, historical

evolution and current condition o the Dominican-Haitianborder, a border that, like a DNA spiral, records the evolutiono its peoples. Initially a blurred edge between coloniallands, it evolved into a rontier between two Republics.

The XXth century Haitian-Dominican border started to betraced in the orm o legal agreements and topographicalmappings. But more importantly it started to be traced as animaginary space in the popular sel-image o both countriesthat, even today, is a powerul political tool.

It is more than evident that the histories o these twocountries are complex, absolutely inter-linked and ull oparadoxes. Inherited misconceptions and the reminiscenceo the traumatic and intense processes that orged the tworepresent today challenges or their integration.

But this constructed space, in spite o the interruptions, isstill in the making.

T e r r i t o r i e s



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The history o the line

Though initially completely controlled by Spain, and theplace where the rst European city (Santo Domingo) was

ounded in the Americas, the island was later neglectedby the crown. By the XVIIth century this neglect reached apoint o almost total abandonment, as the Spanish ocusedtheir interest in the later conquered colonies in the continent(such as what today are Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela).This abandonment created the conditions or French piratesto occupy the island’s western side.

From coarse pirate assault the invasion o the western side

o the island evolved into a proper occupation in 1668 whenFrance spotted the strategic nature o their presence in theregion. By the XVIIIth century this third o the island wasenough space or the European power to install one o themost brutally productive sugar cane and coee industries inhistory. Based on intense slave and agricultural exploitation,the French Saint Domingue’s production o sugar and, later,coee generated an amount o wealth that surpassed that

o all the English colonies at the time put together

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.

On the precarious east a smaller population o criollos—born in the island but o Spanish descent— and slavesadministered their survival based in trade with the Frenchside, specially o cattle and also ocusing, less intensely, inagricultural activities. The French needed this supply or thethousands o slaves and their masters to be ed while inconstant production.

4 By the 1780s, Saint-Domingue produced about 40 percent o all thesugar and 60 percent o all the coee consumed in Europe.



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But this colonial machine in the western third o theHispaniola Island not only resulted in an exponential boosto French economic might: through its schizophrenicmanagement and orced blend o populations rom variousregions o Arica, it also ignited an unprecedented and

extraordinary cultural and political revolution never reallyequated by any other human group there on.

The Republic o Haiti, the second established ater theUnited States o America, is the only one in the world tohave emerged out o a slave revolt. The role played by theethnic and cultural composition o the colony was crucialor the overthrow o French rule. The plantation enclavesand their geographic locations became central in the

insurrection strategies, turning the modality o productioninto subversive war strategy.

The ormation o a créole language became a powerulweapon that enabled a system o communication, previouslydicult between members o dierent tribes that nallyconsolidated the liberation movement and drove it tosuccess in 1804.

Spanish Santo Domingo, starting earlier (1500s) in thebusiness o Arican slavery, imported groups and exploited



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their labour in a dierent and slower pace. The culturalimplications that these insertions entailed, though alsocharacterized by insurrections and revolts, didn’t producephenomena o the same scale. But the infuence o Aricans

was powerul, and till date, a central element o theDominican Republic’s culture. Spanish language neverthelessremained the dominant one, and the white-European elitedid manage to trace cultural and social lines that somehoware still legible in the social composition o the countrytoday.

When, ater its independence, Haiti occupied the Spanishterritories or twenty two years (1822-1844), the criollos

preerred their link with Spain and rejected the Haitian rule.No longer in the interest o the Spanish and as a result o anindependent movement inspired by European republicanism,the Dominican Republic was ounded ater its independencerom Haiti in 1844.

Diagram or thearrangement o a slave ship.



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The emergence o the border has always been linked with the productivepotential o the island. The movement, production and trade o people andproducts has mobilized the history o the line. Still today, now under the

A TIMELINE OF TRADE



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conditions o a globalized context, the border works as an economic unnel thatrepresents the subsistance means or a large part o both the Haitian and theDominian populations.



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The birth o a trauma

The two young countries thereater ocused on theirinternal concerns. O completely dierent natures, theirindependence struggles became essential in the construction

o their national identities: the rst against Europeanhegemony, the second against Haitian rule. Nevertheless,these proud societies evolved in mutual tolerance, dealingwith the challenges that a North-American XIXth century oimpositions and invasions posed to both separately.

But it wasn’t until the late 1930’s, when both nations werevictim o the atrocities perpetrated by the authoritarianregime o Dominican president Raael Trujillo (dictator

between 1930 and 1961) who, inspired by Nazi ascism,decided to reinorce a Dominican nationalist discourse basedon ethnic superiority over Haiti.

In 1937 the dictator ordered the killing o any personpresumed to be Haitian (based on visual eatures and localknowledge) ound in the bordering provinces o the countryin what is known as the “Dominicanization o the border”.

This order resulted in the killing o 17,000 to 35,000 Haitiancivilians over a span o approximately ve days (Forrest). Thismoment started a period o antagonism and separation thatlasted almost six decades.

Lett: Trujillo constructed hisregime’s ideological aparatusaround a strong nationalidentity that was stronglybased on an anti-Haitiandiscourse.



