President Francois Hollande arrived in Haiti on Tuesday. He is the second French president to visit the country since it won independence in 1804. Hollande acknowledged that France has a moral debt with the Caribbean nation but stopped short of saying his country would pay back an outrageous sum that former slaves were forced to pay as compensation to their slaveholders –– a sum that would amount to US$20 billion today. Hollande instead promised to support Haiti’s development by investing US$145 million. In addition to struggling with its bitter colonial legacy, the island nation is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake that caused the deaths of 200,000 people. teleSUR
