Espanol

Haiti

Country Overview

Haiti is the only country in the world that was founded by a slave revolt. Ever since, it has been a target of US military and political intervention. In 1918, US Marines invaded Haiti, massacring hundreds, dismantling the constitutional system, enforcing massive land take-overs by US corporations, and installing the brutal National Guard, which terrorized the country for decades. The US also trained and protected the long-standing Duvalier dictatorship and provided military support for a series of other short-lived dictators and military juntas over the years.

Today, US intervention in Haitian affairs appears to be driven by a concern that if Haiti—the hemisphere's poorest country—can determine its own course, other countries may also claim the right to formulate their own policies without interference from Washington. In 1991 and again in 2004, the US helped to overthrow Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had resisted Washington's prescriptions for Haiti's economy by insisting on social spending for the poor.

Since 1990, every internationally validated election in Haiti has produced a landslide victory for Aristide's Lavalas Party. Once the standard-bearer of Haiti's pro-democracy movement, the party has now splintered into factions, including some unaccountable and violent groups. Despite its flawed human rights record, Lavalas would no doubt win another election if its candidates were allowed to run; for Lavalas is the party of the poor and 80 percent of Haitians are poor.

After the 2004 coup, violence raged between the interim government's forces and supporters of the pro-Aristide Lavalas Party. A study published in the British medical journal The Lancet found that 8,000 murders and 35,000 sexual assaults occurred in and around the capitol of Port-au-Prince during the period of the interim regime.1 Most of the violence was directed at people in the poorest neighborhoods, who form the base of Lavalas' support.

Today, 80 percent of Haitians live in extreme poverty, and more than half suffer from malnutrition. Unemployment is a staggering 70 percent, and tens of thousands of people die each year from diseases related to a lack of clean water. Meanwhile, the richest one percent of the population controls nearly half of the country's wealth. The economic policies that create these conditions have consistently been championed by the US.

End Notes

  1. Athena R Kolbe and Royce A Hutson. "Human rights abuse and other criminal violations in Port-au-Prince, Haiti: a random survey of households." August 31, 2006. Wayne State University, School of Social Work. http://globalpolicy.igc.org/security/issues/haiti/2006/0831abusesurvey.pdf


*How to Help*

^top of page^