CONSIDERATIONS ON EXTERNAL DEBT AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN HAITI

Abstract

After the Haitian revolution that took place in the late 19th century, more precisely in the year 1804, France as a former colony forced Haiti to pay compensation to recognize its independence. This indemnity took more than a century to be paid, as its value corresponded to ten years of Haiti's tax revenue, at that time, with that indemnity ended up creating debts, since Haiti had to borrow to pay it . Today we have a Haitian society where 60% of the population is living in urgent conditions, with less than $ 2 a day. There is another portion of the population, about 25%, more impoverished who are living in conditions of extreme urgency, with less than $ 1 a day. These data show that Haiti today is one of the poorest countries in the world and the poorest in Latin America, as the Haitian state is not able to meet the basic needs of the most needy population. Therefore, in this work, we sought to understand whether there is a relationship between the external debt and underdevelopment in Haiti. In this sense, understanding that the fiscal capacity of the State, the capacity of national defense, the strength of public institutions and the capacity of the State to promote democracy are key factors for development, the impact of debts in these state segments was analyzed. We understand that there is a possible relationship, considering the negative impacts it had on the country's tax revenues.