Fifty years ago, a leaky sailboat crowded with Haitian people drifted ashore in Florida launching waves of Haitian migration across the ocean. I was only 15 years old then, living a comfortable life in Port-au-Prince. But, soon, three of my close friends were arrested and beaten for opposing the Duvalier dictatorship, and one came out with a broken leg. By age 16, I got on a Miami-bound boat. In those days, the United States supported the Duvalier regime. Later, it supported other anti-democratic Haitian leaders — which fostered catastrophes in Haiti and produced new waves of migration to the United States.
What’s behind Haitian migrant crisis: U.S. policy | Miami Herald
