Ouanaminthe

Ouanaminthe is the busiest of the four crossings into the Dominican Republic, a town of about a hundred thousand people facing Dajabón across a bridge over the Massacre river. On Mondays and Fridays the barriers open and Haitians walk over without a passport to trade at the binational market, on condition that they stay within a hundred metres of the border. Tens of thousands cross on those days and the whole town works around it. The river carries the name of a colonial killing of French buccaneers, and it ran red again in 1937. A free-trade zone on the edge of town sews clothing for export to the United States.