Free trade and social
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC cal structures. And from this point of view the Dominican "model" is a recipe for disaster.
The only dynamically expanding sectors of the Dominican economy are the Free Trade Zone industries, followed by tourism and agribusiness. The com-
AS A sate haven for many Duvalierists, the Dominican
Republic (DR) played a key role in the preparation and execution of the September 30, 1991 coup d'état which plunged Haiti into horror. The destiny of the two nations is closely connected to each other. Radical Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide aptly described the Dominican
Republic and Haiti as "two wings of the same bird".
President Balaguer of the Dominican Republic blames
Haitians for all evils. He fears that the Dominican people will be inspired by the example of Aristide. For its part, the
Haitian bourgeoisie holds up the Dominican Republic as an example to be emulated. What in fact is the Dominican model?
ANDY BROCK
HE relations between the two
T countries have been marked throughout the 20th century by the solidarity between their oligarchies in their struggle against the democratic aspirations of the two peoples. In 1937, the president of the
Dominican Republic Trujillo massacred tens of thousands of Haitians without the then president of Haiti, Sténio Vincent lifting a finger. This solidarity of the rich has never been broken, even during the period, between
1978 and 1986, when the social democratic PRD was in power in the Dominican Republic. Balaguer, minister and then puppet president under the dictatorial regime of Trujillo and the Dominican bourgeoisie have always treated the
Haitian ruling class and its armed gangs as allies.
However, the election of Jean-Bertrand Aristide as Haiti's president changed the relations between the two countries. President Balaguer began a big wave of deportations of Haitians, in the face of international condemnation.
He also expressed himself in a grossly insulting manner about Aristide's speech to the United Nations defending the rights of Haitians in the DR.
For many years the political front men for the Haitian oligarchy have presented the economy of the DR as a model, showing what could be possible with the economy of Haiti. They have been supported in this by the United
States, who are very fond of the DR's
"model of democracy". The effect is to create an ideological obstacle to the
"lavalas" of popular anger. Thus it is well worth taking a closer look at what lies beneath the DR's development and model of democracy.
The argument seems based on simple common sense; the DR has higher growth rates than those of Haiti. Thus, in the DR per capita production has fallen by a mere 0.6% per year over the past decade as compared to 2.9% in Haiti. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Haiti was $324 in 1990, and $716 in the DR. Furthermore the indicators for social development are better in the DR than in Haiti.
A paper thin construction
However, in fact, the DR's economic development is a paper thin construction. In the first place that country is reaching the end of a decade lived on credit. The hour for paying the debts has arrived. After its re-election in 1990 the Dominican government gave in to the arguments of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It has had to stop printing money, which led to 100% inflation in 1990. It must also pay the interest on the foreign debt which has reached $4.5bn. Once deprived of the stimuli of inflation and foreign debt, the Dominican economy has withered. Between 1990 and 1991 production fell by between 7 and 9% while the per capita GDP fell in 1991 to its lowest level since 1974.
A country's development prospects cannot be deduced from a few isolated economic figures, which are about as useful as a crystal ball. It is essential to look at the economic, social and politimon characteristic of all three is that they rely on poorly qualified cheap labour. Indeed the Dominican authorities have been promoting the country to foreign investors with the slogan "the cheapest labour in the Caribbean" without caring much about how skilled it is. But the level of a community's consumption depends to a large extent on the productivity of labour, which is itself tied to investment in means of production and the skills of its people. From this point of view it is clear that the Dominican model is in fact a move away from the path of development.
A reading of IMF statistics well illustrates the logic behind this model: in 1987 the DR devoted 1.5 and 1.4% of its GDP to health and education respectively, compared to an average of 4.3 and 1.8% for Latin America and 5 and 5.4% for industrialized countries. Adding health and education to other social spending the IMF arrives at the following comparisons: 4.9% of the DR's budget goes on social spending compared to an average of 13.1% for Latin America and 17.1% for the industrialized countries.2 Things become even clearer when absolute figures are used; the DR's education budget fell from 19 pesos per head in 1988 to 15 in 1989 and 11 in 1990, that of health from 7 pesos in 1988 to 4 in 1990 (at 1980 constant prices).