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Language and ethnic margins

In a completely dierent contemporary context, the issueso language and ethnicity, so central in the countries’histories, today still knit the net o relations between the

two. Though politically manipulated by the powerul elitesin both, the debates about the border and internationalrelations —especially in the mainstream establishments—still revolve strongly around them.

The Créole or Kreyòl language is still ocial in Haiti, while inthe Dominican Republic Spanish is spoken.

In urban centers o the Dominican Republic Haitian migrants

that have a strong Kreyòl accent in Spanish are more likelyto be discriminated. It is perceived in the country as a sorto comical olkloric attitude to dismiss it and mock it in aquotidian way.

Language is perceived as a strong border between thetwo cultures and this perception, in present day, poses achallenge or the cultural integration o the countries.

“Dierent to other countries where Haitianmigration is hosted, where there is an ocialpromotion o the cultural rights o minorities,in the Dominican Republic nationalist groupsshow an open rejection towards the diusiono Kreyòl” (Casanova)

Kreyòl , as its name implies, is a mixed language that at rst

appears to be exclusively composed o French and someWest and Central Arican languages. But it is in act a rich

A road sign in the Haitiannorther border town oOuanaminthe indicatesongoing construction works.



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mélange o infuences, notably the native Taíno, includingsome Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, and some English.

Interestingly enough, the Spanish that is spoken in theDominican Republic, its accents and many colloquial

expressions, words and regionalisms, derive as well romthe same languages.

These languages are indeed dierent; nevertheless, they areimpregnated with very similar infuences.

The cultural “purity” o the Spanish heritage in theDominican Republic propagated by Trujillo’s dictatorship, isin act a allacy, since such purity —especially in the Spanish

that transormed, evolved and mixed in the country—doesn’t exist.

Racial stereotypes have also been carried orward romthe times o Trujillo. Mostly the middle and upper classesstill perpetuate a heritage o Haitian culture and Haitianimmigrants’ denigration in the Dominican Republic. Notexclusively “anti-Haitian”, this attitude isn’t much dierenttowards members o the Dominican lower classes, which

also tend to be associated with certain racial characteristics(types o hair, acial eatures, body types, etc).

The ethnic composition o the Dominican Republic is todaydistinctively mixed, with predominant black traces, butmostly a blend o the dierent migrations and invasionsthat have entered the country during its existence.

Haiti’s population is also mixed; its black portion is still,like in the time o the revolution, the majority. In Haiti the“white” minorities o European descent are also, like in theDominican Republic, still in a privileged position.

The truth o the matter is that even though the ingredientsare probably in dierent proportions and rom dierentorigins, both populations are essentially mixed. The racialsuperiority that is implied in the nationalists’ discourse in

the Dominican Republic is simply absurd, starting with theact that there is no such thing as two “races” to oppose inorder to establish such superiority.



47

Much o this “debate” and these social conceptions oHaitians are concentrated in the bigger cities and in somespecic sectors o the printed, visual and oral media. LetistHaitian groups also enhance the portraiture o all Dominicans

as abusive and aggressive people that hate the neighbouringcountry.

Without undermining the abuses and discriminations thatHaitian migrants do suer in specic labour sectors o thecountry, in the overall these extreme perceptions are mostlythe outcome o social and political manipulations. In thebordering regions, or instance, people o both sides coexistand interact without ear and the crossover o languages,

religion and trade occurs peaceully.



48

3.4



49

The blurred line

Haiti is one o the most ecologically damaged countries

Each year, Haiti’s eight million inhabitantsburn the equivalent o thirty million trees—20 million more than the country growsannually—(...) Deorestation stepped up duringthe international trade embargo, between1991 and 1994, as people burned trees or

the uel they could no longer import. (Bryant,1996)

in the world, with the disappearance o 98% o the totalorest area it had in 1925 (which was 60% o the area

o the country) it now struggles with intense erosion anddesertication.

The Dominican Republic, on the other hand, has managedto protect its natural resources via the application o specicenvironmental laws and the creation o sanctuaries, nationalparks and natural reserves.

The extreme contrast between the environmental stateso the two countries has been recently covered in workssuch as an “Inconvenient Truth” by ormer Americanvice-president Al Gore and the book “Collapse” by JaredDiamond. The image o the bare mountains o Haiti almostradically stopping at the meeting point with the green andlush mountains o the Dominican Republic has become anicon or the environmental movement all over the world.

But in act, more and more, this clear cut division between adestroyed ecology and a conserved one is becoming a blurryone.



50

The system o National Parks, Conservation Areas andNature Sanctuaries in the Dominican Republic has a much

wider scope o protection and has been considerablyeective in the last 60 years. Haiti on the other hand hasn’tbeen able to articulate and ormalize the protection o itsecosystems.

When looking at the levels o degradation o the islandadistinction o the two environments is not clear-cut. It isevident that the areas closer to the border region o theDominican Republic are the ones with the highest levelso degradation. The natural balance o the island cannotbe read in terms o the political border, the environmentalproblems o Haiti directly concern both.

Bare soil

Acute desertication

Moderate desertication

Erosion / Deorestation



51

One o the most dramatic and representative examples othis occurred on the 24 and 25 o May o 2004. Around600 people died in the town o Jimaní, a border city o theDominican Republic, and another 1,600 in Haiti when afood caused by intense rain covered the region.

