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Short History on Haiti

Via Wikipedia

Haiti is the world’s oldest black republic and the second-oldest republic in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States. Although Haiti actively assisted the independence movements of many Latin American countries – and secured a promise from the great liberator, Simón Bolívar, that he would free their slaves after winning independence from Spain – the nation of former slaves was excluded from the hemisphere’s first regional meeting of independent nations, held in Panama in 1826. Furthermore, owing to entrenched opposition from Southern slave states, Haiti did not receive U.S. diplomatic recognition until 1862 (after those states had seceded from the Union) – largely through the efforts of anti-slavery senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.

Earthquake Aftermath

Via CNN

(CNN) — The powerful earthquake that rocked Haiti “destroyed” much of Port-au-Prince, the country’s first lady reported, as the widespread devastation in the country’s teeming capital came into full view Wednesday as dawn broke.

“We talked with the first lady of Haiti last night, at least our consulate general in Miami did,” Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the United States, told CNN’s American Morning, referring to Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour.

“And she said that she was all right and the president {Rene Preval] was all right, and most government officials were all right because this thing happened after hours, and most of the government buildings that have collapsed, collapsed after the employees were out.”

But “the bad news is that she said most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed, and she’s calling for some help in the form of a hospital ship off the coast of Port-au-Prince, just in the same way that the United States had helped us in 2008 after four hurricanes hit Haiti in three weeks.”

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