{"id":1545974,"date":"2025-07-08T23:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1545974"},"modified":"2025-07-08T23:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T03:40:00","slug":"iconic-port-au-prince-hotel-that-hosted-kennedys-mick-jagger-burns-down-during-gang-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/iconic-port-au-prince-hotel-that-hosted-kennedys-mick-jagger-burns-down-during-gang-war\/1545974\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Port Au Prince Hotel That Hosted Kennedys, Mick Jagger, Burns Down During Gang War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Iconic Port Au Prince Hotel That Hosted Kennedys, Mick Jagger, Burns Down During Gang War<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>Things aren&#8217;t exactly going splendidly in Haiti&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Case in point?\u00a0A historic hotel in Port au Prince, once a symbol of the country\u2019s cultural and intellectual life, was destroyed by fire over the weekend as gang violence continues to overwhelm the capital, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-07-07\/haiti-hotel-that-hosted-jagger-brando-burns-down-amid-gang-war?srnd=all\">Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Hotel Oloffson, a 90-year-old gingerbread-style building in Port-au-Prince, was \u201cburned to the ground,\u201d according to Richard Morse, a musician whose band RAM once performed there regularly. The cause of the blaze remains unclear, but the hotel sat in an area now heavily controlled by armed gangs.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-07-07\/haiti-hotel-that-hosted-jagger-brando-burns-down-amid-gang-war?srnd=all\">writes<\/a> that, originally converted into a hotel in the 1930s, the Oloffson rose to fame during Haiti\u2019s tourism boom in the 1970s and \u201980s.\u00a0<strong>It hosted famous guests including Mick Jagger and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and even served as the inspiration for Graham Greene\u2019s novel <em>The Comedians<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Local outlet <em>Gazette Haiti<\/em> lamented the loss, calling it the erasure of \u201can entire heritage\u201d and \u201ca symbol of Haiti\u2019s urban and intellectual identity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/Screenshot%202025-07-08%20at%2010.50.09%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=X1oYcR_D\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The area surrounding the hotel has been inaccessible since March due to violent clashes between police and gangs. According to the United Nations, gangs now control 90% of Port-au-Prince, with over 4,000 homicides reported this year.<\/p>\n<p>Haiti is facing a severe security crisis as gangs now control about 90% of Port-au-Prince, according to the UN. Gang violence, including killings, kidnappings, and clashes with police, has left over 4,000 dead in 2025 and forced thousands to flee their homes. Once-thriving neighborhoods have become battlegrounds.<\/p>\n<p>This surge in violence stems from years of political instability, economic collapse, and weak governance. With little state control and no functioning parliament, gangs have filled the power vacuum, seizing territory and terrorizing communities. Many areas are now cut off from food, healthcare, and basic services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Tue, 07\/08\/2025 &#8211; 19:40<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/iconic-port-au-prince-hotel-hosted-kennedys-mick-jagger-burns-down-during-gang-war\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/iconic-port-au-prince-hotel-hosted-kennedys-mick-jagger-burns-down-during-gang-war<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iconic Port Au Prince Hotel That Hosted Kennedys, Mick Jagger, Burns Down During Gang War Things aren&#8217;t exactly going splendidly in Haiti&#8230; Case in point?\u00a0A&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1545975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1545974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1545974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1545975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1545974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1545974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1545974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}