The Ithaca, NY-based Committee on U.S.-Latin American Relations was in the press (here, here and here) in the Dominican Republic last week after releasing a statement calling for support and solidarity among the people of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Violence against residents of Haitian descent has increased this month, with cases of burning homes, physical beatings and calls for Haitians to leave the DR. CUSLAR noted a long history of racism and xenophobia being used in the United States as tools to divide the laboring class and pre-empt its unity. The organization called on the silent majority of Dominicans who support their Haitian neighbors to denounce the violence.

Read the full statement in its original Spanish and its English translation.