Content |
Economy
Inflation
2022: Inflation in November - 30.5%
Alcohol market
Minimum age to purchase alcoholic beverages
Agriculture
2019: Low use of pesticides in agriculture
Real estate
2020:49% of urban population lives in slums
Consumption
2023: Poultry meat is the most consumed type of meat
Health care
2020
Duration of guaranteed paid sick leave less than a month
Part of the population defecates on the street
History
2024: Unrest and increased refugee flow to the Dominican Republic
In early February 2024, thousands of protests took place in Haiti demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henri, which eventually subsided somewhere and were suppressed somewhere.
In early March 2024, riots began in the capital Port-au-Prince. Prime Minister Henri, despite the expiration of his term of office, continues to travel to international events and in every incomprehensible situation he stays in the United States.
The riots unfold according to the old scenario. Crime boss Jimmy BBQ threatens the government again, former rebels and oppositionists predict trouble for competitors. The local population in panic leaves their homes and runs towards the border with the Dominican Republic or goes out into the street to engage in looting.
On March 9, unknown persons staged a series of attacks on the buildings of the Supreme Court, the Ministry of the Interior, police departments and the presidential palace. The latter has been empty since the murder of Jovenel Moise in 2021.
These events instantly returned Haiti to the global news agenda and again stirred up talk of sending a peacekeeping contingent there or from Kenya - a process that continues to be delayed in Nairobi - or from anywhere else.
2023
300 people died in street battles in 3 months
In July 2023, local gangs keep the metropolitan Port-au-Prince and its environs at bay. The situation in Haiti has become critical in recent months, with more than 300 people killed in street battles since April. It comes to the point that locals do not believe the local police and authorities so much that they form self-defense units and lynch bandits on their own.
Degradation of the state apparatus and the police. The rise of banditry
In January 2023, the ten last democratically elected MPs who had previously tried to hold irregular meetings expired.
The long absence of public administration inevitably led to a humanitarian crisis. Nearly half of Haiti's population suffers from hunger, and adverse sanitation conditions have led to another cholera outbreak on the island.
With law enforcement failing to perform its duties properly for nearly two years now, there has been increasing activity by criminal gangs in the country. Among the participants in one of them - "Baz Pilate" - there are also police officers who, due to the low salary level, are looking for other opportunities to earn money.
The kidnapping business is gaining momentum in the country. Criminals ask for the stolen ransom in the amount of several tens of thousands of dollars. More than a thousand Haitians are considered missing, and incidents of gangs attacking civilians occur several times a week. For February 2023, groups control half of Haiti's capital, including the area around the prime minister's office and the parliament building.
In October 2022, the Haitian government asked the world community for help in fighting crime. The US authorities provide humanitarian aid to Haitians, and the Canadian armed forces patrol the country's territorial waters under the pretext of controlling the situation without taking decisive action.
In February 2023, a summit of Caribbean leaders was held in the Bahamas, where the title topic for discussion was the security crisis in Haiti. Law enforcement agencies are no longer coping with the threat from gangs. One of the guests of the event - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - even announced that he would send warships to fight crime. The decisive word in the region will somehow remain with the US administration, but it has no reason to intervene in Haiti. Jake Sullivan, US National Security Advisor, noted that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "expressed interest" in the idea of leading a mission in Haiti, but so far there is no certainty on this issue.
2021
Ariel Henri interim president
After the assassination of President Moise, the functions of the President of Haiti are temporarily performed by Ariel Henri, who is not popular with Haitians. He is considered an invader of power, who impedes the investigation of the true reasons for the murder of Moise, tries with all his might to prevent elections in the country and is not interested in the well-being of his fellow citizens.
Assassination of President Jovenel Moise
On July 7, 2021, Haitian President Jovenel Moise, 53, was assassinated at his residence in Port-au-Prince. His wife Martin Moise was also seriously injured. Martial law has been declared in the country.
Shortly before his death, Moise intended to constitutionally take the supreme power in the country from parliament and expand the powers of the president; in recent years, he completely dissolved parliament and worked without it. According to one version, this state of affairs threatened the influence of the US political elites on the island, and they chose to get rid of the reformist president. Read more here.
2000: French bank CIC exploits Haiti
In the War of Independence, Haiti overthrew the colonial rulers. But the country was then forced to pay reparations worth hundreds of millions of dollars to its former French slave owners.
Representatives of the French elites, including descendants of the slave nobility, controlled the Haitian National Bank directly from Paris. There is no trace of investing in the country's business in their accounting reports.
Archival documents that The New York Times examined indicate that French bank CIC was withdrawing millions of dollars from Haiti - which then fell into the pockets of French investors. The French-founded bank held a percentage of almost every operation of the Haitian government. Its shareholders made so much from it that in some years their profits exceeded the entire government budget for civilian infrastructure for a country of one and a half million people. And the traces of this story almost managed to cover.
Most of the CIC archives have been destroyed and Haiti is not mentioned in the company's public records. In the official history of the bank, released in 2009 on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, there is almost no word about Haiti. By the beginning of the 20th century, half of the taxes on the coffee harvest - the main source of income for Haiti - went to French investors in the CIC and the national bank. After subtracting other debts of Haiti, an insignificant part remained to govern the country - 6 cents from every $3. Over three decades, French shareholders have earned at least $136 million from Haiti's national bank (at today's prices) - about an annual income from the country's taxation at that time.
1975
1947: Haiti pays billions for losses caused to French slave traders by abolishing slavery and freeing Haitian slaves
From 1804 to 1947, France forced Haiti to pay the modern equivalent of $21 billion (for 2023) for the losses caused to French slave traders by the abolition of slavery and the liberation of Haitian slaves.