Overview:
Angie Bell, a younger cultural organizer turned mayor, is main Cap-Haïtien by means of political chaos, a sanitation disaster, and scarce sources. With neighborhood assist and household recommendation, she’s cleansing up town and defying expectations—regardless of fierce political assaults.
CAP-HAÏTIEN — Though Angie Bell was battling a cussed chilly in October, her spirit shone brightly contained in the cream-and-gold room at Cap-Haïtien’s Metropolis Corridor. She smiled typically and chuckled between coughs — a softness that stood in sharp distinction to the load of the job she holds.
“If the load will get too heavy, I’ll simply drop all the pieces on the ground,” Bell, 40, mentioned, laughing throughout an interview with The Haitian Instances.
Nevertheless, Bell is now within the scorching seat. As a brand new, younger mayor in certainly one of Haiti’s most politically turbulent durations, she faces the practically not possible process of tackling Cap-Haïtien’s pressing issues—overcrowding, flooding and overflowing trash—with out entry to authorities funds. Haiti has not held native elections in years, and like many cities, Cap-Haïtien is being run by an unelected, government-appointed municipal cartel. The following normal elections, together with mayoral races, are scheduled for August 2026.
Bell has but to signal the executive paperwork that might unlock funding from the central authorities, forcing Metropolis Corridor to function on a fractured, unpredictable price range. That paralysis has left Haiti’s second-largest metropolis—whose inhabitants has practically tripled to 700,000 within the final 15 years because of the 2010 earthquake, gang displacement, and job migration—scuffling with restricted sources, at the same time as residents demand fundamental municipal companies like cleaner streets and higher drainage.
“I’m not wired,” Bell mentioned. “After I see an issue, I consider an answer… I’ll do what I can as a result of I can’t do what I can’t do.”
When Bell took over as mayor in August 2025, she stepped right into a metropolis crumbling below its personal weight: overcrowded streets, garbage-filled canals, fixed flooding, and a inhabitants that had surged as individuals fled gang violence in Port-au-Prince. Bell says her focus now could be easy: clear town to draw extra vacationers.
“We’re going to sit down all the way down to see how we will clear up the trash downside,” Bell mentioned.
“The supplies which can be damaged we’re going to see how we will get them fastened. We’re going to offer all the pieces we’ve got to see what we will do.”
Bell was appointed to the three‑particular person municipal cartel, changing former mayor Yvrose Pierre, who had struggled to maintain up with Cap‑Haïtien’s rising sanitation disaster. She now serves alongside Patrick Almonor, a holdover from the earlier cartel, and Isaac Pierre‑Louis.
Bell’s early transfer to make Okap “bèl”
The younger mayor is thought for founding Poubèl Ayiti, an environmental motion selling cleanliness in Cap-Haïtien, which is one cause why she was chosen to switch Pierre. She has additionally been an organizer of cultural occasions, a background some argue makes her a pure match to steer Haiti’s historic northern metropolis.
Bell’s cartel crew has cleaned a number of areas beforehand identified for accumulating giant piles of trash. After the cleansing, Bell positioned city corridor guards in a few of these areas to stop residents from dumping rubbish once more.
Dozens of trash bins have been put in below Bell’s management. She additionally launched Samdi Sitwayen (Citizen Saturday), offering brooms, wheelbarrows and baggage for residents to scrub their neighborhoods on the final Saturday of every month.
Bell has injected a burst of youthful power and urgency into Metropolis Corridor, residents say, serving to Cap‑Haïtien make early steps towards digging out of its lengthy‑standing issues regardless of the broader political turmoil.
As a result of Bell nonetheless can’t obtain funds from the capital’s monetary governing physique with out the required administrative signature, she has relied on a konbit — Haiti’s custom of communal labor. Teams and people have been contributing supplies, assist, and small funds.
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A canine walks previous a line of trash with the solar beaming on it in September 2025. Picture by Onz Chéry/ The Haitian Instances.
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The trash alongside the sidewalk of Avenue 17H is not there. A line of vehicles is pictured on October 28, 2025 on a sidewalk that was once stuffed with trash. Picture by Onz Chéry/ The Haitian Instances
Bell has additionally been masking bills from her personal pocket and infrequently buys supplies on credit score, her mom, Youseline Bell, mentioned.
