Haiti’s crisis rises to the forefront of elections in neighboring Dominican Republic

By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA and MEGAN JANETSKY
Associated Press

VERON, Dominican Republic (AP) — As soaring violence and political turmoil grip neighboring Haiti, the Dominican Republic will hold elections Sunday that have been defined by calls for more crackdowns on migrants and finishing a border wall dividing the countries. Politics in the two Caribbean nations sharing the island of Hispaniola have long been intertwined. Haiti’s spiral into chaos in recent years has coincided with a harsh crackdown by its Dominican neighbor. President Luis Abinader, a clear frontrunner in the race as he seeks reelection, has begun to build a Trump-like border wall along Haiti’s border and carried out mass deportations of 175,000 Haitians just last year.