Cité Soleil - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Cité Soleil is an extremely impoverished and densely populated commune

Arrondissements and communes of Haiti

Arrondissements and communes of Haiti may refer to:* Arrondissements of Haiti* List of communes of Haiti...

Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....

metropolitan area in Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

. Cité Soleil originally developed as a shanty town

Shanty town

A shanty town is a slum settlement of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often plywood, corrugated metal and sheets of plastic...

and grew to an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 residents, the majority of whom live in extreme poverty. The area is generally regarded as one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of the Western Hemisphere and it is one of the biggest slum

Slum

A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...

s in the Northern Hemisphere. The area has virtually no sewers, stores, electricity, health care facilities or schools. For several years until 2007, the area was ruled by a number of gangs, each controlling their own sectors. But government control was reestablished after a series of operations in early 2007 by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

The United Nations Stabilisation Mission In Haiti , also known as MINUSTAH, an acronym of the French translation, is a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti that has been in operation since 2004. The mission's military component is led by the Brazilian Army and the force commander is...

(MINUSTAH).

The neighborhood is located at the western end of the runway of Toussaint Louverture International Airport and adjoins the grounds of the former Hasco sugar complex. It began with the construction in 1958 of homes for 52 families. In the summer of 1966, a mysterious fire in the slum of La Saline displaced many of its residents. 1,197 homes were built there and it was named Cité Simone, after Haiti's First Lady. In 1972, a major fire near the central market of Port-au-Prince displaced yet more people who ended up in the Boston section of Cité Simone. In 1983, the census recorded 82,191 people in Cité Simone.

Originally designed to house sugar workers, Cité Simone later housed manual laborers for a local Export Processing Zone (EPZ). Neoliberal reforms beginning in the early 1970s made this place a magnet for squatters from around the countryside looking for work in the newly constructed factories. This movement accelerated in the early 1980s with the destruction of the Creole pigs by American order in response to an African swine flu outbreak, followed by the rise of Finance Minister Leslie Delatour

Leslie Delatour

Leslie Delatour was a Haitian economist.- Background :Born in 1950, he studied at Johns Hopkins University and at the University of Chicago. Notable as Haiti's Finance Minister and Governor of the Bank of Haiti, he also served as consultant at the World Bank, the Inter-American Bank and USAID. He...

who took this post following the ouster of Jean-Claude Duvalier

Jean-Claude Duvalier

Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971...

in 1986. Delatour openly advocated the depopulation of much of the Haitian countryside and that these people work instead in cities, living in places such as the newly-named Cité Soleil, though not for Hasco that Delatour shut down in 1987. This industrial sector was however damaged following the 1991 coup d'état that deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...

, causing a boycott of Haitian products that closed the EPZ. Cité Soleil continued to be plagued by extreme poverty and persistent unemployment, with high rates of illiteracy.

Half of the houses of Cité Soleil are made of cement with a metal roof, half are made completely of scavenged material. An estimated 60 to 70% of houses have no access to a latrine, particularly in the marshy Brooklyn area which includes Cité Carton.http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABY701.pdf

Armed gangs roamed the streets and terrorized the neighborhood. Every few blocks was controlled by one of more than 30 armed factions. Though the gangs no longer rule, murder, rape, kidnapping, looting, and shootings are still common. The area has been called a "microcosm of all the ills in Haitian society: endemic unemployment, illiteracy, non-existent public services, unsanitary conditions, rampant crime and armed violence".

After the 2010 Haiti earthquake

2010 Haiti earthquake

The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...

, it took nearly two weeks for relief aid to arrive in Cité-Soleil. Although the US military had willingly accepted their new role, their relief efforts have been criticized by some as insufficient.

Overview

Most of the residents of Cité-Soleil are children or young adults. Although the life expectancy in Haiti is to age 52, few live past the age of 50 as many die from diseases, such as AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

, or from violence.
At times Cité Soleil has been filled with armed gangs. The vast majority of residents of Cité Soleil remained loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

and his Fanmi Lavalas

Fanmi Lavalas

Fanmi Lavalas is a leftist political party in Haiti. Its leader is former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It has been a powerful force in Haitian politics since 1991. Fanmi Lavalas governments supported a policy of "growth with equity" based on Caribbean and Western European social...

movement. Unlike Haiti's unelected past governments, Lavalas governments invested money into parks, literacy programs and medical centers in Cité Soleil.

Politically affiliated gangs or militias, often with quasi-official powers, have been a regular element of Haitian politics

Politics of Haiti

The Politics of Haiti have often been defined with conflict when strongmen have taken over the government. Only within the latter part of the twentieth century, has normal political activity transpired.-History:...

throughout the country's history

History of Haiti

The recorded history of Haiti began on December 5, 1492 when the European navigator Christopher Columbus happened upon a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. It was inhabited by the Taíno, an Arawakan people, who variously called...

