Q 154 BBC hotel article

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37826098

 

US election 2016: What really happened with the Clintons in Haiti?

 

By Jude Sheerin BBC News, Washington

 

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Media captionHaiti protesters blame the Clintons for a litany of ills in their mother country

Donald Trump has said the work of Bill and Hillary Clinton in Haiti was a "disgrace". What really happened?

 

"The Clinton family, they are crooks, they are thieves, they are liars," says Haitian activist Dahoud Andre.

 

He has been leading protests outside the Clinton Foundation headquarters in Manhattan and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign base in Brooklyn for the last two years.

 

He said protesters from his small activist group, the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti, will continue to level their allegations - so far all unproven - if the Democratic candidate wins the White House.

 

Haiti honeymoon

 

UN special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton (C) talks with an NGO worker in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 6 October 2010Image copyright AP

Image caption The Clinton Foundation has raised more than $2bn since its launch in 2001

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump raised the matter in the third and final presidential debate when he told Mrs Clinton: "I was at a Little Haiti the other day in Florida.

 

"And I want to tell you, they hate the Clintons, because what's happened in Haiti with the Clinton Foundation is a disgrace."

 

Mrs Clinton retorted that she was proud of the foundation's work, and pointed out her rival's namesake charity had spent money on a lifesize portrait of himself.

 

The Clintons' history with the world's first black republic dates back to their 1975 honeymoon, when they met a voodoo priest and visited a hotel where Ernest Hemingway once stayed.

 

A platoon of US paratroopers inserted by helicopters secures the heavily damaged presidential palace in Port-au-Prince January 19, 2010.Image copyright AFP

Image caption The January 2010 earthquake killed an estimated 220,000 people

Few could have guessed the two young Americans touring the attractions that December would one day wield such influence over the impoverished Caribbean island nation.

 

Mr Andre is not alone among his compatriots in blaming the once-and-perhaps-future first couple for a litany of ills in Haiti.

 

Kim Ives, editor of Haiti Liberte newspaper, told the BBC: "A lot of Haitians are not big fans of the Clintons, that's for sure."

 

Bill Clinton and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the grand opening of the Caracol Industrial Park in Caracol, Haiti, on 22 October 2012Image copyright AFP

Image caption Bill and Hillary Clinton at the grand opening of the Caracol Industrial Park four years ago

"The fact the Clintons kind of took over things after the earthquake and did a pretty poor job of it translates to why the Haitians have a pretty dim view of them," he added.

 

Replicated mistakes

 

Mrs Clinton was Secretary of State and Mr Clinton was UN Special Envoy to Haiti when the January 2010 earthquake struck, killing an estimated 220,000 people.

 

Some $13.3bn (£10.9bn) was pledged by international donors for Haiti's recovery.

 

Mr Clinton was appointed co-chairman of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), along with Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.

 

Hillary Clinton and Haitian President Michel Martelly at Caracol Industrial Park in October 2012