Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: National Security
thousand Haitian cane cutters migrate annually to assist in the
harvest of Dominican sugar plantations. Nevertheless, the issue
of legal and illegal Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic
is a source of friction. During a visit by Haitian president Rene
Garcia Preval to the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo in
1996, the first such event in decades, the authorities of the two
countries agreed to set up a joint commission on trade, immigration,
and other problems.
Traditionally, the military has seen its role as an autonomous
force available to intervene in crises that threaten lawful
authority. It has, however, been subject to chronic instability
traceable in part to generational and political differences
among members of the officer corps and the complicating role
of the VSN and other paramilitary groups. As of 1999, the
former military leaders and agents of the paramilitary groups
still presented a latent threat to the post-1994 government.
Many of these figures live in exile in the Dominican Republic
or in one of the Central American countries. Other former soldiers
are employed by private security companies and as personal
bodyguards of wealthy families. The private security firms
are larger and better armed than the Haitian police. Arms are
easily available to dissident elements. Only about 30,000 of
roughly 175,000 guns in Haiti have been seized or turned in
under the United States-sponsored buy-back program.
Armed groups could potentially bring about the collapse of
Haiti's civilian government by assassinations of leading politicians,
aiding plots by disaffected elements, or taking advantage
of mounting turmoil growing out of street violence and economic
distress or politically manipulated demonstrations. The
continued presence of small United States military contingents
and UN-sponsored personnel acts as a limited deterrent on
actions intended to overturn domestic institutions.
Government officials have charged that former military figures
have encouraged paramilitary gangs to demoralize and
destabilize the political situation by demonstrating that the
PNH is unable to ensure the nation's internal security. An incident
in May 1999 in which eleven detainees were gunned down
by the police in Port-au-Prince has been cited as a deliberate
plot to tarnish the image of the PNH. Seven officers were
arrested, including the Port-au-Prince police commissioner, a
former army officer.
Episodes of violence are common in Haiti, particularly in
the slum area of Port-au-Prince known as Cite Soleil, which the
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