tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/haitian-politics-107045/articlesHaitian politics – The Conversation2024-03-19T12:31:45Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259412024-03-19T12:31:45Z2024-03-19T12:31:45ZHaiti is in crisis, but foreign intervention comes with an ugly past<p>Haiti is <a href="https://news.miami.edu/stories/2024/03/haiti-is-close-to-becoming-a-failed-state.html">fast becoming a failed state</a>. </p>
<p>Armed gangs <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/16/overthrow-the-system-haiti-gang-leader-cherizier-seeks-revolution#:%7E:text=The%20UN%20has%20estimated%20that,foreign%20troops%20from%20entering%20Haiti.">control most of the capital, Port-au-Prince</a>, and have forced the <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/nation-world/2024/03/16/haitis-airports-are-closed-those-with-money-there-is-still-way-out/">shutdown of the capital’s international airport</a> and gasoline refinery. Most <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/18/world/haiti-crisis-militias-battle-intl-latam/index.html">businesses are closed or are being extorted by the gangs</a>.</p>
<p>Ordinary Haitians fear for their safety without the umbrella of law and order that only the government can provide. But there is not much government left: Elections have not been held <a href="https://www.electionguide.org/elections/id/2985/">since 2016</a>; the last president, Jovenel Moïse, was <a href="https://theconversation.com/haitis-president-assassinated-5-essential-reads-to-give-you-key-history-and-insight-164118">assassinated in 2021</a>; and the current prime minister and acting president, Ariel Henry, is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1236288645/haiti-crisis-prime-minister-henry-puerto-rico">stuck in Puerto Rico</a>, unable to fly back to Haiti.</p>
<p>It is increasingly becoming clear that Haiti has neither the means nor the ability to <a href="https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/whatsinblue/2024/03/haiti-private-meeting-2.php">pull itself out of this quagmire on its own</a>, raising the prospect of – and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/21/haiti-un-international-specialized-support-force">calls for</a> – foreign intervention. So far, to that end, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/world/africa/haiti-kenya-police-security.html">Kenya has offered</a> 1,000 armed policemen; other countries may chip in. The United States and Europe have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-aid-chief-announce-25-million-humanitarian-assistance-haiti-2024-03-15/#:%7E:text=The%20additional%20aid%20comes%20after,the%20U.S.%20since%20October%202022.">pledged millions of dollars</a> in aid. </p>
<p>But can a multinational security mission provide Haiti with a way out of its current crisis? My experience <a href="https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/esagas/">studying authoritarianism and democratization in Latin America and the Caribbean</a> tells me that international intervention will only take care of Haiti’s immediate security crisis – but it does not guarantee any long-term solutions to Haiti’s challenges. Moreover, history shows that in the case of Haiti, a multinational security mission may create problems of its own.</p>
<h2>Occupational hazards</h2>
<p>This is not the first time that talk has turned to sending foreign troops to Haiti. Since their hard-fought <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/86417/the-black-jacobins-by-c-l-r-james-with-a-new-introduction-by-david-scott/">independence from France in 1804</a>, the Haitian people have seen their country’s sovereignty disrupted many times.</p>
<p>From 1915 to 1934, <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/haiti">U.S. Marines occupied</a> Haiti <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/haiti-history-of-crises-present-unrest/">to impose order in the riot-struck republic</a>, create a professional military force and secure U.S. strategic interests in the process.</p>
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<p>The lengthy military occupation was a humiliating affair for the <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/the-black-republic-the-meaning-of-haitian-independence-before-the-occupation/">world’s first Black republic</a>, which had to endure being ruled by white foreigners. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the U.S. occupation, the new Haitian military <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1823">became the main force</a> in the country’s politics, either ruling directly or as the power behind the throne.</p>
<p>In 1994, <a href="https://time.com/5682135/haiti-military-anniversary/">U.S. troops once again landed in Haiti</a>, this time to return to power the democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been ousted by the military just seven months into his term.</p>
<p>This second U.S. occupation led to the dissolution of the Haitian military, setting the stage for the current security crisis. Since then, Haiti has lacked a national security force capable of imposing order without being challenged by insurgents, paramilitaries and gangs.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/minustah">United Nations eventually took over</a> and sent several missions to stabilize the country starting in 1994. But the U.N. mission eventually left in 2019 once its mandate expired. U.N. troops were accused of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1YM27V/">sexually exploiting poor women</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/world/americas/united-nations-haiti-cholera.html">being responsible for a major cholera outbreak</a> that killed thousands of Haitians.</p>