The worst fooding occurred along a river system

that drains the north fank o the Massi de laSalle and in a poorly drained area along the south fank o the massi. This mountain rangelies along the southern side o the island o Hispaniola, running east to west. A key actor inthe intensity o the destruction is the extensivedeorestation within the associated drainagebasins and the presence o settlements withinthe foodplains o rivers and in other low areas

on the south fank o the massi. Some o thevillages most impacted include Mapou and Fond Verrettes in Haiti, and the town o Jimani acrossthe border in the Dominican Republic. (NASA)

An image o the onlyinternational highway thatruns along the border line inits northern part illustratesthe contrast in terms odeorestation and soilerosion that exists in someregions between Haiti andthe Dominican Republic.



52

The NASA images show thetown o Jimani in Dominican

Republic beore and ater thefoods o 2004.

During the food, almost hal o the town was covered by water as the result oerosion in Haitian mountains.



53

In a more quotidian and regular basis Haitians are knownto smuggle soil and charcoal rom the Dominican Republic,since these are scarce in most o its regions.

The eects o such signicant alterations to the naturalsystems o Haiti are by no means contained within political

boundaries and thereore concern the island as whole.

Image o a Haitian sail boatsmuggling charcoal rom theDominican Republic throughthe Etang Sumatre in thecentre region o the border.(By Yann Arthus Bertrand)



54

4



55

In morphological terms, the Dominican-Haitian border is aragmented composition o topographical accidents. Theheights o the mountain ranges that intersect it, and theirdicult accessibility, make the plains and valleys in-betweenthem the points where human settlements have initiallydeveloped, where highways pass through and where most

o the ormal and inormal crossings o goods and peopletake place.

More than mere military posts, these crossing points haveevolved into vibrant areas, in some cases, considerably denseand urbanized.

We will discover in the ollowing chapters that they are notonly places where the two countries simply meet, but where

complex orces operate providing the region with uniqueorms o interaction and trade, both regulated and led byexternal and internal rules.

These are sites. They perorm as an arena where variousorms o power are exercised either remotely or in situ;always revealing a complexity that cannot be perceived inthe immediate appearance o their physical congurationbut or which, nevertheless, this physical and concrete placeis undamental in order to unction.

The border —though still in a state o transition— holdseconomic, cultural and political potentials that can propelthe region and the two countries into more positive andbenecial experiences o relation. More orward orms ocommercial and cultural exchange oer possibilities orprogress in a macro level i the border, rom being a unnel

or the fow o wealth, becomes a centre where considerableparts o this (not only economic) wealth is retained andinvested. S i t

e s



56

AGENCING

Organization of American States (OAS)

USAID

Cooperación Española

E.U.

Canadian Government

Local-International NGOs

MEDIATING

International Private Corporations

Local-International NGOs

Local-International Worker Unions

(INTER) ACTING

Traders

Students

Dominican Private Corporations

Small and Big Entrepreneur Associations

Worker Unions

Migrants

Smugglers

AGENTS/ACTORS

The border is aectedby the intervention omultiple agents that

operate rom a globalcontext as well as roma bi-national one (thatis rom the DominicanRepublic and/or Haiti).The border thusbecomes a series o siteswhere its multinationalcharacter is apparent,

comprising theinterests and struggleso various institutionaland economic entitiesas well as a multiplicityo social groups.



57

REGULATING

MILITARY REGULATION

U.N. (MINUSTAH mission)

Dominican Army (CESFRONT unit)

LEGAL-POLITICAL REGULATION

Haitian Government

Dominican Government

ECONOMIC REGULATION

Organization of American States

World Bank

Port Au Prince

Santo Domingo

Dominican Republic

Haiti



58

4.1



59

Labour

Haitians have migrated towards theDominicanRepublic en the search or work duringalmost 90 years. Most o the XXth century was characterized by the border-crossingo labourers —some orceully, othersconvinced through alse promises— to work in the zaras (the harvest period) o sugar cane plantations. There they were employed as sugar cane cutters, with miserable salaries,living in atrocious conditions in the barrackso the plantations or in small settlements

within them. Once the harvest was over, thelabourers were returned to Haiti. The all o the Dominican sugar industry in the 80’s, the growth and diversication o the country’seconomy and the prolonged political and economic crisis in Haiti haven’t stopped thelabour-related migration o Haitians. It hasnot only continued, but increased, thoughnow presenting dierent characteristics.

Today Haitians are not only ound withinthe very decayed sugar industry, but also inother agricultural sectors, in construction,within the tourist industry, providing domestic services and part o the inormal commerce.Even though young male still predominateas the main migrant group, the amount o women that also do it is constantly increasing.(Wooding, 2004)

Let: Haitian workers on theconstruction site or a new

market building, a projectunded by the EuropeanUnion in Dajabón.



60

Haitians themselves represent one o Haiti’s main exported commodities, historically it has provided a large portiono the world with cheap labour orce. This is clearly visible in the diagram by Haitian historian Georges Anglade,presented in the newspaper “Le Nouvelliste” showing the migration waves o Haiti.



