Workers at Nationale Communication (Natcom), a Haitian telephone company, began striking in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area early in the week of April 11 to demand a full 36 months' salary in compensation for their impending layoffs. Dozens of workers occupied Natcom offices in Delmas in the north of the capital and in Pétionville, a wealthy suburb to the southeast.

A federal jury in El Paso, Texas, acquitted Cuban-born former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "asset" Luis Posada Carriles of 11 counts of fraud and obstruction of justice on April 8, handing US prosecutors their latest defeat in a case that dates back to Posada's illegal entry into the US in 2005. The judge in the case, US district judge Kathleen Cardone, threw out one set of immigration fraud charges in 2007; two years later, US prosecutors filed the new set of charges based on Posada's allegedly lying to immigration officers about his terrorist activities in the past.

On April 5, five days late, Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced the preliminary results from the March 20 presidential and legislative runoff elections. According to the official count, popular singer Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky," Peasant Response) defeated Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP) by 67.57% to 31.74% in the race for president. Turnout was reported at 23%, about the same as in the first round, on Nov. 28, although Martelly claims it was 30%. The CEP is to announce the final results on April 16, and the new president takes office on May 14.

Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd, South Korea's leading apparel manufacturer, is pushing ahead with plans to open a large garment assembly plant next March near the coastal village of Caracol in Haiti's Northeast department. The firm, which supplies garments to such major US retailers as Target, Wal-Mart, Kohl's and GAP, claims the factory will create 20,000 jobs paying at least four times the average Haitian's share of the annual gross domestic product (GDP)—which would work out to a wage of about $8 a day for the factory workers. The operation is to include the country's first facility for producing textiles, a knit and dyeing mill which will use some 6,000 tons of ground water a day.

The number of displaced Haitians living in camps in the Port-au-Prince area after the destruction of their homes in a January 2010 earthquake has now fallen to about 680,000, according to estimates by the International Organization for Migration (IOM, or OIM in French). In July about 1.5 million people were living in 1,555 camps in the metropolitan area, the IOM reported; the number of camps has come down to 1,061. But a survey of 1,033 heads of households found that the people who left the camps haven't necessarily found better shelter: about 50% are still living in inadequate housing. Most are staying in tents in their old neighborhoods, while some are staying with relatives or friends. Others have gone back to their damaged homes, despite the risks involved. An IOM report found that while some people moved out of the camps because they managed to get transitional housing, many left because of forced expulsions, the deterioration of sanitary conditions, the high rate of crime in the camps or the reduction of services there.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a US civil and human rights organization, wrote the US Justice Department's Civil Rights Division on March 10 asking the agency to conclude an ongoing investigation of alleged abuses by the Puerto Rican police and to publish its findings. The ACLU said that its Puerto Rican branch has been reporting these allegations to the Justice Department since around May 2008. The letter, signed by ACLU executive director Anthony Romero and addressed to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, follows through on the organization's decision in February to make the situation in Puerto Rico "a high priority."

Observers said Haiti's March 20 presidential and legislative runoff elections were relatively calm, at least in comparison to the chaotic first round on Nov. 28. A number of polling places in the capital opened hours late, apparently because the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 13,000-member military and police occupation force, failed to get voting materials to them on time. In some cases voters held spontaneous protests over the delays. There were also a few armed confrontations: two people were killed and three were wounded in electoral disputes, one at Marre Rouge, Northwest department, and the other at Marchand Dessalines, in the North department's Artibonite region.

A coalition of Puerto Rican feminist organizations held a march in San Juan on March 8, International Women's Day, from the Labor Department building to the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), the site of months of student protests against an $800 tuition surcharge. The marchers held a rally when they reached the campus, with an artistic presentation and various speeches. Adriana Mulero, a leader in the student protests, charged that conservative governor Luis Fortuño had worked against women's rights with his austerity program, which she had left many women heads of households without jobs. She also dismissed "Man's Promise," a program Fortuño has promoted as a way to end domestic violence, as reinforcing male stereotypes.