<h2>Routes of transition</h2>
<p>This sorry history with foreign intervention means that Haiti faces a conundrum now: The country desperately needs outside help to rein in the gangs and provide order, but at what cost? </p>
<p>With the U.S., U.N. and the Ariel Henry administration seemingly in agreement over the <a href="https://ht.usembassy.gov/secretary-blinkens-call-with-haitian-prime-minister-henry/">need for outside assistance</a>, it seems like foreign intervention is increasingly likely.</p>
<p>Henry has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/haitian-leader-says-he-will-quit-after-transitional-council-formed-gang-violence-2024-03-12/">promised to step down</a> as soon as a transitional administration is set up. Any multinational security mission mandate is likely to be pretty straightforward: provide a modicum of security to assist the transitional administration.</p>
<p>But disarming the gangs is a major challenge. They will likely either resist, leading to a potential bloodbath, or, more likely, hide and wait until foreign troops leave Haiti and then reemerge. </p>
<p>That was one of the major failures of previous security missions in Haiti. U.N. peacekeepers kept the peace, but the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/14/haiti-gang-violence-us-guns-smuggling">flow of arms</a> coming <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/widespread-gang-violence-in-haiti-continues-bolstered-by-weapons-trafficked-from-the-u-s">into the country</a> from the United States continued unabated. Once the peacekeepers left, the violence resumed. Any international mission sent to Haiti will have to tackle this problem head on, or it will ultimately fail. </p>
<p>Gangs hold so much power over <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-63707429">vast swaths of the country</a> that any mediated solution to the Haitian crisis will likely have to include them. Moreover, there is a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/opinions/haiti-gangs-violence-pierre-pierre/index.html">working relationship</a> between the Haitian political elites and the gangs, with the former arming the latter and using them to pursue their short-term goals. Ignoring the political power of the gangs is, I believe, engaging in wishful thinking about the nature of the Haitian political system.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tank painted white with UN written on it drives down the street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Haitians have bitter memories of U.N. troops in their country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/troops-ride-in-an-armored-personnel-carrier-while-news-photo/1543529746?adppopup=true">Thony Belizaire/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And what about Haiti’s other challenges, such as holding free elections, organizing a functioning, legitimate government and improving the lives of its citizens? </p>
<p>None of these goals can realistically be achieved until peace is restored. Only in the conditions of stability and order can a transitional caretaker government start planning the arduous task of holding free, fair and competitive elections. </p>
<p>It may be years before Haiti can organize such elections or restore trust in democracy among the populace. If this process is rushed, Haiti runs the risk of ending up with an illegitimate administration – <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/04/11/haiti-democracy-relations-united-states-gang-violence/">as Henry’s is seen to be</a> – heightening the chances of the resumption of violence. </p>
<p>This has been the case over the past two decades: Haiti’s elections and authorities have became less legitimate, to the point where the country was unable to hold free elections after 2016. </p>
<h2>The challenge ahead</h2>
<p>If a multinational security mission is in Haiti’s immediate future, then the chances of it having lasting success will hang on whether the international community can provide enough support to the country after foreign troops leave.</p>
<p>A new police force will have to be recruited and trained, institutions such as the judiciary have to be reinforced, and the new administration will need time to earn the trust of the people. This is a difficult task considering <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/haiti-in-2023-political-abyss-and-vicious-gangs/">Haiti’s political polarization</a>.</p>
<p>To overcome these challenges, the international community will have to pump funds into Haiti. While history has shown that this risks exacerbating governmental corruption, I believe it is a small price to pay for the maintenance of peace.</p>
<p>Without sustained funding from the international community, Haiti will again become a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/immersive/haiti-forgotten-crisis?id=100287588">forgotten crisis</a>. For example, in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake, US$4.5 billion dollars were promised in aid, but only <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/11/haiti-earthquake-promised-aid-not-delivered">a little over half of it was delivered</a>. </p>
<p>The fear is that now an international community distracted by crises elsewhere, such as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, may soon lose interest in Haiti’s plight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ernesto Sagás does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Can a multinational security mission provide Haiti with a stable future? Not without sustained funding for after the troops leave.Ernesto Sagás, Professor of Ethnic Studies, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2255142024-03-12T15:26:35Z2024-03-12T15:26:35ZJimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier: the gangster behind the violence in Haiti who may have political aspirations of his own<p>A violent uprising in the Caribbean nation of Haiti has put the spotlight on the man leading the mayhem – a homicidal gang boss and former policeman called Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier.</p>
