Haiti tried to pressure Dominican Republic with sugar workers

Santo Domingo.- SugarcaneWorkers Union spokesman Jesus Nuñez revealed Thursday that the Haitiangovernment tried to use them to press for an extension of the period toregister for the government program to legalize foreigners, which they rejected,because "we are not part of an NGO."

He said Haitianembassy chief of staff Miouseming Celestin told them that regularization plans aroundthe world take as long as five years for which they couldn’t allow the DominicanRepublic to conclude it in July.

"She wanted touse us, because as one which struggles with Haitians, she believed that we werein that wave. We are not part of an NGO. The NGOs go to marches the same way wedid, in front of the Haitian embassy," the union leader said.

"That is false,the chief of staff knows that we paid 4.6 million pesos and we are not countingthe cane workers of La Romana or those of El Seibo and San Pedro, we arecounting the cane workers of the capital and she needs to provide a strong responseabout the money deposited," Nuñez said during a protest by hundreds ofsugarcane workers in front of the National Palace to demand higher pensions.

"The legalizationprogram is over and it´s now when the Haitian embaasy comes with the affidavitsand wants to say that the Pidi (Documentation Plan in Haiti) was a success butit was a failure because the Pidi has not delivered anything," he said