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Please forgive the wall of text. 500 years of history is hard to condense.
Haiti is a shithole because slavery, the cabal and satan
I hadn't seen too much on the Dominican Republic yet, so I figured I'd give it a bit of a dig. I believe the Island of Hispaniola can be viewed through the lens of the US/Mexico border paradigm. Hispaniola is an island with two sovereigns. Haiti occupies the western half of the island and lies less than 50mi. from Cuba,(near GITMO). The Dominican Republic covers the eastern half of Hispaniola lying less than 50mi. from US territory of Puerto Rico. The island is divided unequally, and the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince lies only 10 miles from the from the "border" (up a series of lakes actually). So here's the posit, I believe control of an illicit South America Cuba > Haiti > DR > PR > US pipeline to be the point of all the attacks on tourists in DR. Either someone is threatening the pipeline, or as has been suggested, DR is being cleared of tourists to make room for the cabal survivors, right in the middle of the Caribbean illicit pipeline. If you smuggle items from Cuba to Haiti, nobody gives a shit. Then from Haiti to DR (over a fence, or under the water, or around the corner), then float them from DR to PR, you can bring them straight from PR to CONUS without Immigration and Customs. The DR gives a comfy place for warehousing and remarking/rebranding of products and peoples identities, before being "imported" into the US.
(Cultural background)
I had the pleasure of serving with some fine Dominicans, Haitians and Puerto Ricans. The each have a very distinct identity and culture. The Haitians hate everyone, including other Haitians. I mean seriously, Haitians are the worst (but it's not their fault). They're like the Waziri, with the addition of black magic, salt and lime. The Puerto Ricans love love love them some Puerto Ricans and most other brown people. The Dominicans are fiercely in between, very proudly Dominican, and they genuinely love all people (except the Haitians.) The Haitians are viciously jealous of the Dominicans and will fu*k them over at any chance. Also, did you know, all of those years you watched those poor Haitian children living in slums in Haiti, they were only 10 miles and a chain-link fence away from peace and posterity?
Let's review the history. 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue and landed in Hispaniola, which he claimed for Spain. Through the late 15th and early 16th centuries, European missionaries and explorers spread Catholicism to the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Pope Alexander VI, in the papal bull Inter caetera, awarded colonial rights over most of the newly discovered lands to Spain and Portugal.
Under the patronato system, state authorities controlled clerical appointments, and no direct contact was allowed with the Vatican.
On December 1511, the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos openly rebuked the Spanish authorities governing Hispaniola for their mistreatment of the American natives, telling them "… you are in mortal sin … for the cruelty and tyranny you use in dealing with these innocent people". King Ferdinand enacted the Laws of Burgos and Valladolid in response. Enforcement was lax, and while some blame the Church for not doing enough to liberate the Indians, others point to the Church as the only voice raised on behalf of indigenous peoples. {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_15th_century} In 1697 the Spanish formally ceded the western third of the island (now Haiti) to the French, who already owned most of the plantations anyway. While both "colonies" were slave territory, the French side (Haiti) was way more into it. The 1800 census estimates show huge freedom differentials. On the DR side of the island (Spanish colony) there 40,000 white landowners, 25,000 black or interracial freedmen and 60,000 slaves. On the Haiti side (French) there were 30,000 whites, 27,000 freedmen, and at least 500,000 black slaves. {http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1953959,00.html}