In news- Haiti’s interim government has asked the US to deploy troops to protect key infrastructure in the aftermath of President Jovenel Moise’s assassination.
About Haiti-
- Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea.
- It lies to the east of Cuba and Jamaica and south of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
- It is the third largest country in the Caribbean by area, and the most populous country in the Caribbean.
- The island was originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno people, who originated in South America.
- The first Europeans arrived on 5 December 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, who initially believed he had found India or China.
- He subsequently founded the first European settlement in the Americas, La Navidad, on what is now the northeastern coast of Haiti.
- The island was claimed by Spain and named La Espanola, forming part of the Spanish Empire until the early 17th century.
- The western portion of the island was ceded to France in 1697, which was subsequently named Saint-Domingue.
- French colonists established lucrative sugarcane plantations, worked by vast numbers of slaves brought from Africa.
- In the midst of the French Revolution (1789–99), slaves and free people of color launched the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), led by a former slave and the first black general of the French Army, Toussaint Louverture.
- After 12 years of conflict, Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces were defeated by Louverture’s successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines (later Emperor Jacques I), who declared Haiti’s sovereignty on 1 January 1804.
- It became the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, the second republic in the Americas, the first country to abolish slavery, and the only state in history established by a successful slave revolt.
- Haiti is a founding member of the United Nations, Organization of American States (OAS) and Association of Caribbean States, and the International Francophonie Organisation.
- In addition to CARICOM, it is a member of the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
- The government of Haiti is a semi-presidential republic, a multiparty system wherein the president of Haiti is head of state elected directly by popular elections held every five years.
- Executive power is exercised by the president and prime minister who together constitute the government.
- The current structure of Haiti’s political system was set forth in the Constitution of Haiti on 29 March 1987.
Source: India today
