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Travel to Haiti — Unbiased reviews and
great deals from TripAdvisorHaiti
| Republic of Haiti National
name: République d'Haïti President: René Préval
(2006) Prime Minister:
Michèle Pierre-Louis
Current government officials
Land area: 10,641 sq mi (27,560 sq km);
total area: 10,714 sq mi (27,750 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 8,924,553 (growth
rate: 2.4%); birth rate: 35.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 62.3/1000;
life expectancy: 57.5; density per sq km: 323
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Port-au-Prince, 1,764,000 (metro. area),
1,119,000 (city proper) Monetary unit:
Gourde
Languages:
Creole and French (both official)
Ethnicity/race:
black 95%, mulatto and white 5%
Religions:
Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%,
Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), other 3%, none 1%. Note:
roughly half the population practices Vaudou
National Holiday:
Independence Day, January 1 Literacy rate: 53% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$11.14 billion; per capita $1,300. Real growth rate: 3.2%.
Inflation: 9%. Unemployment: widespread unemployment and
underemployment; more than two-thirds of the labor force do not have
formal jobs (2002 est.). Arable land: 28%. Agriculture:
coffee, mangoes, sugarcane, rice, corn, sorghum; wood. Labor
force: 3.6 million; note: shortage of skilled labor, unskilled
labor abundant (1995); agriculture 66%, services 25%, industry 9%.
Industries: sugar refining, flour milling, textiles, cement,
light assembly industries based on imported parts. Natural
resources: bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble,
hydropower. Exports: $554.8 million f.o.b. (2007 est.):
manufactures, coffee, oils, cocoa, mangoes. Imports: $1.844
billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): food, manufactured goods, machinery and
transport equipment, fuels, raw materials. Major trading
partners: U.S., Dominican Republic, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago,
Cuba, UK (2004). Communications:
Telephones: main lines in use: 145,300 (2005); mobile cellular:
over 500,200 (2005). Radio broadcast stations: AM 41, FM 26,
shortwave 0 (1999). Television broadcast stations: 2 (plus a
cable TV service) (1997). Internet hosts: 7 (2007) Internet
users: 650,000 (2006). Transportation:
Railways: n.a. Highways: 4,160 km (1999) Waterways:
n.a. Ports and harbors: Cap-Haitien. Airports: 14
(2007). International disputes: since
2004, about 8,000 peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission in
Haiti (MINUSTAH) maintain civil order in Haiti; despite efforts to
control illegal migration, Haitians fleeing economic privation and
civil unrest continue to cross into Dominican Republic and to sail to
neighboring countries; Haiti claims US-administered Navassa
Island.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Haiti, in the West Indies, occupies the western
third of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican
Republic. About the size of Maryland, Haiti is two-thirds mountainous,
with the rest of the country marked by great valleys, extensive plateaus,
and small plains.
Government
Republic with an elected government.
History
Explored by Columbus on Dec. 6, 1492, Haiti's
native Arawaks fell victim to Spanish rule. In 1697, Haiti became the
French colony of Saint-Dominique, which became a leading sugarcane
producer dependent on slaves. In 1791, an insurrection erupted among the
slave population of 480,000, resulting in a declaration of independence by
Pierre-Dominique Toussaint l'Ouverture in 1801. Napoléon Bonaparte
suppressed the independence movement, but it eventually triumphed in 1804
under Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who gave the new nation the Arawak name
Haiti. It was the world's first independent black republic.
The revolution wrecked Haiti's economy. Years of
strife between the light-skinned mulattos who dominated the economy and
the majority black population, plus disputes with neighboring Santo
Domingo, continued to hurt the nation's development. After a succession of
dictatorships, a bankrupt Haiti accepted a U.S. customs receivership from
1905 to 1941. Occupation by U.S. Marines from 1915 to 1934 brought
stability. Haiti's high population growth made it the most densely
populated nation in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1949, after four years of democratic rule by
President Dumarsais Estimé, dictatorship returned under Gen. Paul
Magloire, who was succeeded by François Duvalier, nicknamed
“Papa Doc,” in 1957. Duvalier's secret police, the
“Tontons Macoutes,” ensured political stability with brutal
efficiency. Upon Duvalier's death in 1971, his son, Jean-Claude, or
“Baby Doc,” succeeded as ruler of the poorest nation in the
hemisphere. In the early 1980s, Haiti became one of the first countries to
face an AIDS epidemic. Fear of the disease caused tourists to stay away,
and the tourist industry collapsed, causing rising unemployment. Unrest
generated by the economic crisis forced Baby Doc to flee the country in
1986.
Throughout the 1990s the international community
tried to establish democracy in Haiti. The country's first elected chief
executive, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a leftist Roman Catholic priest who
seemed to promise a new era in Haiti, took office in Feb. 1991. The
military, however, took control in a coup nine months later. A UN
peacekeeping force, led by the U.S.—Operation Uphold
Democracy—arrived in 1994. Aristide was restored to office and
René Preval became his successor in 1996 elections. U.S. soldiers
and UN peacekeepers left in 2000. Haiti's government, however, remained
ineffectual and its economy was in ruins. Haiti has the highest rates of
AIDS, malnutrition, and infant mortality in the region.
In 2000, former president Aristide was reelected
president in elections boycotted by the opposition and questioned by many
foreign observers. The U.S. and other countries threatened Haiti with
sanctions unless democratic procedures were strengthened. Aristide, once a
charismatic champion of democracy, grew more authoritarian and seemed
incapable of improving the lot of his people. Violent protests rocked the
country in Jan. 2004, the month of Haiti's bicentennial, with protesters
demanding that Aristide resign. By February, a full-blown armed revolt was
under way, and Aristide's hold on power continued to slip. The protests,
groups of armed rebels, and French and American pressure led to the
ousting of Aristide on Feb. 29. Thereafter a U.S.-led international force
of 2,300 entered the chaos-engulfed country to attempt to restore order,
and an interim government took over. In September, Hurricane Jeanne
ravaged Haiti, killing more than 2,400 people. Lawlessness and gang
violence were widespread, and the interim government had no control over
parts of the country, which were run by armed former soldiers.
After numerous delays, Haiti held elections on
Feb. 7, 2006. The elections, backed by 9,000 United Nations troops, were
seen as a crucial step in returning Haiti to some semblance of stability.
Former prime minister and Aristide protegé René
Préval, very popular among the poor, was seen as the favorite. But
when the election count indicated that Préval's lead over the other
candidate was dropping and that he would not win an outright majority,
Préval contested the election and charged that “massive fraud
and gross errors had stained the process.” On Feb. 14, the interim
government halted the election count, and the following day, after the
votes were retabulated, Préval was declared the winner.
In April 2008, Prime Minister
Jacques-Édouard Alexis was removed from office by the Senate, which
held him responsible for the poor economy. On April 12, after violent
street riots, President René Préval announced that he would
cut the cost of rice by nearly 16%. On April 27, President René
Preval designated Ericq Pierre as the new prime minister, but the lower
house of Parliament rejected Pierre, 51 to 35, in May. On July 14,
parliament approved the nomination of Michèle Pierre-Louis for
prime minister. On July 31, 2008, Michèle Pierre-Louis was approved
by a 12-0 Senate vote, making her the second woman prime minister of
Haiti, and ending the country's three-month political stalemate.
See also Encyclopedia: Haiti.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Haiti
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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