The Innuendo of Dominican Republic Constitutional Court Decision TC/0168/13
Haiti and the Dominican Republic live in constant tension with each other : right from the beginning, first as two colonies of the competing colonial powers (Spain and France), and then as two republics freed from colonialism and brutal slavery at the beginning of the 19th century. The history of these two little countries, which share the same island comprising no more than 77 000 square kilometers, results in this unresolved tension. It is linked particularly to the question of the migration of Haitians to the East of the island because of the political economy, which emerged with the American occupation of 1915-1934. It is maintained and nurtured by the political and economic elites of both countries, which are subservient to big multinational capital. This tension is used to mask the economic stakes involved, to control the mobility of slave labor and to ignore, or legitimate the encroachments on human rights on the island. The massacre of Haitians and black Dominicans in 1937 and the decision in 2013 by the Dominican constitutional tribunal to strip the nationality of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian origin are to be interpreted according to the same economic logic. It is a way to get rid of surplus populations considered undesirable under the cover of political and ethnic sovereignty. However, this archaic notion of sovereignty has been unmasked because resistance has broken free of its paralyzing fear and the timid among the exploited discovered that they are subjects of rights and demand their legitimate place.