The Little Havana-Little Haiti violence occurred in 1986 in Miami, Florida, United States when Haitian immigrants and Cuban immigrants engaged in a spree of violent fight against each other. The violence began after Haitian gang lord Martin Lajoie was killed at the funeral of his predecessor by a Cuban gangster, and the two neighborhoods engaged in a fierce rivalry for the rest of the year. Dozens of people, including police and innocent bystanders, were killed in the rivalry between Little Haiti and Little Havana.
Background[]
Some Haitians making a drug deal with the Sharks gang
In the 1980s, waves of immigrants came from Cuba and Haiti, two island nations in the Caribbean Sea whose dictatorships ruled over poor nations with low standards of living. In 1980, the Mariel Boatlift saw thousands of Cubans come to the United States on boats after Fidel Castro opened up the harbor, and the Cuban refugees established their own community in the Little Havana neighborhood of Downtown Miami. Meanwhile, people fleeing the harsh rule of Jean-Claude Duvalier moved to Little Haiti, which was a run-down neighborhood with almost no law. The Haitians and Cubans formed their own gangs, with the Haitians wearing blue shirts and white pants while the Cubans wore white shirts with red dots and blue pants. The Cubans and Haitians, living in neighboring areas, developed a fierce rivalry as the two poor Caribbean communities fought against each other.
History[]
Conflict[]
Some Haitian gangsters walking on a sidewalk at night
A policeman intervening in a firefight between Cubans and Haitians
The rivalry broke out after Haitian community leader Martin Lajoie was killed at the funeral of the previous Haitian gang leader, with the Cubans being blamed for his assassination. Real estate prices tumbled as a result of the gang war that started, and it became a common sight to witness Haitian and Cuban gangsters shoot at each other, as well as to see Haitian or Cuban gangsters walk down the streets in groups. The police were not commonly found in Little Haiti, which was so run-down that the Haitian gangsters were the real law enforcement in the neighborhood. In Little Havana, however, there was police intervention, and the Miami Police Department would interfere in some of the firefights. However, the police could not prevent these incidents from occurring, and they could do nothing but attempt to stop the shooting once it had begun.
Cuban assault[]
The fight at the Haitian factory
The Cuban community leader Umberto Robina, who was the head of the Los Cabrones gang, made contact with Tommy Vercetti, a rising player in the Miami drug trade who had taken over Ricardo Diaz's operation after killing him at his mansion. Vercetti was recruited by Robina for a massive attack against the Haitians in retaliation for their murder of a few of Robina's close friends, and Vercetti led a force of several Cubans from Robina's cafe to an alleyway in Little Haiti where the Haitians had a narcotics factory. They attacked the Haitians there, and Haitian sniper Julien Cuvillier killed a few Cubans; the Cubans called for reinforcements from the cafe, and more Cuban gangsters arrived. Vercetti used his M16 to kill several Haitian gangsters as they left the factory to attack the Cubans, and because the factory was impenetrable, Vercetti instead stole a Haitian van filled with drugs and took it back to the cafe, delivering it to Robina. After this job, Robina decided to sent Vercetti to crash a deal between Streetwannabes and Haitians at a dockyard, and Vercetti used an RPG-7 to destroy two boats and used a carbine to gun down all of the gangsters at the deal. He took the drugs from the Haitians, and he proceeded to escape in a car and return to Robina at the cafe with the Haitian drugs, and the quick naval encounter was a Cuban victory.
Haitian counterattack[]
The Haitians and Cubans brawling
Auntie Poulet decided to turn the tide of the war by using her voodoo mind-altering medicines to coerce Vercetti into working for her, as he was drugged into "remembering" smells and sights from childhood and working for Auntie Poulet without thinking twice. He helped her in recovering drug stashes before the police could seize them, bringing the cocaine back to Auntie Poulet's shack in Little Haiti. Vercetti was then sent to use a remote-controlled plane to bomb three fast boats that the Cubans used to smuggle cocaine across the seas, and he also used the plane to bomb a fleeing Cuban in his car. The final job that Auntie Poulet gave to Vercetti was intervening in a melee brawl between the Haitians and Cubans, as neither side was permitted to have guns. Vercetti used a sniper rifle to pick off the Cubans and assist the Haitians in the fight, and he later discovered that the Cubans were also cheating, as one of them wielded a katana sword. After this event, Auntie Poulet told him that she was done with him, and that he would no longer be welcome in Little Haiti.
Destruction of the Haitian solvent factory[]
The bombing of the drug factory
Unaware of Vercetti's subconscious betrayal, Robina decided to ask Vercetti to take out the Haitians, sending him to hijack a Haitian Voodoo car and meet up with other Cubans to infiltrate the factory. The Cubans drove Voodoo cars into the factory, and they were let through the gates by the Haitians, who believed that they had been employed by their gang. However, the Cubans covered Vercetti as he killed all of the Haitians in their solvent factory, and he planted three bombs in the factory. Vercetti and the Cubans fled on the rooftops of nearby buildings and reached a safe distance, and the bombs destroyed the factory in a series of explosions, exacerbated by the flammable solvent materials. Robina phoned Vercetti after the attack, telling him that him and his father saw Vercetti as a "Cuban", meaning a member of their gang.
Continued violence[]
Vercetti gunning down several Haitians
The Haitian drug factory's destruction was the last major action of the war, but violence still continued on the streets. When Tommy Vercetti purchased Kaufman Cabs, he hired a sizeable outfit of security guards to defend his business, and they often came into conflict with the Haitian gangsters in the Little Haiti neighborhood. In addition to fighting the Vercetti Gang, the Haitians continued to clash with Haitians in Little Havana and on the border of the two neighborhoods, and several scores of people were killed in the violence between the Cubans and Haitians.