In 1992-93, its small freighters also ferried illegal immigrants into Miami. Despite the smuggling, it is safe. Jean Rabel is a tense town which was the site of a peasant massacre in July 1987. At least 150 died in the clash, said to have been engineered by local Duvalierist landlords seeking to crush the attempts of Catholic priests to organize landless peasants. From Jean Rabel round to Baie de Henne, the landscape is arid, windy and dusty.
Old people say they can remember when it was still green and forested.
Columbus first set foot on the island of Hispaniola at M le St Nicolas . It has several ruined forts built by the English and French. General Maitland s surrender of M le to Toussaint in 1798 marked the end of a five-year British bid to gain a toehold on this end of the island. Strategically located on the Windward Passage, just 120 km from Cuba, M le was long coveted as a naval base by the United States. The hinterland has Haiti s lowest rainfall and little grows.