63

centres, a Spanish speaking person will guidethe migrant to another transportation systemto nally take him to a rented room in a housewith other Haitians, a house that is most likely close to the uture place o work. (Wooding,

2004)



64

4.2



65

Trade

In a relatively short period Haiti has become animportant consumer o Dominican exports aswell as into a source o cheap labour orce or the clothing sector o the Dominican Republic (which is actually moving towards the border).These exchanges are a refection o an intenseinter-dependence that is determined by the

increasing socio-economic dierences betweenthe two as well as by the pressures rom theregional and global neo-liberal context that both ace. (Traub-Werner, 2007, p. 208)

Let: The market air inPedernales

Tens o thousands o products enter and exit through itsvarious points; these operations represent the main orm oincome or Haitians and Dominicans along it.

The most distinctive quality o this orm o commerce is itstransactional character. An impressive amount o capital (inthe orm o goods and labour) passes through the regionbut doesn’t get accumulated at it. Those who intervene inthe exchanges can only survive through the commerce butare not involved in long-term development projects.

The main activities at the border are commercial. Throughthe border corridors circulate the money, inormation andpeople that produce the current inter-dependence o both

parts.



66

4.3



67

Spatial Implications

Let: A Haitian man works asa porter, carrying pedestrianson his shoulders so that theireet don’t get wet while

crossing the Massacre Riveron the northern segmento the border between thetowns o Ouanaminthe andDajabón.

More than just a backdrop or the constant movementsand transactions that occur at it, the space o the border isproduced through them.

The pressing necessity o economic exchange that aectsthe inhabitants o the region and the two countries make itan adjustable and malleable place.

This fexibility not only represents the literal survival orbig chunks o both countries’ populations but also makeit a ertile ground or militarily and economically powerulentities to arbitrary manipulate its geography.

The ollowing chapters cover three spatial modalities o theseorms o economic operations, starting with the inormaland necessity driven market airs, ollowed by the trajectoryo one o the products sold at the border and the politicsbehind it and nally looking at one o the most paradigmaticcases o spatial adjusting taking place at it: the positioningand organizational principles o a ree trade actory that

occupies both Haitian and Dominican Republic territory.



68

The transversal sequence o topographical and hydrological resources determinesthe map o the border. Though a series o rivers, mountains and abstract lines

demarcated by milestones the map o the border is nevertheless, like any border,political. The selection o these natural accidents is the result o a history o war,invasion and legal agreements between the two sides. The morphology o the border



69

is a determining actor in its socio-political conguration: cities, roads and othersystems adjust to t its geography. It is as much a tectonic topography as it is one

o sharing resources, blockage, passage and negotiation. (click on map to enlarge)



70



71

Dajabón-Ouanaminthe bridge



72



73




74



75




76



77

Dajabón-Ouanaminthe



78



79

Pedernales Anse-Pitre



80



81

Pedernales Anse-Pitre



82



83Jimaní- Mal Passe



84



85Jimaní- Mal Passe



86

4.4



87

The wealth produced in the region is mostly accumulatedin the capitals o each country: Port Au Prince and SantoDomingo.In the late 1980s, decades ater the all o the

Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and when theDuvaliers5 were out o power in Haiti, a dynamic between thenorth border towns o Ouanaminthe (in Haiti) and Dajabón(in the Dominican Republic) started taking place: duringMondays and Fridays Haitians would cross to buy agriculturalproducts and on Saturdays, Dominicans would cross to buycosmetics, used clothing and electronic devices.

5 Dr. François Duvalier, known as “Papa Doc” (April 14, 1907 – April 21, 1971[),was the President o Haiti rom 1957. In 1964 he made himsel President or Lie.

He ruled in a regime marked by autocracy, corruption, and state-sponsored terror-ism through his private militia known as Tonton Macoutes. Jean-Claude Duvalier(nicknamed Bébé Doc or Baby Doc) (born July 3, 1951) succeeded his ather, FrançoisDuvalier as the ruler o Haiti rom his ather’s death in 1971 until his overthrow by apopular uprising in 1986.

The markets: commercial exodus

Let: A sign on the streetso the southern town oPedernales in the DominicanRepublic indicates the wayto the international marketon the border with AnsePitre in Haiti.



88

But it was in the 1990s, when the Organization o AmericanStates imposed an embargo6 on Haiti, when Ouanaminthebecame a terrestrial port or the importation o gas andother oil derivatives, and this represented or the rest o

Haiti a gold mine, bringing residents rom all its parts tothe city.

Based on the commercial opportunities located in theregion, the Haitian city grew dramatically, outgrowing theDominican neighbor.

Today thousands o people cross rom Haiti on Tuesdays andFridays to buy and sell products in an outdoor commercial

air in the city o Ouanaminthe.

The Ouanaminthe-Dajabón case doesn’t refect the overallconditions o the border, in it by ar the most developedorms o commercial and cultural interaction occur. Butthe one common actor in all o its crossing points is thecommercial nature o the relations, taking the orm ointernational market airs.

6 In 1991 he Organization o American States called or a hemisphere-wide em-bargo against the coup régime leaded by pro-Duvalier groups that took over therst democratically elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide, this embargo was insupport o the deposed constitutional authorities.

