Haiti and the Dominican Republic: a reality that cannot be ignored

By Doctor Ramon Ceballo

Amid the growing humanitarian and security crisis in Haiti, it is important to dismantle certain false narratives that some sectors attempt to impose, especially in international forums. One of these is the historical fallacy that the Dominican Republic and Haiti share an identical colonial past. This simplistic and inaccurate view ignores the deep-rooted realities that explain the structural differences between the two countries.

The truth is that the Dominican Republic is a nation of mixed-race roots with a defined Hispanic heritage, while Haiti emerged from a transplanted African tragedy in the Caribbean, shaped by extreme slave-based colonization and a bloody revolution. The two countries share an island, but not a common history or destiny.

Today, Haiti teeters on the brink of total collapse. It has become a failed state—with no territorial control, no functioning institutions, and a population trapped in poverty, violence, and despair.

It is one of the poorest countries on the planet, with more than 700,000 Haitians forced to emigrate under inhumane conditions, navigating dangerous routes and criminal networks just to survive.

The social fabric is completely torn. Heavily armed gangs have seized control of large urban and rural areas, imposing regimes of terror. Entire towns have been abandoned, becoming ghost territories ruled by brute force.

Amid this chaos, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and illegal arms networks thrive, taking advantage of the lack of governance to operate with impunity.

As a result, the scenes in Port-au-Prince and other major cities are nightmarish: human bodies burn in the streets, victims of public lynchings or clashes between criminal factions. Institutional order has vanished entirely.

The national police are overwhelmed, disbanded, and, in many cases, infiltrated. The judiciary is effectively non-existent. Parliament is closed. The presidency is a power vacuum, and the civilian population is completely defenseless—hostage to an unprecedented climate of barbarity and despair.

The situation is so critical that even the distribution of food and medicine has collapsed, and international organizations face enormous challenges in operating on the ground. Haiti is no longer just facing a crisis—it is enduring a prolonged and expanding human tragedy that threatens to spill beyond its borders if urgent action is not taken.

The international community has shown an alarming indifference to Haiti’s tragedy. Despite the Dominican government’s efforts to raise awareness and seek concrete solutions, the response has been lukewarm or ineffective.

The Kenya-led intervention, which initially generated some hope and was announced as a 2,500-member force, has so far resulted in the deployment of only 400 officers—clearly insufficient to address Haiti’s state collapse. Kenya’s strategy has failed in the face of the crisis’s magnitude.

With over 100 gangs operating actively and crimes such as kidnappings, extortion, murders, and massacres—including the killing of 200 civilians in a single day—Haiti is now at a point of no return. The Haitian state has been replaced by a criminal structure that kidnaps, murders, and controls entire neighborhoods as private fiefdoms.

Given this scenario, the Dominican Republic should not be blamed or criticized for making sovereign decisions to protect its territorial integrity and social stability. The Dominican government has acted responsibly and shown solidarity within its means, but it cannot bear the consequences of a tragedy that has been internationally ignored. It is time for multilateral organizations and influential countries to take decisive action and stop pressuring the Dominican Republic to assume roles that are not its responsibility. The solution for Haiti cannot—and should not—fall on its neighbor, but rather on a truly effective, structural, and sustained international intervention.

By Doctor Ramón Ceballo. Dominican, doctor, writer, communicator, and Member of Parliament for the Dominican Community Abroad.