January 22, 2006: The capital, with two million inhabitants, has a high concentration of gangs and criminal activities in the Cite Soleil neighborhood, the poorest part of town, with a population of about half a million. The inability of the UN peacekeepers, or the police, to control Cite Soleil, means that the drug trade thrives, by providing a transit point for drugs coming from South America into the United States. Cite Soleil has also become a home base for kidnapping gangs, that are now grabbing about ten people a day.
January 20, 2006: With a population of some eight million, Haiti has only 6,000 police, and 8,000 UN peacekeepers to try and maintain order. There is no order. Over a hundred gangs, and over 10,000 armed gangsters, control most of the country on a day-to-day basis. The gangs are expected to be a major influence on the voting during the February 7 elections.
January 17, 2006: Two UN peacekeepers were killed, and another wounded, in the capital, when their checkpoint was fired on.
January 10, 2006: Two dozen Haitians were killed while being smuggled into the Dominican Republic. This led to riots in Haiti over the next few days, and some more deaths. Haitian workers are desperate to get across the border to work, but the Dominicans are trying to keep them out, in order to preserve jobs for Dominicans.
