Caracol ( ht, Karakòl) is a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Trou-du-Nord Arrondissement
Trou-du-Nord ( ht, Twou dinò) is an arrondissement in the Nord-Est department of Haiti. As of 2015, the population was 115,000 inhabitants. Postal codes in the Trou-du-Nord Arrondissement start with the number 23.
The arrondissement consists o ...
, in the
Nord-Est department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
. It has 6,236 inhabitants.
Caracol Industrial Park
Background
Prior to the 2010 earthquake,
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
was named special envoy to Haiti by UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-Moon
Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Minister ...
, whose connections with the
South Korean company
Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd The Sae-A Trading Company, Ltd., usually called Sae-A Trading or simply Sae-A ( ko, 세아), is a global clothing manufacturer in South Korea.
About
Sae-A's headquarters is located in Gangnam-gu of South Korea, and the factories producing its pro ...
were later put to work in the planning of the park.
On May 24, 2010, the Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) was signed into US law, ensuring preferential tariffs for Haitian-produced garments. On October 22, 2012
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
gave the keynote speech as acting US Secretary of State for the opening of the industrial park.
Projections
The anchor tenant is S & H Global, S.A, a subsidiary of Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd., a global
clothing manufacturer headquartered in South Korea.
It began operations in the fall of 2012; a work force of 20,000 was projected for that year.
The eventual workforce was projected to approach 60,000 by 2017 and ultimately 100,000 workers.
This would result in an estimated tenfold expansion of population in the area to about 300,000 from its present 30,000. Social and environmental disruption was anticipated as the result of this hastily planned project.
Construction
In 2012 the Caracol Industrial Park was built on a square mile, 600 acre, 252 hectare site near Caracol over a former
labor camp
A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
used by
United States Marines
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...
during the
United States occupation of Haiti
The United States occupation of Haiti began on July 28, 1915, when 330 U.S. Marines landed at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the National City Bank of New York convinced the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, to take control of ...
.
The facility has some of the best constructed infrastructure in Haiti.
The $300 million project, which was to include a 10-megawatt power plant, road, a water-treatment plant, worker housing in neighboring communities, and development of a port in nearby
Fort-Liberté
Fort-Liberté ( ht, Fòlibète) is a commune and administrative capital of the Nord-Est department of Haiti. It is close to the border of the Dominican Republic and is one of the oldest cities in the country. Haiti's independence was proclaimed ...
, was built with hurricane relief funds, a loan from the
Inter-American Development Bank
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and serving as the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribb ...
,
contributions by the United States government, and the
Clinton Foundation
The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was e ...
.
As of 2013, 1.7 of the projected 10 megawatts were being supplied by the power plant.
Results
Since its opening, factory conditions have become a source of significant criticism, particularly concerning living wages and housing.
Although the minimum wage was raised over US Embassy, US AID, and US State Department opposition, garment factories across the country, including at Caracol Industrial Park, were not applying the law in late 2013.
The numbers of those employed was much smaller than estimated, with only 5,479 full-time employees in 2017, with investments for the park costing about $55,000 USD per job, thirty times 2,900% more than annual salary of each worker.
In April 2019, 13,000 people were employed at the Caracol industrial Park. At this time, S&H Global decided not to expand their production capacity in Haiti as they had planned. According to ''Haïti Libre'', beyond management and security problems, this was most likely due to a
lower house
A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...
vote approving a 78.5% increase in the Haitian minimum wage for workers in the sector. At the same time, the Interamerican Development Bank decided to withdraw a $31 million pledge made in 2015 for expansion of the site.
Communal Sections
The commune consists of two
communal section
The communal section (french: section communale, formerly section rurale) is the smallest administrative division in Haiti. The 144 communes are further divided into 571 communal sections.
Operation
It is headed by an executive body, the CASEC ...
s, namely:
*
Champin, urban and rural, containing the town of Caracol
*
Glaudine or "Jacquesil", rural
References
External links
Slide show of Caracol Industrial Park in ''The Miami Herald''
{{Authority control
Populated places in Nord-Est (department)
Communes of Haiti