Ties That Bind

Abstract

April Mayes argues that the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court's decision to strip citizenship and nationality from thousands of Dominicans, most of whom are of Haitian ancestry, demonstrates how factions within, and powerbrokers aligned with, the Partido de la Liberación Dominicano (Dominican Liberation Party, PLD) have used anti-Haitianism and other human rights abuses to consolidate its power over the past two decades. During the PLD's administration, anti-black exclusion, Mayes insists, became institutionalized within the bureaucratic mechanisms of the state, complementing and assisting the state’s governance model.