In Haiti’s governing system, Metropolis Corridor is meant to obtain 25% to 30% of native taxes from Port-au-Prince however has not acquired that cash lately, Almonor advised The Haitian Instances, leaving Bell with the identical restricted price range constraints the earlier cartel confronted.
Assist, Pushback, and the Politics round Bell
Regardless of the challenges, younger adults strongly imagine that Bell’s younger power can break obstacles in Haiti’s second-largest metropolis.
“I imagine so much in Angie’s creativity and management and I do know that can convey a change,” added Emanuel Jacques Fils who goes by DJ Manito, a 31-year-old Cap-Haïtien native and artist Bell beforehand managed whereas additionally working as a author earlier than getting into politics.
“It’s time to go the torch to younger, competent individuals who can add new progress,” added Fils.
“We’ve been combating to have younger individuals in energy; it’s our likelihood to indicate what we will do.”
Whereas the younger technology is thrilled to have certainly one of their very own in workplace, older residents specific cautious optimism.
“I hope she retains this up however she wants assist as a result of there’s so much to do within the metropolis,” mentioned Jean-Marie Gauthier, a 51-year-old development employee.
“Politics is soiled in Haiti. You’ll lose all of your worth as an individual when you enter it. They’re denigrating my daughter. When getting into politics you’ll lose associates. Haitian politics may be very slippery. However we resigned ourselves to assist out.”
Youseline Bell, Angie Bell’s mom
“Yvrose used to scrub, however not at this stage and never constantly. This new mayor is skilled — she means enterprise.”
However Bell’s sudden appointment has additionally fueled on-line assaults and political strain. She has confronted misinformation, doctored pictures, and allegations focusing on her household and private popularity — techniques her mother and father, each former officers, warned her have been widespread in Haitian politics.
“Politics is soiled in Haiti. You’ll lose all of your worth as an individual when you enter it,” mentioned her mom, Youseline Bell. “They’re denigrating my daughter. Haitian politics may be very slippery. However we resigned ourselves to assist out.”
Bell’s path again house and her rise as a mayor
Bell’s story started lengthy earlier than her appointment. Born and raised in Cap-Haïtien, she confirmed deep Haitian delight from an early age—chiding her mother and father for talking French at house as an alternative of Creole, Haiti’s native tongue. She grew up in a modest home with a big lakou, or courtyard, in Haut-du-Cap, spending her childhood visiting close by farms, the native gildiv (sugar manufacturing facility), and cities like Saint-Raphaël, her father’s hometown, and Plaisance, the place her mom is from.
In 2001, political unrest pressured her household to flee to the USA. They first settled in Lengthy Island, then Miami, the place Bell earned a level in Enterprise and Advertising and marketing. There, she organized cultural packages for Haitian American kids and helped run “Massive Night time in Little Haiti,” a well-liked cultural competition.
In 2017, she based Poubèl Ayiti and moved again to Cap-Haïtien completely in 2018. Earlier than turning into mayor, she served as vice-rector at Université des Atlantes, a faculty funded by her mother and father, and remained lively in native cultural life.
Bell typically turns to her politically seasoned mother and father for steering. Her mom, Youseline Bell, is a former senator for the Northern Division; her father, Angelot Bell, a former Cap-Haïtien authorities delegate. Rising up, they urged her to keep away from politics, warning her of the dangers, betrayals and public assaults they endured whereas serving below the Fanmi Lavalas social gathering.
She is going to stay in workplace till municipal elections in August 2026. When requested whether or not she’ll proceed in politics, Bell mentioned she’s uncertain and may return to writing — she has already printed three kids’s books.
Whereas trash assortment stays her high precedence, Bell additionally hopes to handle Cap-Haïtien’s overcrowding and elevate its cultural profile to draw extra tourism.
“Politics or not, I’ll at all times give my all to assist clear up the nation’s issues,” Bell mentioned. “As a result of that’s the place I’ll keep — I’ve nowhere else to go.