Sud Department
Sud's southern coast—Haiti's third city Les Cayes—descends from Pétion's 1806-1820 republic, now battered by hurricanes (Matthew 2016: 500 dead, 80% crops destroyed) in accelerating climate cycles.
Sud exists as Haiti's southern coastal department, stretching along the Caribbean from Nippes to Sud-Est. Its capital, Les Cayes, is Haiti's third-largest city and the southern commercial hub—a port that once exported coffee, cacao, and logwood during the colonial era. The department occupies the southern coast of the peninsula that Grand'Anse caps to the west.
Sud shares the southern peninsula's hurricane vulnerability with Grand'Anse and Nippes. Hurricane Matthew in October 2016 made landfall near Les Cayes with 145 mph winds, killing over 500 people and destroying 80% of crops. The department's economy—fishing, agriculture, and small-scale manufacturing—collapsed. Rebuilding took years and remains incomplete.
Sud's history parallels Haiti's fractures: it was part of the southern republic under Alexandre Pétion while Henri Christophe ruled the north (1806-1820). The departmental boundaries fossilize that split. Sud, Ouest, Grand'Anse, and Nippes descend from Pétion's southern territory; Nord, Nord-Est, and Nord-Ouest from Christophe's northern kingdom. The civil war ended in 1820, but the administrative divisions persist two centuries later.
By 2025, Sud remains one of Haiti's poorest departments, dependent on agriculture that hurricanes destroy every few years. Gang violence hasn't reached Sud at the intensity seen in Port-au-Prince or Artibonite, but Les Cayes acts as a southern node for trafficking and commerce that gangs could exploit.
By 2026, Sud faces the pattern all coastal departments share: climate change increases hurricane intensity, rebuilding capacity decreases, and each storm resets progress to zero. The department survives through disturbance-adapted resilience, but each cycle depletes capital.