A president's place in history
President Balaguer, like his former patron Trujillo, prefers prestige constructions which he is convinced will win him a place in history. Thus the building of the Columbus lighthouse cost over $10m. Planning in millennia he obviously sees it as his equivalent of the pyramids.
When the next century arrives one can wonder how much will remain of the assembly plants, in the face of competition from increasing numbers of countries with the same idea and the advance of automization, with its tendency to replace unskilled labour. One can also wonder how tourism will do in a country with a rapidly deteriorating 1. Progresso economica y social en America Latina, BID, Washington, 1991. 2 achington, 191 Finance Statistics Yearbook, 13 Washington, 1990. May 11, 1992 # 228 International Viewpoint
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disaster
freedom of the press is only allowed insofar as it does not trouble the regime and its allies. Thus the Creole language broadcasts of
Radio Enriquillo, a Catholic station which supports the popular struggle in Haiti, have been prohibited. *
International Viewpoint # 228 • May 11, 1992
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC environment and rising crime accompanying advanced social decomposition.
And finally one can wonder what will remain of agriculture on lands which are often impoverished by over use and suffer from the environmental destruction, including a decline in water supplies due to the cutting down of forests and the results of the deliberate use of an unskilled workforce.
Nobody at all is taking responsibility for the ecological disaster in this dustbin of the US. This January a joint declaration by environmental defence organizations denounced the arrival in 1991 of seven boats from New Jersey dumping industrial waste in the DR. On February 27, the country's national day, the president described ecological worries as "false alarms".
Finally, what is the future of the efforts to attract capital to a country whose social crisis holds out the risk of political strife and political change?
In 1977 the Central Bank calculated that 23% of Dominican households were living in extreme poverty, that is with less than 95 pesos a month ($95 a year). In 1989 it found that 53% were in this condition - some 3,876,000 souls.
The sanitary situation is also getting worse. Doctor Mirtha Rose-Periago, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the DR, declared on February 6 that that country has one of the worst records in Latin America for under-nutrition.
A survey by the Foundation for Nutritional Services (SENUTRI) reveals alarming and increasing figures for under-nutrition: in 1991, 89% of the population were suffering from undernutrition according to internationally defined standards (2,390 calories and 59 grams of protein per day) helping the spread of all kinds of diseases, notably tuberculosis (which affects 300,000 people in the capital according to one estimate) typhoid fever, pneumonia and dysentery. Doctors also note the mounting toll of physical and mental side effects of infantile malnutrition.
According to the most recent comparative statistics of the Pan-American Health Organization (OPS) the infant mortality rate in the DR has risen from 29.7 per 1,000 in 1980 to 56.6 per 1,000 in 1985, when the Latin American average was 24.3 per 1,000. The rate of maternal mortality had also risen from 7.2 to 9.4. More than 45,000 cases of AIDS have already been recorded. The number of children who have caught German measles owing to not being vaccinated is growing all the time (692 in 1988, 1,505 in 1989, 1,706 in 1990 and 7,380 in 1991).