.
The fighting led to wide scale charges by neighborhood residents that the United Nations stabilizing force has permitted conditions that led to the death of unarmed bystanders.In 2004 they were accused of ignoring violence by the Haitian police, the criminal roots of the kidnapping and the undermining of Aristide's security police force.

During mid-1990s, the city's population was terrorized by armed gangs which drove the local police out; this situation prevented officials aid workers from intervening to provide help. In 1999, Cité Soleil was set on fire by a gang and at least 50 shacks were burned. By 2002, the violence escalated as the gangs began warring with each other in addition to preying on ordinary people. Many inhabitants had temporarily left to escape the turmoil. In a series of operations from 2004 to 2007, UN peacekeepers tried to seize control from the gangs in Cité Soleil and end the anarchy. Although the United Nations Stabilization Mission

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

(MINUSTAH) has been deployed since 2004, it continues to struggle for control over the armed gangs and the violent confrontations continue. MINUSTAH maintains an armed checkpoint at the entrance to Cité Soleil and the road is blocked with armed vehicles. In December, 2004, a group of armed ex-soldiers occupied ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

's home against the wishes of the Haitian government. In January 2006, two Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

ian peacekeepers were killed in Cité Soleil. The UN has described the human rights situation in Haiti as "catastrophic".

Current status

Since 2004, the United Nations Stabilization Mission

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

(MINUSTAH) has been in Haiti and it now numbers 8,000 troops but continues to struggle for control over the armed gangs. In October 2006 a group of heavily armed Haitian police were able to enter Cité Soleil for the first time in three years and were able to remain one hour as armored UN troops patrolled the area. Since this is where the armed gangs take their kidnap victims, the Haitian police's ability to penetrate the area even for such a short time was seen as a sign of progress. The situation of continuing violence is similar in Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince

. Before Christmas 2006, the UN force announced that it would take a tougher stance against gang members in Port-au-Prince, but since then the atmosphere there has not improved, the armed roadblocks and barbed wire barricades have not been removed. After 4 people were killed and another 6 injured in a UN operation exchange of fire with criminals in Cité Soleil in late January 2007, the United States announced that it would contribute $20 million to create jobs in Cité Soleil.

In early February 2007, 700 UN troops flooded Cité Soleil resulting in a major gun battle. Although the troops make regular forcible entries into the area, a spokesperson said this one was the largest attempted so far by the UN troops.
On July 28, 2007, Edmond Mulet, the UN Special Representative in Haiti, warned of a sharp increase in lynching

Lynching

Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...

s and other mob attacks in Haiti. He said that MINUSTAH, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

, which now has over 9,000 troops there, will launch a campaign to remind people that lynching is a crime

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

.

On August 2, 2007, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon arrived in Haiti to assess the role of the UN forces, announcing that he would visit Cité Soleil during his visit. He said that as it is Haiti's largest slum, it is the most important target for UN peacekeepers in gaining control over the armed gangs. The Haitian president René Préval

René Préval

René Garcia Préval is a Haitian politician and agronomist who was the President of the Republic of Haiti from 14 May 2006 to 14 May 2011. He previously served as President from February 7, 1996, to February 7, 2001, and as Prime Minister from February 1991 to October 11, 1991.-Early life and...

has expressed ambivalent feelings about the UN security presence, saying, "If the Haitian people were asked if they wanted the UN forces to leave they would say yes." Survivors at times blame the UN peacekeepers for deaths of relatives.

Critics of MINUSTAH's plan feel that the United Nations mandate is unrealistic, treating a political problem as a security problem.

2010 Haiti earthquake

On January 12, 2010, at 21:53 UTC (4:53 PM local time) Haiti was struck by a magnitude

Moment magnitude scale

The moment magnitude scale is used by seismologists to measure the size of earthquakes in terms of the energy released. The magnitude is based on the seismic moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the Earth multiplied by the average amount of slip on the fault and the size of...

-7.0 earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

, the country's most severe earthquake in over 200 years. The epicenter of the quake was just outside the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince

. As the biggest slum of Port-au-Prince, Cité Soleil fared relatively well, as most of its cinder block and corrugated steel shacks survived, and Médecins Sans Frontières

Médecins Sans Frontières

' , or Doctors Without Borders, is a secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland...

reopened its Choscal Hospital located in the heart of the slum, operated between 2005 and 2007 during the gang war, within 24 hours. However, the area remains in desperate need of help, according to World Emergency Relief.

Gang members who escaped from Haiti's damaged prison have returned to the area to continue to commit crimes. The crime rate is rising and police have urged citizens to take matters into their own hands. As of January 23, 2010, Cité Soleil had largely remained neglected by earthquake relief workers and is doing what it can to survive and help on its own.

Overview

Current status

2010 Haiti earthquake

See also