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Haiti occupies the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. A colony of Spain and then of France, in 1804 it was the first ethnic black state and the first Caribbean country to become independent. Democracy did not materialize with the exile of the dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986. Since then, a series of coups, US military intervention, and popular uprisings have resulted in periodic anarchy and endemic poverty.