Human rights in the Dominican Republic The Wall Street Journal assessed this danger in August 1991 in a league table THE annual report of the United States State Department classiof political risk to business. According fies the Dominican Republic among those countries where human to the classification devised by the rights are not respected. Despite the fact that Washington is American branch of the London-based relying on Balaguer to suppress any popular uprising in Haiti International Business Communica- against the military-macoute massacres, it cannot avoid the evitions consultancy firm, in descending dence. The report cites bad working conditions, child labour and order of safety, the DR was 80th, bet- the forced labour to which Haitians are subjected in the bateyes ween Papua New Guinea and the as well as the deportation of 6,000 Haitians in 1991. Congo. Under these conditions invest-
The report states that "50 to 60,000 Haitians left that country ments are confined to areas where mainly to avoid losing their property, and the Dominican military quick profits can be made. robs Haitians. According to such trustworthy sources as lawyers' associations, the Catholic church and human rights organizaExceptional corruption tions, prisoners are sometimes beaten by the police to obtain
On top of the absence of long or even information or testimonies.... Although a significant number of medium term prospects should be policemen have been summoned before the courts, there have added the other dimension of Domini- been no convictions for human rights violations". The report also can "development", a jim-crack cites cases of arbitrary arrest and detention. "democracy" and an exceptionally cor-
On February 3, 1992, a teacher at the State University denounrupt and authoritarian political regime. ced the tortures he had undergone during questioning by police.
A study by the CIECA research He also stated that dozens of others were being tortured while he centre revealed that in 1989 57% of was in prison. Furthermore, on February 4, 1992, the Dominican Dominicans were living in poverty and Human Rights Committee spoke of the existence of "butchers 30% in absolute poverty, compared to whose names are known and who devote themselves to the tortu47 and 16% in 1984, the date of the re of prisoners, in some cases to the point of death". They added first IMF-inspired economic reforms. that in the DR torture was "the rule during interrogations, while The Institute of Dominican Studies respect for the rights of the detained is the exception". Some (IED) has produced even more shoc- organizations have also talked about the existence of secret poliking figures. In 1969 the minimum ce courts, claims confirmed by numerous complaints about the wage applicable in big enterprises was police's refusal to respect decisions taken by the courts to free 60 pesos a month, that is two thirds of the subsistence level of the time, estimated at 87,62 pesos. In 1991, the The State Department report also records cases of sacking for same minimum wage applied to the attempting to organize unions, notably in the Free Trade Zones same enterprises was the equivalent, (FTZs). The main union confederation has also reported the sacafter inflation had been taken into king of 7,000 workers in the San Pedro de Macoris FTZ. Finally, account, of only 29 pesos at 1969 levels, that is a third of the subsistence level (the actual figures for the minimum wage and subsistence in 1991 14 pectively. being 1,120 pesos and 3,350 pesos res-
Talking about cholera, Doctor Fabio Cabrera Polanco, director of the Health Ministry's epidemology service, said on May 10, 1991: "We have tons of waste in the streets, tons of flies, tons of rats and a very low level of sanitary education. This makes it very likely that the conditions are highly favourable to a [cholera] epidemic. I would even say that they are ideal for it to establish itself here and spread. We cannot control this danger. How can we control all the places where planes loaded with cocaine land? We must put our faith in God."
Everyone admits that there is generalized corruption, including the Catholic church, which nonetheless remains as loyal to Balaguer as it was to Trujillo in his day. On March 7, 1992 the Bishop of Higuey admitted that the organizers of the voyages of boat people enjoyed military complicity. Balaguer has never taken serious measures against corruption in the administration. On the contrary, faced with wage demands from public sector employees some years ago he declared that they did not need the same wages as in the private sector since they had means for improving their income through extortion. Thus corruption has been given official blessing.