The Spanish Governmentunded the construction oacilities or the market inPedernales, but the vendorsplace their products aroundthem. The design o themarket doesn’t respond totheir selling habits and nowonly works as storage.



89

The market in Dajabónoccupies the streets o thecity during the 2 days o theweek when the border isopened or vendors to sellproducts in the internationalairs. In the satellite image

it is possible to see the bluetents covering 9 blocks othe town centre.

The market airs produce jobs, income and provide thenecessary goods and products or those in the region. (97%o the population buys their products rom them).

Inormal as they are, these airs are generally regulated by

the Dominican army and the local authorities o the bordertowns; v they are integrated in a large global economicnetwork, evidence o which is ound in the products thatare exchanged in them.



90

Ounaminthe Dajabón



91



92

Mal Passe Jimaní



93



94

Mal Passe Jimaní



95



96

Mal Passe Jimaní



97



98

Anse Pitre Pedernales



99



100




101



102

4.5



103

The politics o Rice

At the border markets it is very usual to see Haitians sellingsacs o rice with an American fag printed on them. Theimmediate reaction in the un-inormed observer, buyer orvisitor is to think these sacs are donated by the United Statesand later sold.

The rice at the border is indeed American, but this rice is soldto Haiti, not donated. The rice trade between the United

States and Haiti has been reerred to as “rice dumping” bythe international community, a damaging economic strategypromoted by the United States in a weaker country to ensurethe protection o their agricultural production.

Haitian rice is o West-Arican origin, cultivated or the last200 years. Rice is the staple ood o Haiti. The country hashistorically produced a wide range o high quality types orice that come rom the two main rice producing regions:

Mountain Rice coming rom Plain du Nord and Swamp Ricecoming rom the Artibonite Valley.

During the 1980’s the Organization o American Statesimposed an economic embargo on Haiti due to the politicalinstability that resulted rom the Duvalier times. Thisembargo increased the cost o ertilizers and other materialsmaking the Artibonite Valley’s rice very expensive. But riceor internal consumption increased due to the country’sneed to supply its own needs.

By the mid 1990s the embargo was removed. Trade

The cost o living has soared in the past our months. And as they say in Haiti, ‘’Rice is lie.’’ (NY Times, june 1 2004)

Let: An American rice sac issold at the border market oJimaní.



104

Haiti’s ertile regionsproduce a wide varietyo high quality rice. Theproduction suered withthe introduction o cheaperimported American rice.

liberalization policies supported by American interestscreated the conditions or the insertion o the U.S. into therice market in Haiti.

American Rice Incorporated is an American multinationalcompany that produces 10% o all American Rice. Thecompany sells rice to Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Mexico, the

Caribbean and the Eureopean Union. Their head quartersand elds are based in Caliornia, Texas and Arkansas.

When the embargo was dropped in 1995, with remarkableencouragement rom the United States government, thenational import tari in Haiti was dropped rom 35% to3%.

In 2000 the United States exported more than 200,000 tons

o American Rice Incorporated’s rice to Haiti, making it theirourth largest market ater Japan, Mexico and Canada.

The rice is imported in bulks, mills are located in Port auPrince where the rice is stored and packaged in sacs.

American Rice Incorporated ormed a kind o political brancho their company: an institution called the Rice Corporationo Haiti —which is a part o the Haitian government—. This

institution administers and regulates the unctioning otheir acilities and the way the rice is distributed in the resto the country.



105

The rice travels inormally to the border in sacs and it’ssold in exchange or Dominican broken grain rice (whichis cheaper). In the Dominican Republic rice production isprotected by specic laws. The best quality rice in Haiti isconsumed by the upper middle classes. Haitian rice, o much

higher quality costs 3 times more than the imported rice.

Needless to say, what was one o the ew potentially sel-sucient remaining agricultural industries in Haiti wassubstituted by a system o economic dependence thatintroduces cheap and inerior rice in the country. Thisdependence has produced deep crises in the recent past,including the amine breakout in April o 2008, closelylinked to an increase in rice prices and other staple products

which produced strong protests in Haiti.



106



107



108




109



110




111



112




113



114

4.6



115

Let: The actory is place atthe border. It has a bridgeover the Masacre riverthat connects one o itsentrances with Haiti anda road that connects theother entrance with theDominican Republic. Bybeing at the border, thecompany solves its needs ocheap labour orce as theycome straight rom Haiti.The company provides t

Dominican employees witha convenient access to itwithout having to enterHaiti.

The ree trade actory and the eorts tocontrol a part o bi-national territory in thelack o State authority

In Haiti the assembly actories are not a new phenomenon.

This type o production constituted a signicant part o north-American clothes importations coming rom the Caribbeanduring the 1980’s beore the political disturbances and theembargo decreed by the Organization o American States(OAS) to Haiti in 1991 which literally destroyed that sector(Heron, 2004).

