The Dominican Republic and Haiti After the Earthquake: Nervous Ties and Fractious Tensions Persist

July 12 marked the six-month anniversary of the earthquake that took the lives of more than 200,000 Haitians and left about 1.5 million of them homeless. The natural disaster helped revive international attention regarding Haiti’s woeful status and reminded the world of the disappointingly slow recovery process regarding the rehabilitation. It also brought to the forefront the historically nervous links between Haiti and its closest neighbor, the Dominican Republic. The countries’ have shared an, at times, stressful history which has been marred by violence and distrust since the 19th century, thanks to periodic aggression on both sides. However, last winter, Dominican President Leonel Fernández and numerous Dominican citizens, whose traditional indifference to Haiti’s plight was deafening, suddenly changed course and responded swiftly to the destruction visited on its neighbor by providing emergency medical services, volunteers on the ground, and millions of dollars in aid.

In the subsequent months, President Fernández has advocated Haiti’s cause internationally, urging countries to deliver pledged aid funds and supporting René Préval’s government as it tries to wrest optimal control of aid money from the hands of the NGOs. The Dominican Republic has independently committed to spending $40 million1 of its funds on a new university in Haiti, the Universidad del Norte, that will serve 10,000 students. The university, which represents the core of the Dominican Republic’s wide-ranging relief activity in Haiti, is scheduled to be inaugurated on the two-year anniversary of the earthquake in January 2012.

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