The inevitable results of democracy
Talking to the nation on February 27, 1992, Balaguer even launched a new theory: "People say that our country is submerged in chaos and disorder but they forget that this is the inevitable result of democracy. Our country's history offers us the proof of this. Corruption usually goes hand in hand with abundance and progress". This demented statement brought howls of outrage from many quarters, including from the former governor of the Central Bank, Miguel Gomero who stated: "corruption is the reflection of the ethical decomposition of institutions and the absence of efficient and exemplary mechanisms for punishing crime"
The logical consequence of all this is that the population is emigrating to the cities or overseas to escape from a countryside deprived of basic services, where agribusiness has seized the best land and wages have fallen. This is the reason for the uncontrolled growth of the capital, whose population has risen from 30,000 in 1920 to more than two million in 1992, and the growth of shantytowns. The process has accelerated since Balaguer's return to power; in 1986, 20,000 families were evicted by force and only half of them rehoused as entire areas of the capital known for their opposition to the regime were turned over to prestige develop-
Emigration overseas, mainly to the US, is also increasing. And the overwhelming majority off Dominicans, both from the poor and among the liberal professions, say they are ready to emigrate. Even at those moments when speculation creates a shortage of some essential good such as sugar or flour the queues do not get as long as that always to be found outside the US embassy. But only a few get the visa they dream of, leading to the fleets of boat people who land on the coasts of Florida and especially Puerto Rico.
In some weeks the number of those forcibly repatriated to the DR is in the hundreds while dozens more die at sea. Each week the newspapers report new tragedies: on January 5, 1992, 17 people who had been smuggled into the Santiago Free Trade Zone were discovered just before embarkation in a state of advanced dehydration.
Dominican boat people
Although attracting less press attention than those from Haiti, the Dominican boat people represent precisely the same social situation, bearing witness to the despair in which most live. The Director of Civil Protection has estimated that 110,000 Dominicans have tried to get to Puerto Rico and the US illegally since 1980 with the help of state officials and elected representatives. Some 10% (11,000) have died in the crossing, while around 30% have achieved their goal.
According to Puerto Rico's Centre for Religious Services around 175,000 illegals are living in that country, for the most part working in coffee, citrus fruit and banana growing in conditions of "semi-slavery".
Another consequence of the fraying of the country's social fabric is a rapid growth in crime. In the medium term this could well threaten the country's tourist industry. The Dominican press details the increasingly violent crime wave.
In one week in February 1992 it reported the murder of a French businessman (February 2), of a Japanese
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC cooperative expert, whose wife was seriously wounded (February 3), of the son of the former Peruvian ambassador, whose wife was also wounded (February 3), of a Swedish tourist (February 5) and a German tourist (February 5).
Even though police statistics are without doubt far from giving an accurate picture of reality, and while the police are themselves a major source of crime, they announced a rise in crimes from 125,00 in 1990 to 192,000 in 1991 — an increase of 53% in one year.
Such a "democracy'" can only be sustained by force. Balaguer, restored to power with the aid of US troops after a fraudulent election in 1966, hunted down his leftist opponents over a period of 12 years, physically eliminating the main leaders of the left. Returned to power in 1986 after the social democratic interlude, he has a range of well-equipped and trained repressive forces at his command which immediately suppress any popular protest. Such events end in deaths, injuries and hundreds or even thousands of arrests.
The voting ghosts
Balaguer furthermore enjoys a presidential constitution which he applies or violates as he wishes and which gives him pre-eminence over the legislature and judiciary.
The electoral system, meanwhile, permits fraud. Thus, according to the president of the Electoral Council, 460,000 people who have died since 1970 still appear on the electoral rolls.
Two figures amply sum up the nature of the regime in the Dominican Republic: 15% of the electorate were enough to put in power a president who, in 1991, had at his disposal 60% of the nation's budget, which he spends according to personal whim without any parliamentary control. At the same timehtald aeriedure 35%. 5% of the 15 budget and agriculture 3.5%. * May 11, 1992•: # 228 International Viewpoint
A tale of four proportionality to have (France) or the height of the barrier to be achieved for representation to be attained (Italy) all revolve around the same fundamental idea: that of neutralizing the subversive effects of universal suffrage and representative democracy on the functioning of the exe-
ELECTIONS took place in four of the main imperialist countries of Europe at the start of 1992; for the Länder of
Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Württemburg in Germany;
cantonal and regional in France; legislative in Britain and for the Senate and Chamber in Italy. Taken together with the
Belgian parliamentary elections of November 1991, they provide important insights into the broad political situation.