<p>Over the past two weeks, Haiti’s powerful gangs have plunged a country already on life support into a coma. More than <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68462851">3,800 hardened criminals</a> were broken out of Haiti’s two biggest jails, the country’s international airport has been partially taken over, and gangs have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68531759">tried to seize</a> the political quarter of its capital, Port-au-Prince.</p>
<p>Following the recent wave of violence, the country’s acting president, Ariel Henry, has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68541349">agreed to step down</a> once a transitional council has been created to run the country. Henry has become a pariah in Haitian politics. He is an unelected leader, taking power after Haiti’s president was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-57762246">assassinated</a> in 2021, and has presided over the country’s <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129537?utm_term=63bfaeecfacb1506e4d4474705eee640&utm_campaign=FirstEdition&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=firstedition_email">economic freefall</a>.</p>
<p>It is unclear how the current political crisis will be solved. But Chérizier has emerged from the armed insurrection as the most formidable leader in Haiti, and some suspect he may have political aspirations of his own. </p>
<p>He has <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/haitis-notorious-gang-leader-plots-future-amid-rebellion/story?id=107994731">claimed</a> to be fighting a holy war of sorts for the soul of Haiti, delivering “it back into the hands of its chosen people, the everyday Haitian beat down by years of abuse, racism and corruption.” </p>
<p>However, there is one crucial question. Can Chérizier reinvent himself from a feared gangland boss to a legitimate political leader?</p>
<p>Haiti’s history is replete with political leaders with very dubious pasts, and the country’s citizens are used to their violent machinations. François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francois-Duvalier">ruthless dictator</a> who served as president of the country between 1957 and 1971, institutionalised gangs and made them a part of the everyday life of the Haitian people.</p>
<p>His personal militia, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/23/archives/papa-doc-a-ruthless-dictator-kept-the-haitians-in-illiteracy-and.html">Tonton Macoute</a>, were given the license to kidnap, torture and kill thousands of their fellow Haitians during his brutal reign. Despite this, Papa Doc enjoyed an abundance of admiration and affection from those he lorded over with an iron fist. This was, in large part, because of his politics of patronage and unique brand of “grassroots” black nationalism.</p>
<p>Going by that antecedent, Chérizier is not an uncommon outsider. He may be a homicidal criminal, but he also enjoys a cult status in Port-au-Prince. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/10/haiti-gang-boss-kingpin-barbecue-jimmy-cherizier">Murals</a> in the impoverished Haitian slums he rules as his private fiefdom liken him to the Argentine guerrilla leader, Ernesto “Che” Guevara. In a country with a short supply of tall leaders, Chérizier is an outsize figure. </p>
<p>His alias, <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1873542/haiti-gang-leader-barbecue">“Barbecue”</a>, which he has earned due to his penchant for burning his opponents alive, has helped him build a “tough guy” image – an essential character trait for any aspiring leader in this violent country. The last political leader of Haiti of any significance, Papa Doc Duvalier, had this in plenty. </p>
<p>But unlike other contemporary gang leaders in Haiti, Chérizier is a man with a brain. He is articulate, aware and thinks big. Far from your traditional gang boss that exists in the twilight, he actively seeks out the limelight. </p>
<p>He likes giving interviews and goes the extra mile to impress the audience with his revolutionary political zeal. Over the past year, he has welcomed a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyGnxdDOGHo">succession of foreign reporters</a> to the gang-controlled neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince in attempt to justify the uprising. According to Chérizier, his brand of violent street politics is very much in tune with the need of the hour. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Chérizier speaking to Al Jazeera about the crisis in Haiti.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Political acumen</h2>
<p>The current political instability in Haiti has largely been manufactured by Chérizier and the gangs he leads as a cleverly thought-out survival strategy. But it is also couched in an astute reading of the Haitian national sentiment and popular mood. </p>
<p>In 2023, the UN security council <a href="https://apnews.com/article/haiti-un-kenya-armed-force-resolution-3749ac5db9d6c5903e61dee7b4206e6c">approved</a> the deployment of a Kenyan-led multinational peacekeeping force to Haiti to reign in the gangs and their spiralling violence. The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-66946156">stressed</a> that a “robust use of force” is needed to disarm the gangs and restore order. However, the mission has subsequently stalled. </p>
