Haiti: Forcible eviction of peasant families, Artibonite

In 2004, 1200 Haitian peasant families were violently evicted from their lands in the Artibonite department. The families received the lands from the State in 1997 in the framework of the agrarian reform, and have lived and worked there ever since. After Aristide’s term in office, the Prime Minister of the transition Government stated that the agrarian reform was not a priority for him. Then, some local landowners sent gunmen to invade 4 of the 17 land lots that had been redistributed. Likewise, 588 families lost the lands that they were given by the Government in 2004 in the municipality of L’Estère. Today evicted families live in a precarious situation and do not have adequate housing or access to resources to feed themselves.