Above: the Presidential Palace in the Dominican Republic

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Dominican Republic’s government will not be attending a meeting planned with the government of Haiti in Venezuela to discuss the country’s controversial citizenship ruling.

The country announced the move in a statement issued by Dominican Republic Minister of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo.

“We understand the Haitian government has broken the agreement we signed last week in which dialogue between the parties was prioritized to find solutions to any issue of our common agenda,” Montalvo wrote. “Therefore, going to the meeting will not be prioritized. Haiti has preferred to take another route and that ends our conversations right now.”

The meeting was scheduled to take place in Caracas on Saturday.

The announcement comes one day after Haiti President Michel Martelly traveled to Trinidad for a high-level CARICOM meeting addressing the citizenship case. That meeting resulted in a declaration from CARICOM that it would be suspending its consideration of the Dominican Republic’s bid for membership in CARICOM.

The Dominican government did not say specifically whether that was it considered the breach.