<p>Such an intervention would in all likelihood severely undermine the power of Haiti’s gangs. So, on the one hand, Chérizier’s decision to stir up a political uprising can be seen as a planned strategy to scare off any external forces seeking to impose order. </p>
<p>But Haitians have traditionally <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/04/1131254613/haiti-sanctions-foreign-intervention-protests-gangs-cholera">opposed</a> any foreign intervention in their domestic affairs, regardless of the state of disarray or chaos. As a fiercely independent people, they proudly stand as the first black republic to emerge following a successful <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Haitian-Revolution#ref343634">slave revolt</a> during the high noon of European colonialism. </p>
<p>Chérizier has used Henry’s unpopularity and controversial decision to deploy foreign police officers in the nation to drum up a nationwide violent fervour for political change. In a video call to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/haitis-notorious-gang-leader-plots-future-amid-rebellion/story?id=107994731">ABC News</a> on March 11, he said: “The first step is to overthrow Ariel Henry and then we will start the real fight against the current system, the system of corrupt oligarchs and corrupt traditional politicians.” </p>
<p>In the past, Chérizier has floated his own <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/akeyz8/haiti-jimmy-cherizier-government">“peace plan”</a> for the country. He has demanded that gang members be given total amnesty and that the country is governed by a “council of sages”, implying leaders such as him would have a formal political role. </p>
<p>With Henry now out of the political scene, the chance that Haitians will be forced to embrace such an outcome may not be far-fetched after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amalendu Misra has received funding from
British Academy /
Nuffield Foundation</span></em></p>Haiti is descending into anarchy, causing the gang leader behind the violence to emerge as the country’s most powerful leader.Amalendu Misra, Professor, Department: Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251162024-03-11T09:26:55Z2024-03-11T09:26:55ZHow Haiti became a failed state<p>The US military started <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/10/us-report-airlift-embassy-staff-haiti-gangs-fighting-port-au-prince">airlifting</a> embassy staff out of Haiti overnight as the Caribbean island descends further into chaos. Rival gangs have joined forces to overrun the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, in an attempt to force the resignation of the acting president, Ariel Henry. </p>
<p>The gang leader behind the violence, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/06/haiti-gangs-prime-minister">warned</a> there will be a “civil war that will lead to genocide” if Henry does not step down.</p>
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<p>Over the past week, Haiti’s gangs have carried out a series of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68507837">coordinated attacks</a> on prisons and police stations, breaking more than <a href="https://apnews.com/article/haiti-prison-break-2788f145b0d26efc2aa199e923724e0f">3,800 criminals</a> out of Haiti’s two biggest jails, while also laying siege to the country’s port and airport. </p>
<p>Haiti is already facing a humanitarian crisis. It is among the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview">poorest countries</a> in Latin America and the Caribbean, with <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/135966/file/Haiti-2022-COAR.pdf">90% of the population</a> living below the poverty line. And following the recent wave of violence, around <a href="https://www.rescue.org/eu/press-release/haiti-violence-grows-ensuring-sufficient-funding-available-key-deliver-humanitarian">15,000 people</a> who were already housed in internal displacement camps have been forced to leave again. </p>
<p>Henry came to power in 2021 under a deal agreed with the opposition following the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/07/haiti-president-jovenel-moise-reportedly-assassinated">assassination</a> of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse. Henry is widely considered illegitimate by the Haitian public and was due to stand down by February 7. But he seems to be <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/in-haiti-crisis-has-roots-in-history-of-foreign-interference/">extending his stay</a>. </p>
<p>The country last went to the polls in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/haiti-presidential-election-result-protest-jovenel-moise">2016</a> and there is no timetable for new elections. Over the past six years, the Haitian parliament has ground to a halt: no major laws have been passed and only one budget was voted on.</p>
<p>The regime is weak and lacks control over the country’s territories, leading to a situation where Haiti finds itself hostage to its criminal gangs. US officials have said they will not pressure Henry to leave, but they are urging him to facilitate the transition to a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/6/us-denies-pressuring-haiti-pm-henry-to-resign-urges-political-transition">democratic government</a>.</p>
<h2>Turbulent history</h2>
<p>Violent gangs are not new to Haiti. Between 1957 and 1986, Haiti was ruled as a dictatorship by the Duvalier family. Following an unsuccessful military coup in 1958, François Duvalier sought to bypass the armed forces by creating a private and personal militia called the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/23/archives/papa-doc-a-ruthless-dictator-kept-the-haitians-in-illiteracy-and.html">“Tonton Macoutes”</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://coha.org/tonton-macoutes/">Macoutes</a> consisted of illiterate fanatics-turned-reckless gunmen acting as a paramiltary force. They were not accountable to any state body or court and were fully empowered to dispose of the paranoid president’s enemies. </p>
