Dominican Republic–Haiti border

A third and two-thirds

The Peace of Ryswick in 1697 left the western third of Hispaniola to France and the eastern two-thirds to Spain. A treaty of 1777 set out a boundary, following rivers where it could, but in unsettled country the line was never definite. In the 19th century, first the French and Spanish and then Haiti and the Dominican Republic argued over it, with Haiti pressing east.^[1]

Several treaties failed before the one signed at Santo Domingo on 21 January 1929, which set the line essentially as it is today. It runs up the Dajabón or Massacre River from the Atlantic, along ridges and the Libón River, along the Artibonite, and down the Pedernales River to the Caribbean. In places it follows the middle of the old royal highway, left open to both states. A revision signed at Port-au-Prince on 9 March 1936 adjusted two stretches.^[1]

“The frontier line between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti starts from the thalweg of the mouth of the river Dajabon or Massacre, in the Atlantic Ocean”^[1]

The Parsley Massacre

In the borderlands, Haitians and Dominicans lived closely linked by trade, labour and family, even after the treaty. Rafael Trujillo, dictator from 1930, promoted antihaitianismo and tried to stop Haitian migration.^[4] On 2 October 1937, in the border town of Dajabón, he falsely claimed that Haitians were stealing from local farmers, and between 3 and 8 October the Dominican army killed an estimated 9,000 to 30,000 Haitians, many with machetes.^[4]

It is known as the Parsley Massacre from reports that soldiers made suspects say perejil, Spanish for parsley, which Haitian Creole speakers found hard to pronounce; some scholars doubt the test was used systematically. Many fleeing victims crossed the Massacre River, and the killings marked a turning point in relations between the two countries.^[4]

Water, a wall and a closed border

Rivers such as the Artibonite rise in the Dominican Republic and flow into Haiti, and the US Geographer noted in 1961 that water rights, migration and trade were the border’s real sources of friction.^[1] In February 2022 the Dominican Republic began building a wall of concrete topped with chain-link fencing and barbed wire, planned by government estimates to cover about 106 miles of the border. Dajabón’s mayor said Haitians were “invading”; a migrants’ rights group said the wall was built to appease nationalists.^[2]

In September 2023, work in Haiti on a canal drawing water from the Massacre River to relieve a drought led President Luis Abinader to stop visas for Haitians. On 15 September he closed all land, sea and air borders with Haiti, saying the canal would harm Dominican farmers; Haiti’s government insisted it had a sovereign right to use its resources, and called the closure unilateral.^[5][3]