Less than 10 days after signing an agreement with Haiti to prioritize the dialogue, yesterday, Wednesday 27 November the Dominican government decided to put an end, for the moment, to discussions with the Haitian authorities. Minister of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo announced the government’s decision to not attend a follow up to the agreement that was scheduled for Saturday, 30 November in Caracas, Venezuela. The Venezuelan government had begun to mediate between the two countries. Haiti has launched a worldwide campaign after opposing Dominican citizenship rules and the immigration legalization plan ordered to be implemented by Constitutional Ruling 168-13. The plan seeks to document thousands of people who make up what amounts to an underground population in the Dominican Republic, benefiting thousands of extremely poor migrants from Haiti lacking any legal documentation.
“We feel that the Haitian government has broken the agreement that we signed last week, in which a process of dialogue was prioritized by the two countries in order to seek solutions for any issues on our common agenda. Haiti has preferred to take another road,” he said.
On 19 November in Caracas, Gustavo Montalvo and the Haitian Minister of Foreign Relations, Pierre-Richard Casimir signed, with the mediation of Venezuela, a three-point agreement for prioritizing the dialogue. Days before the signing, a Dominican government commission travelled to Venezuela and Cuba in order to explain the extent of the sentence by the Constitutional Court.
Montalvo made the announcement a few hours after the Caribbean Community (Caricom) deferred consideration of the application by the Dominican Republic for membership in the Caribbean Community, where it currently has observer status, in reprisal against the Dominican Republic decision to not grant automatic citizenship and instead apply a foreigner legalization plan ordered by Constitutional Court Ruling 168-13. In their statement following the Trinidad meeting between President Michel Martelly of Haiti and Caricom heads of state, Caricom ignores the explanations the Dominican government has given and maintains the stand of Haiti that disputes who gets automatic Dominican citizenship. El Dia’s editorial today, Thursday 28 November comments that the Caribbean countries have been dodging the DR’s application for more than 15 years now, so this latest announcement is nothing new. The editorial says that the actions of the Haitian government “are another expression of the lack of transparency in the way Haiti has handled its relations with the Dominican Republic.”
As reported in El Caribe, acting Minister of Foreign Relations Jose Manuel Trullols met Haiti’s ambassador Fritz Cineas yesterday Wednesday 27 November to explain the Dominican government’s viewpoint. Meanwhile, the Dominican Ambassador in Haiti, Ruben Silie gave a verbal explanation to the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Haiti.
“We would like to express that the government of the Dominican Republic is highly concerned by the disregard that the Haitian government has given to the Joint Statement signed just a few days ago. Despite the signing, your government has carried out actions that are contrary to that statement, as was evidenced in the recent meeting of Caricom,” Trullols told the Haitian diplomat.
Trullols rejected the latest statement by the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Haiti distancing itself from the agreement signed by Haiti Foreign Minister Casimir just days earlier on 19 November on the grounds that there had been a “voluntary interpretation by Dominicans.” The agreement had stated: “Dialogue will be the appropriate channel for the resolution of any situation related to people of Haitian origin born in the Dominican Republic who may be affected by the application of the ruling.”
Minister Trullols said that the behavior of the Haitian government shows disregard for the government of Venezuela that served as mediator between the two countries, both beneficiaries of the PetroCaribe agreement. The follow-up meeting with Venezuelan mediation was due to take place on Saturday, 30 November in Caracas.
Meanwhile, Minister of Interior and Police, Jose Ramon Fadul, who heads the National Immigration Council, said that since the Dominican Republic has never been a member of Caricom, the decision does not cause any harm. He said that it has been used as a mechanism to pressure the government.
Contrary to the intent of Caricom in pressuring the country to reverse the application of the nationality rule, the UN representative in the Dominican Republic Lorenzo Jimenez de Luis recently acknowledged that the stipulations on nationality in the Constitutional Court Ruling 168-13 are not under discussion and is collaborating with the government in the legalization plan ordered by the ruling.
www.elcaribe.com.do/2013/11/28/gobierno-llama-embajador-haiti-rompe-dialogo
www.caricom.org/jsp/pressreleases/press_releases_2013/pres266_13.jsp
http://www.dr1.com/forums/government/138645-disputing-misperceptions-constitutional-court-ruling-168-13-a.html
http://www.noticiassin.com/2013/11/la-sentencia-es-un-hecho-ya-es-final-es-inapelable-e-inamovible/