In an op-ed in the March 31 New York Times, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon announced economic development plans for Haiti based on the expansion of "free-trade zones" (FTZs), industrial parks for tax-exempt assembly plants producing for export (maquiladoras). Ban said this will enable Haiti to take advantage of 2008 US legislation known as HOPE II, which gives Haiti duty-free, quota-free access to US markets for nine years.

Former US president Bill Clinton and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Haiti on March 9 along with a large group of private investors for a 24-hour visit they said was aimed at increasing international aid for the country. Supporters of the Lavalas Family (FL) party of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996 and 2001-2004) held demonstrations to call for Clinton's help in arranging for Aristide, who has lived in South Africa since being removed from office in February 2004, to return to Haiti.

On March 14 the French government and the government of the French Caribbean department of Martinique signed an accord with the "Feb. 5 Collective" ending a general strike that had paralyzed the department since Feb. 5. The accord, which the parties had agreed to on March 11, meets a principal demand of the strikers: a raise of 200 euros a month (about $253) for low-wage workers, with smaller raises for other workers. Major business owners had agreed earlier to bring down prices on some 400 basic items by 20% one month after stores reopen. Negotiations are to continue until March 27 on 87 additional points, including pensions and water and agricultural issues.

A 44-day general strike in the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe ended with an agreement signed March 4 by representatives of the French government and the Collective Against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), which led the strike. In the Jacques Binot Accord—named for a union leader killed the night of Feb. 17—the LKP won its basic demand for a raise of 200 euros a month (now about $253) for low-wage workers. The agreement's 165 articles also cover a wide range of economic demands: reductions in charges for school meals, in bank rates, in the price of water and auto fuel; lower real estate taxes; a 20% reduction in bus fares between towns; a rent freeze; and a freeze on the price of a loaf of bread.

As of the morning of March 2 a general strike in the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe continued despite a preliminary agreement; Guadeloupe prefect Nicolas Desforges told the strikers that "you have to know to end a strike." The action, which began Jan. 20, is the longest general strike France has experienced in more than 20 years.

On the evening of Feb. 19 French president Nicholas Sarkozy met in Paris with elected officials from the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and promised to work to restore calm to the Caribbean island, which has been paralyzed by a general strike since Jan. 20. He also announced 580 million euros ($737 million) in aid for France's overseas departments, with emphasis on the Active Solidarity Revenue (RSA), a social welfare program.

On Feb. 16 Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) published its definitive list of candidates for the April 19 elections, which will fill 12 posts in the Senate. The lists did not include the candidates of the Lavalas Family (FL). The CEP had insisted that it needed official confirmation from the party's leader, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now living in South Africa, in order to confirm the FL's candidates. According to Maryse Narcisse, the leader of one of the party's rival factions, Aristide refused to sign documents before consuls appointed by people who forced him from power in 2004. (Haiti Support Group New Briefs, Feb. 17 from Reuters; AlterPresse, Feb. 17)

A US federal judge has placed 30,299 Haitians under final deportation orders, the US government announced the week of Feb. 16. The government suspended deportations of Haitians living in the US in September, after four tropical storms ravaged Haiti in one month, devastating crops and killing at least 800 people; the US resumed deportations in December. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau was only holding about 600 of the deportable Haitians as of Feb. 9; 243 others were being monitored with electronic ankle bracelets. The government says it expects the other Haitians with deportation orders to leave voluntarily. Otherwise, they will be sought by "fugitive alien teams," according to ICE spokesperson Barbara Gonzalez.