Since the late 90’s, the three biggest rms based in the cityo Santiago (north o the Dominican Republic) started todevelop clothes assembly operations in Haiti. Two o the threeinstallations acquired were in Port au Prince but the instabilityconsequent to the second Coup d’Etat in 2004 paralyzedthese eorts. Dierent to what the other competitors did,Textiles Dominicanos (Dominican Textiles) GRUPO M starteddeveloping a ree trade zone in Ouanaminthe, whoseacilities would literally occupy lands in both Haiti and theDominican Republic simultaneusly creating a binational

enclave .The attempts by Dominican rms to move intensivelabor processes, inherent to the clothes supply chain to Haiticorrespond to the cold calculation o comparative advantagesas well as to an acute comprehension o commercial anddevelopment politics. (Traub-Werner, 2008, p.212)

Dispute about its location

The north part o the island is the most ertile region or

both countries. The north has been historically rich in theDominican Republic (that’s where the textile company andits other ree-trade zones are located).



116

Corporate Prole

Customer BaseSpotlightFashion Trends

Dominican Republic

Liz Claiborne Inc

DKNYEddie BauerOld NavyBananaRepublic

DockersLeviHanesBrandsPerry Ellis

American EagleOutfttersCalvin KleinCarharttAbercrombit & FitchWalmart

Dillard’sRocawear

Haiti (CODEVI)

Locations

Customer Base

On / Off

Grupo M is a Dominican clothing assembly company that works or international brands. These clietns provide theactories with the already prepeared parts o the clothing pieces that are put together in the various actories placedmostly on the northern region o the Dominican Republic. This orm o production makes the clothing industryreduce costs since the labour orce in third world countries is cheaper than in the places where the companies arebased. This modality o economic exchange was encouraged in the Dominican Republic in the 1980s and 1990s as amechanism to generate jobs in the lower classes.



117

In the company’s website (let and right images) the actory located at the Dominican-Haitian border is presented astheir most attractive set o acilities, providing details o their spatial conguration that allows or it to benet romthe accessibility to labour orce rom both countries.



118

Ouanaminthe in Haiti (let) and Dajabón in the Dominican Republic (right) are themost developed cities along the border. They are separated by the shallow waterso the Massacre River. The actory is located north o the towns, literally placed in

between the two countries parts o it are on Dominican territory and the rest onHaiti. One o its entrances is placed along the highway that leads to the town oDajabón and another one connects with a bridge that directly links the actory withOuanaminthe, allowing Haitian workers to enter without having to pass through theDominican Republic and the same occurs with the Dominican ones.



119

The lands where the acilitieswere located are some othe most ertile in Haiti.Fertile land is scarce in thecountry. These lands arecultivated by small armerswho actually pay the bigland owners or the right touse them. The land ownersare generally based in Portau prince. This distancewas an important actorin the development o theconfict generated by theconstruction o the actoryin the border betweenOuanaminthe and Dajabón.

Sunday meeting oSOKOWA Syndicate inOuanaminthe

World Bank

When the actory was rumored to be built in Ouanaminthea committee to deend the productive land emerged in Portau Prince.

Though with dierent interests, the Catholic Church, theland owners and Arisitide’s and Neoliberal globalizationopposition pressurized the project. These groups initiallyocused on deending the rights o the small armers workingthe land in Ouanaminthe, who would be let without means

o subsistance.

The coalition o all these orces produced awareness o theconfict in the international community and motivated theunding and mediation o the World Bank who provided US$20,000,000 with the condition that the textile company(Grupo M) generated 15,000 jobs or Haitians and Dominicanworkers.



120

Batay Ouvriye

I n t e r n a t i o n a lConederation o FreeTrade Unions

International Trade UnionConederation

Multinational companiesintervene to mitigatethe social complexitiesinherent in the orms oproduction implementedby themselves and theirlocal associates.

When the issue o its construction was settled, the actorywas built and with it SOKOWA workers union was ormed.These workers were backed by other international andlocal organizations that incited the syndicate to demandtheir rights.

Among these groups were: local Batay Ouvriye, theInternational Conederation o Free Trade Unions and theInternational Trade Union Conederation.

Months later these unions actually moved to Ouanamintheto increase the pressure on the actory igniting violentmobilizations in the town.

In the ace o the turbulence, the Dominican Army startedguarding the actory. Being on Haitian soil, the interventiono the army transormed the situation into a sovereigntyconfict.

As the confict escalated 33 syndicate leaders were redrom the actory. Some o the international clients o GrupoM: Hanes and Levi’s, intervened advocating and promotingthe return o the red workers in order to calm down the

turmoil.

Today CODEVI Free Trade Zone provides 1,400 jobs outo which 90% are held by Haitian workers. In 2005 thecompany installed a radio station, in 2006 a TV station.

Levi’s promised to invest US$150,000 in the communityproviding micro-credit and an internet cae.



121

A confict between workers and employers obtained a national security character with the intervention o theDominican Army. The presence o the actory on both countries reveals the contradictory relationships betweenspace, politics and economic calculations.



122

5



123 P r o

j e c t i v e

c o n c l u

s i o n s



124

Subtropical rain orest

Very humid low mountain orest

Acute desertication

Erosion/deorestation

Bare soil

Moderate desertication

100-200

30-70

Inhabitants per sq km

Very humid subtropical orest

Humid subtropical orest

Dry subtropical orest

Thorny subtropical mount

Lakes and lagoons

5 .

