The Dominican Republic is deporting tens of thousands of Haitians this year prayers from the United Nations stopped as they fled the gang lawlessness. Dominican President Luis Abinader went even further, building one border wall between two countries that share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
As Dominican voters head to the polls on Sunday in the general election, the crackdown on immigrants, along with anti-corruption efforts and growing tourism, has upset Mr. Abinader, who is seeking a second term. two, become the clear leader.
The election shows how the Dominican Republic, with one of the best-performing economies in Latin America, differs from other countries in the region, where many leaders came to power in the same year. period with Mr. Abinader. bleak approval ratings.
Mr. Abinader’s use of controversial restrictions on Haitian migrants also underscores the tough approach to migration that has made the Dominican Republic an outlier in the region.
“This is certainly not a ‘change’ election like many others recently,” said Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank. took place in Latin America.
Reliable opinion poll pointed out that a majority of Dominicans approved of the tenure of Mr. Abinader, 56, a former market-friendly tourism industry executive.
He has dominated the race against a variety of opponents, including his closest competitor, Leonel Fernández, a three-time former president, and is within striking distance of winning the first round on Sunday. .
A runoff election will be held if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. Many people in the large Dominican diaspora were allowed to vote in the election, with more than 600,000 eligible voters in the United States and more than 100,000 in Spain.
Much of Mr. Abinader’s support is due to his anti-corruption initiatives. He won his first term in 2020 by vowing to clean up the corruption that has long been ingrained in the political culture of the Dominican Republic, a country of 11.2 million people.
He appointed Miriam Germán, a former Supreme Court justice, as attorney general. She oversaw investigations into the arrests of senior officials in the previous administration, including a former attorney general and a former finance minister.
The investigations have largely focused on Mr. Abinader’s opponents, sparking criticism that his government was spared. But other moves, such as the passage of a foreclosure law in 2022, offer hope for lasting change. Confiscation law is considered an important and pioneering tool to prevent and destroy criminal enterprises, depriving them of assets obtained from their illegal activities.
Rosario Espinal, a Dominican political analyst, said Mr. Abinader could be re-elected only by focusing on the fight against corruption, as he did in 2020, “but not with the profits he he wishes”.
Instead, Ms. Espinal said, Mr. Abinader has embraced nativist immigration policies traditionally promoted by the Dominican right. “He needed to find a new topic that would resonate,” she said. “He found that during migration.”
Exploiting anti-Haitian sentiment is nothing new in the Dominican Republic.
Rafael Trujillo, the xenophobic dictator who ruled the country from 1930 to 1961, institutionalized a campaign to portray Haitians as racially inferior, and in 1937 he ordered a massacre of thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent.
Nearly every other country in the Americas grants birthright citizenship. But a 2010 constitutional amendment and a 2013 court ruling excluded the Dominican-born children of undocumented migrants from citizenship.
In real terms, that means about 130,000 descendants of Haitian immigrants are living in the Dominican Republic no citizenship despite being born thereaccording to rights groups.
Like Haiti fall into chaos next Assassination in 2021 by Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, Mr. Abinader built on anti-immigrant measures already enshrined in Dominican law.
He suspended visas for Haitians through 2023, then closed the border with Haiti for nearly a month, dealing an economic blow to his neighbor in a dispute over the construction of a canal in Haiti using Use water from the common river between the two countries.
“He has shown who is the leader on this issue,” Robert Luna, who works in marketing, said of Mr. Abinader’s migration policy. “He is fighting for what the father of the country wants.”
Dominican immigration officials went significantly further, with some accusations pillage Haitian homes and embarked on a campaign to detain and deport Haitian women pregnant or someone who has just given birth.
Pablo Mella, academic director of Instituto Superior Pedro Francisco Bonó, a Dominican university, called Mr. Abinader’s policies toward Haiti a “public and international disgrace,” especially his treatment. with pregnant Haitian women.
“What happens is what gets the votes,” Mr. Mella added. “The candidates are competing to see who is the most anti-Haitian.”
The vast majority of Dominican voters say the upheaval in Haiti is affect How will they vote? And Mr. Abinader is clearly benefiting from such concerns, with nearly 90% of voters expressing support for him building a border wall.
Mr. Abinader has defended his migration policies, saying they are no different from what countries such as Jamaica, the Bahamas, the United States and Canada have done to limit the arrival of Haitians fleeing the crisis.
“I must do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of our people,” Mr. Abinader said. told the BBC in a recent interview. “We are just applying our laws.”
Mr. Abinader’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, some voters do not support the incumbent. Tirso Lorenzo Piña, a doorman and a Christian, said he was dissatisfied with Mr. Abinader’s methods. donate at the United Nations for admitting Palestine as a member.
“Everyone has their own ideology, concept, way of thinking,” Mr. Piña said. “But I don’t like him.”
However, Mr. Abinader is benefiting from divided opposition and a broad consensus in the Dominican Republic in favor of investor-friendly policies that have boosted economic growth. His handling of the pandemic also helped, distributing vaccines relatively quickly and allowing Dominica’s tourism industry to bounce back while other countries were requiring visitors to quarantine.
Tourism is the mainstay of the economy, accounting for about 16% of gross domestic product. International Bank expectation The Dominican Republic’s economy will grow 5.1% this year
While the Dominican Republic’s economy has grown over the past two decades at a rate three times the Latin American average, persistent inequality has drawn criticism from Mr. Abinader. He responded by expanding popular cash transfer programs for the country’s poorest residents.
