Haiti
Republic of Haiti
National name: République d'Haïti
President: Boniface Alexandre (interim) (2004)
Prime Minister: Gérard Latortue (interim) (2004)
Land area: 10,641 sq mi (27,560 sq km); total area: 10,714 sq mi (27,750 sq km)
Population (2006 est.): 8,308,504 (growth rate: 2.3%); birth rate: 36.4/1000; infant mortality rate: 71.7/1000; life expectancy: 53.2; density per sq mi: 781
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Port-au-Prince, 1,764,000 (metro. area), 1,119,000 (city proper)
Monetary unit: Gourde
Languages: Creole and French (both official)
Ethnicity/race: black 95%, mulatto and white 5%
Religions: Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), other 3%, none 1%. Note: roughly half the population practices Vaudou
Literacy rate: 53% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2004 est.): $12.05 billion; per capita $1,500. Real growth rate: –3.5%. Inflation: 22%. Unemployment: widespread unemployment and underemployment; more than two-thirds of the labor force do not have formal jobs (2002 est.). Arable land: 28%. Agriculture: coffee, mangoes, sugarcane, rice, corn, sorghum, wood. Labor force: 3.6 million; note: shortage of skilled labor, unskilled labor abundant (1995); agriculture 66%, services 25%, industry 9%. Industries: sugar refining, flour milling, textiles, cement, light assembly industries based on imported parts. Natural resources: bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble, hydropower. Exports: $338.1 million (f.o.b., 2004 est.): manufactures, coffee, oils, cocoa, mangoes. Imports: $1.085 billion (f.o.b., 2004 est.): food, manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, fuels, raw materials. Major trading partners: U.S., Dominican Republic, Canada, Colombia (2003).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 130,000 (2002); mobile cellular: over 140,000 (2002). Radio broadcast stations: AM 41, FM 26, shortwave 0 (1999). Television broadcast stations: 2 (plus a cable TV service) (1997). Internet hosts: n.a. Internet users: 80,000 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: n.a. Highways: n.a. Waterways: n.a. Ports and harbors: Cap-Haitien. Airports: 13 (2004 est.).
International disputes: since 2004, about 8,000 peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) maintain civil order in Haiti; despite efforts to control illegal migration, Haitians fleeing economic privation and civil unrest continue to cross into Dominican Republic and to sail to neighboring countries; Haiti claims US-administered Navassa Island.
Geography
Haiti, in the West Indies, occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. About the size of Maryland, Haiti is two-thirds mountainous, with the rest of the country marked by great valleys, extensive plateaus, and small plains.
Government
Republic with an elected government.
Honduras
Republic of Honduras
National name: República de Honduras
President: Manuel Zelaya (2006)
Land area: 43,201 sq mi (111,891 sq km); total area: 43,278 sq mi (112,090 sq km)
Population (2006 est.): 7,326,496 (growth rate: 2.2%); birth rate: 28.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 25.8/1000; life expectancy: 69.3; density per sq mi: 170
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Tegucigalpa, 1,436,000 (metro. area), 1,248,300 (city proper)
Monetary unit: Lempira
Languages: Spanish (official), Amerindian dialects; English widely spoken in business
Ethnicity/race: mestizo 90%, Amerindian 7%, black 2%, white 1%
Religions: Roman Catholic 97%, growing population of evangelical Protestants
Literacy rate: 76% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2004 est.): $18.79 billion; per capita $2,800. Real growth rate: 4.2%. Inflation: 7%. Unemployment: 28.5%. Arable land: 10%. Agriculture: bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp. Labor force: 2.47 million; agriculture 34%, industry 21%, services 45% (2001 est.). Industries: sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products. Natural resources: timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, hydropower. Exports: $1.457 billion (f.o.b., 2004 est.): coffee, shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, lumber. Imports: $3.332 billion (f.o.b., 2004 est.): machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs (2000). Major trading partners: U.S., El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico (2003).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 322,500 (2002); mobile cellular: 326,500 (2002). Radio broadcast stations: AM 241, FM 53, shortwave 12 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 11 (plus 17 repeaters) (1997). Internet hosts: ,944 (2003). Internet users: 168,600 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 699 km (2004). Highways: total: 13,603 km; paved: 2,775 km; unpaved: 10,828 km (1999 est.). Waterways: 465 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2004). Ports and harbors: Puerto Castilla, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela. Airports: 115 (2004 est.).
International disputes: in 1992, ICJ ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras border, but despite OAS intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full demarcation of the border remains stalled; the 1992 ICJ ruling advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca with consideration of Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not mentioned in the ICJ ruling, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca; Honduras claims Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize, but agreed to creation of a joint ecological park and Guatemalan corridor in the Caribbean in the failed 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum, which the OAS is attempting to revive; Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and against Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over a complex dispute over islands and maritime boundaries in the Caribbean Sea.
Geography
Honduras, in the north-central part of Central America, has a Caribbean as well as a Pacific coastline. Guatemala is to the west, El Salvador to the south, and Nicaragua to the east. The second-largest country in Central America, Honduras is slightly larger than Tennessee. Generally mountainous, the country is marked by fertile plateaus, river valleys, and narrow coastal plains.
Government
Democratic constitutional republic.
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