<p>The group was dismantled in 1986, but its members continued to terrorise the population. Gangs have been <a href="https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/GITOC-Gangs-of-Haiti.pdf">involved</a> in massacres, attacks on labour strikes or peasant uprisings, and politically motivated assassinations ever since. </p>
<p>Haiti took its first step toward a full democratic transition in 1990, electing Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president. But the Aristide government was overthrown by a <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2021/political-anatomy-haiti-armed-gangs">military coup</a> the following year and the Haitian army was subsequently dismantled. The Haitian army was a highly corrupt force, but doing away with it meant the country could no longer fight organised crime. </p>
<p>By that time, Haitian drug traffickers were <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/extradition-drug-smuggler-underscores-haitis-historical-cocaine-transit-hub-status/">working closely</a> with Colombia’s Medellín Cartel. They were corrupting officials and the police while shifting hundreds of tons of cocaine from Colombia to secluded docks in Haiti and onwards to the US. Drug trafficking became a little known, yet significant source of income for Haiti’s political and business elites who provided protection and logistical support for drug traffickers.</p>
<p>Efforts aimed at disbanding certain armed groups and even the armed forces never fully succeeded. They never disarmed and have converted themselves into far-right vigilantes such as community defence groups and paramilitaries.</p>
<p>Haiti was then struck by an earthquake in 2010. This allowed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/20/haiti-escaped-prisoners-cite-soleil#">thousands of inmates</a> to escape from crumbling jails and take over these self-defence groups. These younger, less politically affiliated and loosely organised gangs are developing into the criminal organisations that are wreaking havoc across Haiti today.</p>
<h2>A state run by gangs</h2>
<p>Gangs have grown rapidly in number over the past few years. An estimated <a href="https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/haiti-gangs-organized-crime/">200 criminal gangs</a> now exist in Haiti, and around 95 in the capital, Port-au-Prince, alone. This has resulted in massive insecurity, kidnappings, and large-scale attacks on the police, politicians, journalists and civilians. </p>
<p>Gangs now tend to be affiliated to two groups. The most prevalent gang structure is that of “G-9 and Family”, a federation of nine gangs led by alias “Barbecue”. Founded in 2020, the G-9 has been <a href="https://insightcrime.org/haiti-organized-crime-news/g9-family-profile/">linked</a> to Moïse and Henry’s Haitian Tèt Kale Party (Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale – PHTK), for whom the federation is alleged to have ensured votes.</p>
<p>The G-9’s focus is mostly on extortion and kidnappings. It has taken taken control of key economic activities, including the main entry and exit points of Port-au-Prince, and critical infrastructure such as ports and oil terminals, charging “protection payments” for any institutions that operate in these areas.</p>
<p>The recent jailbreaks were a joint operation with “G-Pep”, another gang federation that was previously linked to PHTK’s political opponents.</p>
<h2>No end in sight</h2>
<p>To bring this crisis to an end, Haiti needs an elected government. But holding elections in this climate won’t be an easy task, nor will it solve the deep-rooted causes of lawlessness.</p>
<p>The conditions for free and fair elections do not currently exist, and the infrastructure that would make them possible is absent. Equally, any free and fair election should take place in a context where gangs do not intimidate voters to vote in a particular way. </p>
<p>In October 2023, the UN Security Council <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/02/haiti-un-security-force-kenya-gangs">voted</a> to send a Kenyan-led multinational security force to Haiti to reign in the gangs and their spiralling violence. However, the peacekeeping mission has been delayed and no other countries have come forward to provide the resources required to restore peace. </p>
<p>But an election is long overdue, and the status-quo will not solve anything.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicolas Forsans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Haiti is facing a wave of chaos as gang violence grips the country.Nicolas Forsans, Professor of Management and Co-director of the Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1662242021-08-17T12:14:45Z2021-08-17T12:14:45ZWill recent political instability affect Haiti’s earthquake response? We ask an expert<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416388/original/file-20210816-6755-1zy2bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C3583%2C2398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Natural disasters are not uncommon in Haiti; neither is political instability.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-walks-past-a-church-destroyed-during-an-earthquake-in-news-photo/1234717226?adppopup=true">Reginald Louissaint JR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Parts of Haiti were reduced to rubble by a powerful earthquake that hit the impoverished nation on Aug. 14, 2021, resulting in a death toll that has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/16/americas/haiti-earthquake-news-monday-intl/index.html">climbed rapidly</a> to nearly 1,500 with many more bodies expected to be recovered in the days to come.</em></p>
