There is little question about Canada’s desires to help Haiti deal with its volatile security crisis by helping the country’s beleaguered police force take on armed gangs. But the United States’ neighbor to the north, which this week announced millions of dollars more in new assistance for Haiti, appears to have gotten ahead of itself in its desire to show its commitment.
During a high-level gathering of regional foreign ministers Thursday, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced the opening of a “joint security coordination cell” in the neighboring Dominican Republic to help coordinate its assistance to the Haitian national police force. The initiative, according to news reports, carries a $20 million price tag.
While announcing the new aid office in her opening remarks during an otherwise closed-door meeting, Joly even seized “the opportunity to thank” her counterpart, Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez Gil, “for hosting this mechanism.”
The announcement appears to have created a bit of a diplomatic storm.
Alvarez took to Twitter early Friday morning to effectively say, “not so fast,” Canada.
“The Dominican Government can confirm that it has not discussed, agreed or granted any authorization for the installation in our territory of an office to coordinate support for the Haitian National Police,” he said in the tweet.
Joly’s announcement made headlines in Canada, which was hosting the meeting, and in Haiti, where it was the lead story Thursday and not well received by some Haitians, who viewed it as the latest example of a foreign government offering aid to Haiti but providing benefits to its neighbor next door. (To be fair, a number of aid agencies, Haitian businesses and at least one diplomatic mission in the last year has quietly relocated to Santo Domingo because of the dire security situation in Port-au-Prince).
Despite sharing the same island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic and Haiti have a tense history. While Dominican President Luis Abinader has been the leading voice in urging foreign governments to pay more attention to the unraveling security crisis in Haiti — and even requesting the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force — he too has had to tread lightly.
His spokesman, Homero Figueroa, noted as much in his own tweet, denouncing the Canadian announcement and backing up Alvarez, while also emphasizing that the Dominican Republic will not back any initiative that affects another country’s national sovereignty.
“For historical reasons the Dominican Republic cannot participate in any initiative that commits it to carry out direct actions in Haiti,” Figueroa said in a tweet. “We will continue to advocate for the participation of the international community in a definitive solution.”