1 D i s c o

n n e c t e

d d e v e

l o p m e n t



125

Nature

Currently theselayers o the borderoperate separatelyproducing an

u n s u s t a i n a b l emodel odevelopment whereneither the naturalenvironment northe populations othe region beenitin the long run.

The most ertileand ecologicallydiverse areas arethe ones wherehuman settlementshave concentratedobviously benetingrom the naturalresources ound in

them. The Haitianside o the border ismuch more denselypopulated and itscapital, Port auPrince, has a directincidence on it dueto its closeness.

Simultaneously thisoccupation hasgenerated modeso productionand resourceconsumption thathave damaged theecological balace o

the border.Production

Urbanization



126

OUANAMINTHE DAJABON

VELLADERE ELIAS PIÑA

MAL PASSE JIMANI

ANSE PITRE PEDERNALES

SANTO DOMINGO

PORT AU PRINCE



127

The border region is contained within the two orms oadministrative governance: the department in Haiti and theprovince in the Dominican Republic. 5 out o 9 o Haiti’s

departments contain portions o the border. In the caseo the Dominican Republic 5 out o its 35 provinces areplaced in the region. This inmediately portrays how theborder impacts the overall political organization o each: inHaiti it directly aects more than hal o its territory whenin Dominican Republic it represents a very consice linearregion that is administratively contained.

This has determined its development in the orm ocommercial corridors that have emerged on the points ointersection with the highways to the main cities o both

countries.

Either under legitimate or illegitimate circumstances, thesehighways enable the transit o goods and people, generatinga constant fow that is not backed by a proper civic andinstitutional structure.

5 . 2

F l o w w

i t h o u t a c c u m

u l a t i o n



128

The integration o modes o production such as agriculturewithin the urban environment not only provides local ormso sel sucient economies but also represents a orm ocivic and social integration. The implementation o urbanorganic and hydroponic ams is a model used succesullyin Cuba in what is now called the “organic revolution”.This orm o agricultural practice was also part o various1930s and 1940s masterplans or Santo Domingo whereresidential blocks contained internal plots o land or thepurpose o arming.



129

SantoDomingo

Por Au Prince

MontecristiCap-Haitien

DajabónOuanaminthe

Mal Passe

Anse Pitre

Pedernales

Jimaní

Elias Piña

Velladere

Barahona

Cities concentrate, administer, organize and provide theramework or the exchange o resources.

Though more densely urbanized on the Haitian side

and to a lesser extent on the Dominican side, the regionlacks investment in civic inrastructure and institutionalrepresentation.

The economic dynamics o the region and its degradedresources need to be administered in order to unction in anenvironmentally and politically integrated way.

The older towns o the Dominican Republic at the bordercount with basic inrastructure and a sense o urbanorm mostly inherited rom Trujillo’s eorts to developthe region.

In Haiti, the border cities have in act grown (someexponentially) in an inormal way especially ater thereopening o the border commerce in the 1990s.

The densication and reinorcement o the cities along theborder is a crucial and necessary step in the course o itsdevelopment. 5 . 3

T h e c i t y a s a

s t r a t e g

y



130

“From the morphological and spatial

point o view the urban nature othe bordering Haitian cities can onlybe apprehended in relation to theDominican ones. It can be asserted thatthe frst —at least a signifcant parto them— operate, in many ways, asmarginal sui generis barrios (districts)o the second (…) Haitians tend tobehave in relation to the Dominicancity ollowing a system o quotidianurban displacement similar to the onea avela inhabitant has to a central-middle-class district o his city…”.

(Dilla, 2008, p.186)



131

The consolidation o the border’s rivers, orests and openspaces into public accessible spaces would guarantee theirpreservation. They typically are the geographical elementsused to dene the rontier region as such, thereore arethe spaces where a lot o the movement and activity takeplace.

Cities as a political organisms provide the administrativebasis or natural resources to be accessed under regulation.

The consolidation o the border cities would also reinorcethe already existing cultural, educational and health relatedcooperation between the two sides.

While the Dominican Republic’s investment in the border citiesshould ocus in the industrial and nancial development othe region: like the placement o companies, the creation o jobs, incentives or agricultural and cattle production; Haiti’sinvolvement should initially ocus on institutional presence

and in the provision o basic services such as education,health and inrastructure in order to balance the pressuresthat currently all on the Dominican counter part.



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The accessibility tothe diverse ecoregionsat the border canbe developed into

ecological parks or thepurpose o local andinternational visitors.The regulation o itsuse protects it romillegal orest cuttingand other ormso environmentaldestruction. Theparks produce jobsand involve thecommunities.



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A regional strategy like this one canonly be possible with the investment

in a civic structure that would ensureits implementation. The cities at theborder are spatial political tools thatcan push the region and the two coun-tries orward not only by managingthe richness o its resources and the

wealth that goes through it, but byretaining and investing in the regionitsel. The strategy o the city providesit with the economic and political selsufcience or it not to be only tradedby external orces anymore.



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1

2

4

3

5

6

1. The areas o Montecristi and Cap Haitien in the north coast o the region oer the

natural beauty and geographic conditions to work as an integrated eco-touristismdestiny.

