In efforts to subdue Cité Soleil, a slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, of 300,000 people, the US has spent $2 million to bolster the main police station and UN troop base, which will include an anti-riot counter-insurgency unit, as well as two other outposts. The country has been under UN occupation since Canada, the US, and France overthrew the democratically-elected Fanmi Lavalas government in February 2004.
To complete the base's expansion, US military contractor DynCorp bulldozed 78 houses, without consultation or compensation. The destruction of homes enraged residents of Cité Soleil, which is a stronghold of resistance to the occupation, and which has also been subjected to lethal incursions and house raids at the hands of the occupation forces since the 2004 coup.
A week after the inauguration of the new police station, on April 6th, protests were held against André Apaid's presence in the neighourhood. Apaid is a Haitian sweatshop boss tied to the forces that ousted Fanmi Lavalas, and his factories are subcontracted by Canadian t-shirt company Gildan Activewear, the largest private employer in Haiti. By the end of the day, the situation had escalated into street gun battles. On April 7th, the following day, the police and the UN occupation forces drove armoured vehicles around the neighbourhood in a show of force.
Senatorial elections are set to take place in Haiti this Sunday, April 19, but no candidates from Fanmi Lavalas, the most popular political party in the coutry, have been allowed to run.