For decades, the mostly dirt-poor residents of the small island of Ile-a-Vache off Haiti’s south coast lived in anonymity, virtually ignored by the government and visited only by the most adventurous backpackers and yachters.
Then, in 2012, helicopters started dropping off big shots: Haitian President Michel Martelly, former US president Bill Clinton, ad agency models and photographers, tourism executives, and the likes of Madonna and Sean Penn.
Then last year came the surprise: The government claimed the 44.1km2 former pirate lair as “a public utility,” potentially stripping the isle’s 14,000 residents of their land to develop a tourist resort.
Photo: Reuters
“The local population was never consulted. It was a terrible shock,” said Jerome Genest, a community leader and member of the Organization of Ile-a-Vache Farmers (KOPI), which is fighting the project along with several other groups.
The Haitian government is now promoting Ile-a-Vache as an ecotourism project, key to its efforts to put the impoverished nation back on the Caribbean tourism map.
Fifty years ago, before it was swept by political turmoil, an HIV/AIDS epidemic and the 2010 earthquake, Haiti was a popular destination for the likes of Mick Jagger and Graham Greene, as well as the Clintons, who honeymooned there.
Photo: Reuters
In the interim it became a pariah for pleasure seekers, standing by enviously as the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico cornered the US$28 billion Caribbean tourism market.
The government’s vision for Ile-a-Vache is part of a larger master plan for the south coast.
Ile-a-Vache residents say they learned of the US$250 million project when it appeared on the Haitian Ministry of Tourism Web site last year. The plan includes 1,500 hotel rooms, villa resorts, another international airport and golf course.
Photo: Reuters
Government officials have since sought to allay the fears of residents, who are mostly fisherman and farmers. Only 5 percent of their homes — about 100 to 120 houses out of 2,000 — will be expropriated to make way for the project, Haitian Minister of Tourism Stephanie Villedrouin told reporters.
Some of the island’s pristine, nearly uninhabited beaches have been chosen for resort development and Villedrouin said that beach-front land that was not being used could also be seized.
“We need it to develop hotels and create jobs. It’s not like we are taking the whole island to build the hotels,” she said.
KOPI sees a contradiction between the sweep of the public utility claim and the ministry’s assertion that expropriations will be limited. Villedrouin said the decree was being revised to include a registry only of land inside the development area.
The government says it is seeking investors to put up US$200 million for the resorts and has already attracted interest.
“Haiti has unbelievable potential,” said Alex Zozaya, chief executive officer at Apple Leisure Group, a Caribbean tour operator and hotel investor.
He cited the value of its proximity to the US, saying: “It’s like the Seychelles without the jet lag” and that several major hotel brands have shown “very serious interest.”
Some land currently used for cattle grazing and growing crops will also be acquired for the plan.
Sourel Bito, 55, a father of nine children, said that one day, a local official planted a stick in the ground outside his house near the airport site where he grows potatoes and keeps two cows and two goats.
“They didn’t tell us why, they just came and told us not to move the stick,” Bito said .
A local prefect later told him that his house and 17 others in the vicinity had been singled out for expropriation.
Like many islanders, Bito said he is not against the tourism project as long as there is fair compensation for those whose land is expropriated. The government says that will be worked out by the state tax office and would depend on what the land is used for now and whether residents are up to date with property taxes, likely to be an issue for the many there who live a hand-to-mouth existence.
“They tell us tourism will be good for the island, but then they tell us to go elsewhere. If they like our beach, they will take it,” said fisherman Ilene Martier as he fixed his net in the village of Caille Coq, outside the development zone.
In the 17th century, British pirate Henry Morgan used Ile-a-Vache as a refuge and former US president Abraham Lincoln sent 450 newly freed slaves there in 1863 to found a colony, although most gave up and returned home a year later.
Today, sitting 8km off the mainland, Ile-a-Vache is little known among Haitians and rarely visited. Its postcard-perfect hills are dotted with cows and goats, while locally crafted sailboats fish for snapper and lobster, mostly for the hotels.
While Haiti plunged into turmoil after the fall of former Haitian president Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986, followed by years of military rule, flawed elections and gang violence, Ile-a-Vache was untouched.
“It’s not like the rest of Haiti. It’s very calm,” Ile-a-Vache Mayor Fritz Cezar said .
Islanders nevertheless say that the government has neglected them, providing no fresh water, paved roads or electricity, and few public services such as schools or healthcare. They say that is only the tourism potential that has made Port-au-Prince care now,
The government defends the project, pointing to US$45 million set aside for social infrastructure spending. Plans include drilling for fresh water, an undersea electricity cable, vocational training, agricultural assistance and a hospital. Money is also allocated for community farms, a center and a kitchen offering cheap meals.
In January, islanders began a series of peaceful protests. The government sent in a heavily armed special police unit, known as CIMO, who now patrols the area on motorbikes with automatic rifles and bullet-proof vests.
A popular policeman and community leader was jailed for participating in one protest, raising tensions. Prosecutors dredged up a year-old case, accusing him of a shooting incident at a rally in Port-au-Prince.
When Villedrouin arrived last week with Haitian Minister of Extreme Poverty Marie-Carmelle Rose-Anne Auguste to meet with residents, they were told that the islanders would not discuss the development plan until the public utility decree was lifted, the special police removed and the incarcerated policeman freed.
The government has hinted of dark forces behind the protests.
“There is a hidden hand that doesn’t want to support any development,” Villedrouin said, adding that drug dealers are suspected of stirring up anti-government sentiment.
While Jamaican dealers are not uncommon on Haiti’s south coast, Ile-a-Vache has almost no crime, residents say.
Genest, 40, who runs a youth education and soccer program, was offended by Villedrouin’s suggestion that they are in league with drug traffickers.
“There’s no truth to it at all. What is worse is that we have met with her four times and she has never mentioned it,” he said.
Port-au-Prince started building the island’s first road, running the 12.9km length of the island, but work stopped abruptly in January when residents dug trenches in the road’s intended path and blocked it with the massive trunks of palm trees dug up by construction crews.
The owners of the two main hotels on the island are anxious for the project to continue.
“We need to be on the map,” said Didier Boulard, manager and co-owner of Port Morgan, a boutique hotel at Caille Coq.
Without an airport, he said tourists have to drive almost five hours from the capital and then cross from the mainland by boat.
While preoccupied with exploiting “the last virgin island in the Antilles,” Boulard said its fate is part of a larger pathos.
“You can’t just fix the island for tourism. You have to find water, electricity, build schools, educate the people,” he said.
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