In a major rally held in Santiago de los Caballeros, the second largest city of the Dominican Republic, on Saturday, 4 May, President Joaqu\u00edn Balaguer said that the former president of Colombia, R\u00f3mulo Betancur, raised matters beyond his responsibility as an observer of a national election. President Balaguer said that Mr Betancur spoke of the right of every person to acquire the nationality of the territory where he is born. The Dominican Republic, as is the case with Switzerland and France until recently, and with many other countries, does not recognize the children of illegal immigrants as nationals. As a result, thousands of Haitians born here are denied Dominican citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The Dominican government bases its position on premises such as those mentioned by the prominent lawyer, Lupo Hern\u00e1ndez Rueda, who wrote in the newspaper El Caribe that the Constitution of Haiti establishes that the son of a Haitian-born father or mother has, by jus saguinis and express mandate of the constitution, Haitian nationality. “Consequently, the authority who must provide these people with documents of national identify is the Haitian government,” explained Mr Hern\u00e1ndez Rueda. He added that the Haitian constitution also establishes that the son of a Haitian, born wherever, cannot acquire another nationality unless he renounces Haitian nationality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
In the past, the Haitian government and some international organizations have criticized the Dominican Republic for not providing citizenship documents to the sons of Haitians in transit or illegal immigrants. In effect, however, it is said that this was done en masse, with c\u00e9dulas being given to Haitian adults in violation of the Dominican constitution in 1994, at the time of the 1994 election, and was protested by several political parties which felt the Haitians would not favor them with their vote. Hence the complaint by Leonel Fern\u00e1ndez that there are thousands of foreigners registered as Dominicans on the voting list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Lupo Hern\u00e1ndez Rueda writes: “It is time the international community demands that Haiti, not the Dominican Republic, fulfills its laws.”<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a major rally held in Santiago de los Caballeros, the second largest city of the Dominican Republic, on Saturday, 4 May, President Joaqu\u00edn Balaguer said that the former president of Colombia, R\u00f3mulo Betancur, raised matters beyond his responsibility as an observer of a national election. President Balaguer said that Mr Betancur spoke of the … <\/p>\n