11 - Haiti

While some Dominicans flee to Puerto Rico in order to improve their opportunities in life, many Haitians seek entry into the Dominican Republic. Compared to conditions in Haiti, the Dominican Republic is, indeed, a paradise.

Haiti’s status as the “least developed nation in the Western Hemisphere” is due to a combination of external and internal historical circumstances which have been devastating to the population of the country. At one time, however, it had been the most valuable territory in the French Empire.

The island of Hispaniola was originally populated by the Arawak people who called their land Quisqueya. Within a few decades of being colonized by the Spanish, the Arawak population was decimated by forced labor and disease. The Spanish interest in the island waned after its small gold reserves were exhausted, and in the 17th century they ceded the western third of the island to France as part of the Treaty of Ryswick.

When the sugar industry developed in the Caribbean, France imported enormous numbers of African slaves to Haiti to work the plantations. Conditions were so extreme that slaves seldom lived more than five years after being put to work in the cane fields; attempts to escape were met with a cruelty excessive even by the standards of the time. In the 18th century, sugar profits from Haiti made it France’s most important colony.

Inspired by the principles of both the revolutions in the American Colonies and in France, the huge slave population in Haiti rose up in the only successful slave revolution in history. In 1803, Haiti became the first independent nation in Latin America. Relations between Haiti and its neighbors, however, were strained, especially during the period when slavery was still active throughout most of the Americas. And the nations of Europe collectively shunned the new country, demanding that it pay reparations to France for loss of property. Local Haitian rulers in collusion with the Europeans used the little wealth left in the country to make those payments.

Then — foreshadowing a trend which would have such a negative impact on the nations of Latin America and Africa many decades later — bankers in the US loaned money to Haiti for development purposes. But when interest rates rose, the Haitians were unable to service their debt and ceased payment. In retaliation, US marines were sent to take control of the country. The US occupied Haiti until 1934, justifying the occupation on the grounds that black persons were incapable of governing themselves because the race had “an inherent tendency towards a savage lifestyle and an inability to be civilized” [then US Secretary of State, Robert Lansing].

Before the US military forces left, they the backed the presidency of “Papa Doc” Duvalier, whose rule was even more despotic than Trujillo’s in the Dominican Republic.

“Papa Doc” was followed by his son, Jean-Claude, known as “Baby Doc.” The Duvaliers isolated Haiti from the rest of the world and exploited the wealth of the country for themselves. They showed little interest in promoting the welfare of their citizens. They amassed great personal wealth, while the nation fell into greater and greater debt. The majority impoverished population in Haiti worked small-hold farms or lived in urban slums. The country’s forests were destroyed to make charcoal. Water ways were polluted and disease spread easily. Haiti was one of the first countries to be ravaged by AIDS.

“Baby Doc” was just as vicious as his father had been and was eventually forced from office by a public uprising. But even after he went into exile, his secret police force – the infamous Tonton-Macoutes – continued to terrorize the population. A military coup in 1988 put one of the Duvaliers’ advisors, Prosper Avril, into the presidency.

External pressures forced a return to civilian government in 1990, and Jean-Bertrand Aristide, an activist Catholic priest, was elected to office. He was a supporter of Liberation Theology with its “preferential option for the poor.” But both the Vatican and the small wealthy elite of Haiti were uncomfortable with Aristide’s political agenda, and within a few months another coup occurred.

Since Aristide’s fall, industrial elements in the North have contributed to the on-going exploitation of Haitian peoples by moving factories there to take advantage of the low wages and slack environmental regulations available.

The enormous national debt incurred by Haiti as a nation was never used for the benefit of the people but rather for the personal benefit of a few.