In 2012 the Caracol Industrial Park was built on a square mile, 600 acre, 252 hectare site near Caracol. The $300 million project, which was to include a 10-megawatt power plant, road, a water-treatment plant, worker housing in neighboring communities, and development of a port in nearby Fort-Liberté, was built with hurricane relief funds, a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank, contributions by the United States government, and the Clinton Foundation. As of 2013, 1.7 of the projected 10 megawatts were being supplied by the power plant. In April 2019, 13,000 people were employed at the Caracol industrial Park. At this time, S&H Global decided not to expand their production capacity in Haiti as they had planned. According to Haïti Libre, beyond management and security problems, this was most likely due to a lower house vote approving a 78.5% increase in the Haitian minimum wage for workers in the sector. At the same time, the Interamerican Development Bank decided to withdraw a $31 million pledge made in 2015 for expansion of the site.
Background
Prior to the 2010 earthquake, Bill Clinton was named special envoy to Haiti by UN Secretary GeneralBan Ki-Moon, whose connections with the South Korean company Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd were later put to work in the planning of the park. On May 24, 2010, the Haiti Economic Lift Program was signed into US law, ensuring preferential tariffs for Haitian-produced garments. On October 22, 2012 Hillary Clinton gave the keynote speech as acting US Secretary of State for the opening of the industrial park. The anchor tenant is S & H Global, S.A, a subsidiary of Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd., a global clothing manufacturer headquartered in South Korea. It began operations in the fall of 2012; a work force of 20,000 was projected. The eventual workforce was projected to approach 65,000 and result in a tenfold expansion of population in the area to about 300,000 from its present 30,000. Social and environmental disruption is anticipated as the result of this hastily planned project. Since that time, factory conditions have become a source of significant criticism, particularly concerning living wages and housing. Although the minimum wage was raised over US Embassy, US AID, and US State Department opposition, garment factories across the country, including at Caracol Industrial Park, were not applying the law in late 2013.
Communal Sections
The commune consists of two communal sections, namely:
Champin, urban and rural, containing the town of Caracol
