Bel Air, Haiti

Bel Air (Haitian Creole: Bèlè, English: Good Air) is a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It is a slum area of the city and suffers from poverty. Crime is widespread, and kidnappings and killings have created panic among the local population.[1] The neighborhood is also noted for housing a community of artists and craftsmen who produce inspired by Haitian Vodou, such as flags.[2][3]

This article is about the neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. For the neighborhood in Los Angeles, see Bel Air, Los Angeles. For redirect-distinguish, see Bèlè. For Bele (disambiguation), see Bélé.
Bel Air

Bèlè
Neighborhood
Ti Chery, Bel Air
Bel Air
Location in Haiti
Coordinates: 18°33′N 72°20′W
Country Haiti
DepartmentOuest
ArrondissementPort-au-Prince

History

Bel Air has served as a launching site for political demonstrations demanding the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In recent years it has been marred by political violence and massacres by police.[4]

In the late 19th century, Bel Air was the preferred place of settlement for British West Indian migrants to Haiti, the largest group of which were Jamaicans.[5]

U.S. marines in Bel Air in April 2004.

On January 5, 2005 an uprising broke out and was suppressed by hundreds of Brazilian soldiers and special units of the Haitian National Police.[4] Five persons were reported to have been killed.[4] The trouble in the Bel Air area of the city was seen by the authorities as a major threat to the safety of the 2005 elections in Haiti.

The 2010 earthquake destroyed numerous buildings in Bel Air.

The neighborhood was the most devastated area of Port-au-Prince after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[6]

Crime

At the end of 2011, the murder rate in Bel Air reached 50 murders per 100,000 residents, up from 19 murders per 100,000 residents in 2010.[7]

References
  1. UNICEF
  2. Miller, Debra; Gorry, Conner (2005). Caribbean Islands. Lonely Planet. p. 252. ISBN 9781741040555.
  3. Nou La, We Here: Remembrance and Power in the Arts of Haitian Vodou. 2007. p. 125. ISBN 9780549453369.
  4. "UN occupies Bel Air in Haiti". Haitaction.net. Archived from the original on 22 January 2010. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  5. Smith, Matthew J. (2014-10-20). Liberty, Fraternity, Exile: Haiti and Jamaica after Emancipation. UNC Press Books. pp. 216–217. ISBN 9781469617985.
  6. Fome e sede fazem violência aumentar em Porto Príncipe no Haiti Archived 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine (in Portuguese), Correio da Bahia. Retrieved on January 20, 2010.
  7. "Haiti’s Urban Crime Wave? Results from Monthly Household Surveys August 2011 - February 2012", Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Igarape. Kolbe, Athena R & Muggah, Robert (2012), p.4.


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