Near Haiti's northeastern border town of Ouanaminthe, three gleaming new hangars stand on what was once the most precious farmland in this barren, hungry corner of the country. This land was part of the fertile Maribahoux plain, an area called Pitobert.

Now peasants' plots have been bulldozed and paved over to build the first of 17 "free trade zones" (FTZ) which are planned to extend along the entire length of the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Some 800 workers are being trained to work in the three initial plants, which government officials say will begin functioning sometime later this month.

To hear the Haitian government tell it, these zones are going to bring jobs and development to the region. There have been promises made that, beginning in September, there will be free schooling for all Ouanaminthe's children, round the clock electricity, a potable water network, and a new paved road to Cap Haïtien, the north's main city to the west.

But this rosy picture contrasts sharply with the harsh reality of Cité Soleil. This sprawling slum of dingy tin and cardboard shacks set amid meandering open sewage canals and smoking garbage heaps is the by-product of Haiti's first FTZ - the Industrial Park near the Port-au-Prince airport - launched under the Duvalier regime in the early 1970s.

An army of Haitian and Dominican workers toil from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. building the factories, customs area, and access road to the Dominican Republic, through which all the zone's products are destined to flow. Dominican workers are doing most of the skilled work like carpentry, electrical wiring and plumbing. Haitian workers are mostly laborers, digging ditches, hammering stakes, and carrying iron rods and cement sacks. Dominicans are paid 800 pesos (US$24) a day and Haitians only 35 (US$1.06), another harbinger of discrepancies to come.

There is yet a third class of construction worker: Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. They are being paid 375 pesos (US$11.36) a day.

Heavily-armed Dominican soldiers watch over the work inside the zone, while large detachments of Haitian police guard activities on the outside. The zone also has its own private security force, headed by a Haitian who is a renowned criminal in the Northeast.

Most Haitians, including those around Ouanaminthe, did not learn about the project to build FTZs on the Maribahoux plain until President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Dominican counterpart Hipolito Mejia alighted in the area on Apr. 8, 2002 and dug the first ceremonial shovels-full of dirt (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 4, 4/10/02).Three months later, Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the National Popular Party (PPN), made public a secret "Trilateral Agreement" between Haiti, the DR, and the United States which would effectively turn a 5 km corridor along the 375 km border into a "Border Zone" filled with industrial parks, highways, and airports (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 17, 7/10/02). This is the prime feature of the U.S. State Department-championed "Hispaniola Plan," which aims to convert the foreign debt of Haiti and the DR into "tripartite" (read U.S.) controlled territory i.e. the "Border Zone." The PPN and many other progressive organizations have strongly condemned this scheme.

On June 20, Haiti's Commerce and Industry Minister announced his approval of two more free trade zones. The first, approved last December, has the Industrial Development Company, a Haitian-Dominican consortium, building a zone on 160 acres near Ouanaminthe (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 47, 2/5/03). The second, signed on June 11, allows the Hispaniola Investment Company (HINSA) to build a 400 square kilometer zone in Drouillard, near Cité Soleil.

Many peasants on the Maribarahoux plain are bitter, not only about their expropriation, but about never being consulted or informed of the Haitian government's plans for the region. Some 54 peasants so far are being forced to sell their land, but only 14 have so far accepted payment, according to Gaston Etienne, an agricultural engineer with the Pitobert Farmers‚ Defense Committee.

Etienne also notes that the Haitian government has turned a blind eye to the destruction of farmland in Pitobert. "The new law on free trade zones does take into account what we have said to them," he said. "The text specifies that farming areas are to be exempt. But the authorities couldn't care less."

The head of the Dominican Republic's Armed Forces, Lieutenant General José Miguel Soto Jiminez, said of Haiti last week that "the situation in this country could be a threat to the Dominican state." The statement has caused a furor in Haiti.

Although Dominican authorities have made similar remarks in the past, this time it was different. The DR's military chief was uttering the remark during a military-organized seminar entitled "The Border: A Priority on the National Agenda for the 21st Century." There is also heightened tension between the two countries since the DR is allowing former Haitian soldiers intent on overthrowing the Haitian government to use its territory as a rear-base for their regular attacks against Haiti (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No. 2, 3/26/03).

These guerrilla attacks are escalating as opposition formations, like the so-called "Group of 184" organizations and its "Caravan of Hope," step up their destabilization campaign against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government. On July 12, the Group of 184 sent its Caravan - accompanied by foreign diplomats - into the highly volatile and pro-Aristide slum of Cité Soleil. A rock-throwing melee ensued resulting in many wounded, including five journalists, among them Haïti Progrès reporter Carlasse Alex. Interior Minister Jocilerme Privert also said that three people were killed in the confrontation, without revealing identities, affiliations, or circumstances.

"A knowing provocation to violence under the guise of free speech, is not protected under any country's laws, including the United States, and no one should expect governmental authorities in Haiti to tolerate such actions," said Ira Kurzban, the Haitian government's lawyer.

"What were they doing there?" asked Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) about the 184's Caravan during July 15 Senate hearings on U.S. policy towards Haiti. He questioned if it was not similar to Protestants marching every July through Catholic parts of Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Many trace the opposition's destabilization campaign and Dominican authorities‚ aggressive words to the same source: Washington.

"The Dominican Army is just an appendage, an extension of the U.S. Army," said Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the National Popular Party (PPN), in a June 14 press conference. "It is totally submissive to Washington's policies. The proof is that the Dominican Army is now going to send 300 of its troops to Iraq." Dupuy noted that this was probably arranged during President Hipolito Mejia's meeting with U.S. President George Bush in May.

"The military's seminar in the Dominican Republic was held to prepare international public opinion for an eventual peace-keeping intervention into Haiti," Dupuy said. "The role of the 184 is precisely to create trouble so that they can say there is anarchy, an extraordinary situation in the country."

Dupuy warned the Haitian government to take the 184 Group's provocation and Jiminez's declaration "very seriously."