“El exceso de población de Haití constituye, por tanto, una amenaza
creciente para la República Dominicana.”
-- (Joaquín Balaguer, La isla al
revés: Haití y el
destino dominicano)
“The excess of inhabitants from Haiti constitute, therefore, a growing
threat for the Dominican Republic.”
-- (Joaquín Balaguer, The Inside
Out Island: Haiti and the Dominican
Destiny)
The Afro/Latin American
Research Association (ALARA) is fully committed to the promotion of ethnic and
racial equality. To that end, ALARA
finds the 30 September 2013 Ruling Sentence 168/13 of the Constitutional Court
of the Dominican Republic to revoke citizenship from thousands of people of
Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic to be an aggressive and
egregious act of anti-Haitian sentiment, xenophobia, and racism.
This recent change to
national policy and its incumbent ripple effect on this population’s ability to
access social services and the public education system are uncomfortably
similar to the words written by seven-time Dominican president Joaquín Balaguer
in his 1983 anti-Haitian diatribe, “La isla al revés: Haití y el destino dominicano.” ALARA considers Balaguer’s book to be a
thinly veiled anti-Haitian manifesto intended to rest the Dominican Republic’s
social, political, and econonic ills squarely at the feet of Haitians and those
of Haitian descent residing near the border between the two countries.
The ALARA membership
considers this sweeping revocation of citizenship by the Dominican
Constitutional Court to be a shocking expansion of previous Dominican efforts
to “dominicanize” its territory.
Notably, this ruling comes exactly 76 years after the Dominican Republic’s
most brutal “dominicanization” undertaking known as “Operación Perejíl.” In this October 1937 campaign near the
Dominican-Haitian border, residents were shown a sprig of parsley and asked to pronounce
the herb, which served as a shibboleth to distinguish between Haitians and
Dominicans. Those thought to be Dominicans
passed the test and lived. Those thought
to be Haitians failed the test and were killed by armed soldiers.
ALARA
considers the recent action by the Dominican Constitutional Court to be a
dangerous and irresponsible encroachment on human rights, as was the violent
massacre of 1937. Thus, ALARA
firmly stands with those in the Dominican Republic and the wider international
community who seek to end all manners of violence against and marginalization
of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent residing in the Dominican
Republic.
