According to a 1929 treaty between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the Dominican Republic ceded 666,076 tareas, nearly 42,000 hectares, of land to Haiti. According to ambassador William Paez Piantini of the Haitian Relation Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as he presented a series of maps that will be on exhibit at the upcoming Book Fair that opens this weekend. These are the original maps that were made more than a century ago to establish the frontier between the two nations. Paez Piantini said that during the talks on the limits of the border five issues came up regarding territorial possession. The ambassador recalled that in one area that was parallel to the international highway a Haitian community had already settled the area. Paez said that Davilmar Theodore, a vice-consul in Cape Haitian requested troops from Fort Liberte, in Haiti, and these invaded the eastern banks of the Dajabon River. The Dominican government answered by ordering general Horacio Vasquez to the area with 1,500 men. Conflict was avoided by diplomatic intervention, and the authorities ended the problem with the signing of an agreement. According to Paez Piantini, a few years later, the dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina ceded the lands to the Haitians in exchange for the Haitian President Stenio Vicent’s de-activation of a dissident group of Dominicans that were active in Cape Haitian. Trujillo had received news that Rafael Estrella Urena had reached Puerto Rico and was directing opposition to his regime through a group of people in Cape Haitian. Trujillo and Vicent met in Dajabon-Juana Mendez on 18 October 1933, and the dictator told Vicent of his willingness to cede some territory and put an end to the problems of the frontier. As payment, Vicent rounded up the group and hauled them off to the remote town of Jeremie.
The maps that the ministry will place on exhibit include the original plans from the Aranjuez Treaty of 1777, and the agreement to settle the frontier along lines drawn in 1901.