After the coup in 2004, the United Nations intervened to stabilize the situation in the country. In 2010, Haiti suffered a catastrophic earthquake, followed by a deadly outbreak of cholera. Due to the deteriorating economic situation, the country has experienced a socio-economic and political crisis marked by riots and protests, widespread famine and increased gang activity. As of May 2024, Haiti has no elected government officials left and has been described as a failed state.
Haiti is a founding member of the United Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Association of Caribbean States, and the International Organization of la Francophonie. In addition to CARICOM, it is a member of the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. Historically poor and politically unstable, Haiti has the lowest human development index in the Americas.
From the history of Haiti
Haiti comes from the indigenous Taino language and means "country of high mountains"; it was the original name for the entire island of Hispaniola ("Spanish Island" from Spanish isla española). The name was restored by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines as the official name of the independent San Domingo, as a tribute to the predecessors of the Indians.
The island of Haiti, three-eighths of which is occupied by Haiti, was settled about 6,000 years ago by Native Americans who are believed to have arrived from Central or Northern South America. It is believed that these people, who lived in the Paleolithic era, were mainly hunter-gatherers. In the 1st millennium BC, the ancestors of the Taino people, who spoke the Arawak language, began to migrate to the Caribbean Sea. Unlike the archaic peoples, they were engaged in intensive pottery production and agriculture. The earliest evidence of the existence of the ancestors of the Taino people in Hispaniola is the Ostionoid culture, which dates back to about 600 AD.
In the Taino society, the largest cell of the political organization was led by a cacique, or leader, as they were understood by Europeans. At the time of contact with Europe, the island of Hispaniola was divided between five "caciques": Magua in the northeast, Marien in the northwest, Jaragua in the southwest, Maguana in the central regions of Cibao and Higuey in the southeast.