<p><em>The devastating temblor came just weeks after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/haitis-president-assassinated-5-essential-reads-to-give-you-key-history-and-insight-164118">assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse</a> – an event that underlined the precarious political and security environment in modern-day Haiti.</em></p>
<p><em>Louise Comfort, an <a href="https://www.gspia.pitt.edu/faculty-and-staff/louise-comfort">expert in crisis response at the University of Pittsburgh</a>, has firsthand experience helping Haiti recover from tragedy, having worked to build a stronger program of community resilience in the country following the 2010 earthquake. She answered The Conversation U.S.’s questions on how the Caribbean nation will respond to the latest natural disaster.</em></p>
<h2>1. How do the recent crises in stability of the Haitian government affect the nation’s ability to respond to this earthquake?</h2>
<p>The assassination of President Moïse on July 7, 2021, marked the culmination of a series of challenges to his authority as president and the capacity of his administration to lead the country. His death surfaced a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/world/americas/haiti-prime-minister.html">power struggle between political rivals</a>, Claude Joseph and Ariel Henry, both of whom claimed the office of prime minister. This dispute was resolved on July 19 when <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/19/1018096890/ariel-henry-will-replace-claude-joseph-as-haitis-prime-minister">Joseph resigned and Henry was confirmed as prime minister</a>. But the crisis of responding to a major earthquake poses a major test to Henry’s leadership, coming just a few weeks after he stepped into the role. </p>
<p>The demands on the government for strong, decisive action in response to the earthquake are immediate. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/14/world/americas/haiti-earthquake-what-to-know.html">damaged cities in southwestern Haiti</a> have limited capacity for medical services, search and rescue efforts and infrastructure repair following <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/haitis-troubled-path-development">years of underfunding and neglect</a>. Aid and assistance will need to come from outside the small cities hit hardest by the quake – either from the capital of Port-au-Prince, from other nations in the Caribbean region or the larger international community. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Local artists paint a mural of slain president Jovenel Moise." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416397/original/file-20210816-21-1iigxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416397/original/file-20210816-21-1iigxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416397/original/file-20210816-21-1iigxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416397/original/file-20210816-21-1iigxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416397/original/file-20210816-21-1iigxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416397/original/file-20210816-21-1iigxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416397/original/file-20210816-21-1iigxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse marked the culmination of political instability.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/local-artists-are-painting-murals-in-tribute-to-slain-news-photo/1234120270?adppopup=true">Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span>
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<p>Henry will need to manage the delivery of search and rescue teams, medical staff and supplies, transportation and clean water from sources within Haiti as well as internationally. It is a big challenge as he seeks to secure the confidence of the damaged nation after only weeks in office. </p>
<h2>2. What lessons can be learned from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that killed an estimated 220,000 people?</h2>
<p>As the principal investigator for a research team on crisis decision making in Haiti following <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/08/16/haiti-earthquakes-comparing-recent-quake-deadly-2010-tragedy/8144449002/">the 2010 earthquake</a>, I believe two lessons are key.</p>
<p>First, it is crucial to involve Haitians in designing and managing the delivery of assistance and relief supplies in their own country. Regrettably, this was largely not the case in 2010, when international non-governmental organizations met with good intentions, but <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691165363/the-dynamics-of-risk">made decisions for local Haitian leaders</a> to implement in practice.</p>
<p>While Haiti needs outside help from the international community to respond to the disaster, only Haitians understand the needs of their own communities and the local social networks that can best deliver aid. In Haiti, one of the <a href="https://www.cpc.unc.edu/news/hope-for-haiti-comes-from-within-religion-resilience-and-recovery/">strongest social networks is the Catholic Church</a>, with its network of volunteers and service organizations that know the neighborhoods and are trusted by residents. If engaged at the outset, this network can provide humanitarian services to local neighborhoods more effectively and efficiently than international agencies working separately. </p>
