Circle the area on this map
B. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the Caribbean Sea and second-largest in area after Cuba. U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico charged a Dominican man with smuggling. For decades, smugglers have attempted to navigate the tempestuous Mona Passage between Puerto Rico’s west coast and the Dominican Republic in fragile, poorly built boats packed with migrants.
D. Haiti by far is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Violent gangs control most of the country, with kidnappings up 180% and homicides up 17% in the past year. Haiti’s president was assassinated in July 2021, and as of March the nation had no president, no parliamentary quorum and dysfunctional courts.
B. Beginning in 2017, Puerto Rico was hit by three Category 5 hurricanes in three years. Those storms and others devastated the island, and wrecked the electrical power grid. Reconstruction is continuing, but it has been slow compared to storm repairs on the U.S. mainland. The island is still suffering power blackouts.
C. San Juan is the capital and most-populous city. It was founded in 1521 by Spanish colonists, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico, “rich port city.” Christopher Columbus originally named the island San Juan Bautista. Eventually, traders came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan became the name used for the city.