Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez feels the Dominican Republic has already done its share to help out Haiti. Haiti continues to be the most economically-depressed country of the Americas, and to suffer from political instability. The head of the Dominican Roman Catholic Church feels it is unacceptable for the international community to think that Haitian migration to the DR can be that country’s solution to its problems. Instead, he called for the international community to come to the rescue of Haiti. In his opinion, the magnitude of Haiti’s problems are more than the DR can handle. He commented that the DR has already made major contributions by providing free medical and education services to the thousands of indigent Haitians that are crossing the frontier. Cardinal López Rodríguez favors creating conditions so that Dominican capitals and those from other countries can invest in Haiti. He feels this is a definitive way to help that nation and avoid the massive exodus of work-seeking Haitians to Dominican territory. He said he made this proposal several years ago but it has not prospered because of the political instability in Haiti. Now, there are a series of conditions that may make the effort to promote Dominican investment in Haiti worth a second try. The Caribbean Common Market (Caricom) has admitted Haiti, providing conditions for intra-Caribbean duty-free trade of goods manufactured in Haiti. Likewise, Haitian textile exports are not restricted by quotas or limited to using US materials as are Dominican apparel exports. Cardinal López Rodríguez spoke to journalists during the signing of a US$82,000 donation by the Japanese government. The money will be used to build an orphanage in San Isidro, on the east side of Santo Domingo. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez feels the Dominican Republic has already done its share to help out Haiti. Haiti continues to be the most economically-depressed country of the Americas, and to suffer from political instability. The head of the Dominican Roman Catholic Church feels it is unacceptable for the international community to think that … <\/p>\n