2. The south coast o the border, containing the Caribbean sea waters and theimpressive Sierra de Neiba in Dominican Republic that becomes the Trou d’Eau inHaiti combined orm an incredible region that, along its various landscapes, can bedeveloped as a trecking and water related touristic region.

3-4. The extension o the conservation areas that contain the Enriquillo Lake, partso the Sierra de Neiba and the Sierra de Bahoruco (3), as well as the conservationare containing the mountains o the Cordillera Central that becomes the Massidu Nord (4), to Haiti is a necessary action. Even in the areas that are inhabited, theconservation o these lands and their ecological regeneration has to be a priority giventhe act that these are some o the most bio diverse and unique. The erosion causedby deorestation puts the lower areas in risk o landslides and foods during intenserain season. Re-planting regional trees such as oak and mahogany in the southernconservation areas and the Baitoa tree on the north ones or instance, would revitalizethe auna and rain cycles.

5-6. The valleys are the most ertile and productive areas o the border. This has ledto their deterioration reaching degrees o desertication caused by land modicationsuch as overgrazing and unsustainable arming. Soil restoration in these lands can beachieved without loosing their productive potential by growing leguminous plants,which extracts nitrogen rom the air and xes it in the soil, this they restore ertility.Stones stacked around the base o trees collect morning dew and help retain soil

moisture. Articial grooves can be dug in the ground to retain rainall and trap wind-blown seeds.

5 . 4

T h e b o r d e r a

s a s t r a

t e g y



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Reerences

Barinas, Marcos. Santo Domingo y El Dilema De LaMirada Insular , article in Cielo Naranja online magazine,www.cielonaranja.com as seen the 08-08-08

Bryant, Elizabeth (08-07-1996) Haiti: Environmental Degradation Deepens, article or Earth Times News Service,online magazine, http://www.hartord-hwp.com as seen the20-08-08

Casanova, Luis. Tolerancia con el Creole, article published inDiario Digital RD, online newspaper, http://www.diariodigital.

com.do as seen the 04-08-08

Dilla, Alonso Haroldo (2008), Los Complejos UrbanosTransronterizos en la Frontera Dominico-Haitiana an essaywithin Ciudades en la Frontera, Aproximaciones Críticas alos Complejos Urbanos Transronterizos edited by AlonsoHaroldo Dilla, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, EditoraManatí

Forrest, Dave. The Dominican Dictator: Raael Trujillo, JamesLogan High School, online essay, http://www.jlhs.nhusd.k12.ca.us/ , as seen on the 29-05-08

Garcia, Obdulia (2002) Atlas Historico de la RepublicaDominicana, Editorial Santillana, Santo Domingo DominicanRepublic

Garcia, Obdulia (2002) Atlas de la Republica Dominicana y

el Mundo, Editorial Santillana, Santo Domingo DominicanRepublic



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Glissant, Edouard (1997) Poetics o Relation, Michigan,University o Michigan Press

Heron, T. (2004), The New Political Economy of United States-Caribbean Relations: The Apparel Industry and

the Politics of NAFTA Parity , Ashgate, Hampshire, UnitedKingdom

Irobi, Esiaba. The Philosophy o the Sea: History, Economicsand Reason in the Caribbean Basin. John Hope FranklinCentre, Duke University, online essays, http://www.jhc.duke.edu/ as seen the 09-08-08

Moue, Chantal (2001) Every Form o Art Has a Political

Dimension, Chantal Moue interviewed by RosalynDeutsche, Branden W. Joseph, and Thomas Keenan, withinGrey Room 02, Grey Room, Inc. and Massachusetts Instituteo Technology

Moue, Chantal (2000), The Democratic Paradox , London,Verso

Neilson, Brett; Mitropoulos, Angela (2007) Exceptional

Times, Nongovermental Spacings, and Impolitical Movements an essay within Nongovernmental Politicsedited by Michel Feher, New York, Zone Books

Paez Piantini, William (2007),Relaciones Dominico-Haitianas: 300 Años de Historia, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Traub-Werner, Mrion (2008) La Globalización, el LibreComercio y la Frontera Dominico-Haitiana an essay withinCiudades en la Frontera, Aproximaciones Críticas a losComplejos Urbanos Transronterizos edited by AlonsoHaroldo Dilla, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, EditoraManatí

Wooding, Bridget ; Moseley, Richard (2004) InmigrantesHaitianos y Dominicanos de Ascendencia Haitiana enla Republica Dominicana, published by Cooperacion

Internacional para el Desarrollo (CID) and Servicio Jesuita aReugiados y Migrantes (SJR) in Santo Domingo, DominicanRepublic



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Ocial Website o NASA, http://www.nasa.gov, 22-07-08

Ocial Website o the Dominican Republic Army, http:// www.ejercito.rd.mil.do 19-04-08

Ocial Website o the Mission des Nations Unies pour laStabilisation en Haïti (MINUSTAH) http://www.minustah.org19-04-08Ocial Website o

Online Edition o the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/

Style Reerence Goldsmiths Insitute Student Resources. Ba stylesheet or citations in Harvard (name/date) style.

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