What Are The Similarities Between Haiti And The Dominican Republic?

Introduction Composing part of the Greater Antilles, the island of Hispaniola is inhabited by the nation of Haiti, occupying the western third of the region, and the Dominican Republic, encompassing the remaining two-thirds of land to the east. Geographically speaking, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are nearly identical with very little variation in average rainfall, climate, and oceanic access. Unsurprisingly, given their adjacency, both countries possess a high degree of ethnolinguistic homogeneity, with very little regional fragmentation, and Christianity as the dominant religion (Jaramillo and Sancak 328). Despite their immutable similarities and ethnolinguistic parallels, Haiti and the Dominican Republic now represent opposite ends of
Violence encouraged and subsidized by corrupt elites fearful of violent overthrow and maintaining their position of power have become ingrained in Haitian politics, and find their origination in Duvalier’s corrupt sponsorship of the Tonton Macoutes (“Gangs of Haiti: Expansion, Power, and an Escalating Crisis” 5). Since Duvalier’s institutionalization of corrupt civilian militarization and gangs for personal gain, cyclical processes of organized violence and gang activity, perpetuated and compounded by corrupt elites, have poisoned the country. In the ensuing regimes including Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Raoul Cédras, Jovenel Mose, and Ariel Henry, leaders have consistently funded militarized groups to coerce support in return for security and protection. Factions of the army, personal and political militias, and civilian populations now have “access to political and economic networks that provide them with patronage and funding, contacts within the police and justice system, and connections capable of trafficking high-calibre weapons or drugs” (Grandmaison et