<p>The second vital lesson is to support the work of local and international scientists in assessing the <a href="http://www.geologie.ens.fr/%7Eecalais/the-haiti-experience.html">physical and meteorological risks that Haiti confronts going forward</a>.</p>
<p>This means continuing to build a geological survey in Haiti to map earthquake faults and areas of potential seismic risk. Haiti is vulnerable to multiple hazards – earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis and sea level rise.</p>
<p>Understanding the science that underlies these hazards will enable Haitian scientists and governmental agencies to develop viable plans to rebuild damaged cities and infrastructure in sustainable, resilient ways. </p>
<h2>3. Can you explain the idea of cascading crises and how it has played a role in Haiti over much of the nation’s history?</h2>
<p>The concept of <a href="https://theconversation.com/222-scientists-say-cascading-crises-are-the-biggest-threat-to-the-well-being-of-future-generations-131551">cascading crises</a> is like dominoes falling – if one tips, the others, closely aligned, fall in sequence. In a country where the basic physical, political, economic and social infrastructures are weak, but all rely in some way on each other, damage to one area from an earthquake – say, physical infrastructure of roads and bridges – damages other parts, such as transportation to bring commercial goods to market. This in turn holds back the economy, reducing employment and harming social cohesion.</p>
<p>The difficulty for those planning for stability in Haiti is that while the physical infrastructure is the most visible when it is damaged, and may be seen as most in need of attention, it is the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691165363/the-dynamics-of-risk">political, economic and social infrastructure that is most essential</a> in making sure that roads and buildings are constructed to a standard that can withstand natural hazards in the first place. In other words, a stable government in Haiti is a crucial part of making the nation’s homes, hospitals and schools more resilient to events like earthquakes.</p>
<h2>4. What can other Caribbean nations, the U.S. and the wider international community do to help the long-term stabilization of Haiti?</h2>
<p>A key component in Haiti’s instability has been the <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2021/political-anatomy-haiti-armed-gangs">violent drug-trafficking gangs</a> that have scarred life for many in the nation for decades, contributing to the country’s economic and political woes. And it is here that regional governments in the Caribbean, as well as the U.S. and other nations, can play a crucial role.</p>
<p>Countering the cartels who use Haiti as an easy passage through which to smuggle drugs to Europe and North America will require a concerted international effort. Collaborative international policies on customs regulations, updating and maintaining access to international databases by border patrol units, and advanced use of technologies to identify and intercept drug trafficking are steps toward reducing this major hazard. This is an international problem that Haiti cannot manage alone, and curbing it would benefit all nations. </p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166224/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise K. Comfort received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation for a RAPID Response grant to study decision making in Haiti immediately after the 2010 Earthquake. She also received two grants from the Widgeon Foundation in Maryland to carry out a collaborative international study with faculty and students from the State University of Haiti and Quisqueya University. All grants have been fully expended since 2016.. </span></em></p>Devastating quake came weeks after the assassination of Haiti’s president. A scholar of disaster preparedness explains the concept of ‘cascading crises’ and how other countries can help stabilize Haiti.Louise K. Comfort, Professor of Public and International Affairs, former Director of the Center for Disaster Management, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1646132021-07-21T12:18:13Z2021-07-21T12:18:13ZThe crisis in Haiti reflects the failure of the international community to stabilize the country<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411990/original/file-20210719-17-1deo7r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tires burn and police try to extinguish the flames and clear the road for vehicles in the Lalue neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after protesters unhappy with the growing violence set them on fire, July 14, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse sent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/19/guns-gangs-and-bad-aid-haitis-crisis-reaches-full-throttle">shock waves</a> throughout the region and around the world. The circumstances surrounding the assassination remain unclear, although everything suggests it was an inside job supported by players from Florida acting with Colombian mercenaries in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8035948/haiti-president-moise-killed-suspect/">a complex network of sophisticated and well-organized political banditry</a>.</p>
<p>I’m originally from Haiti and hold a doctorate in political science, a master’s degree in international relations and a diploma in international law from the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. I teach international relations at the Université du Québec à Montréal and I previously worked in the political affairs department of the Haitian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</p>
<h2>Calls for international aid</h2>
<p>Internally, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/19/guns-gangs-and-bad-aid-haitis-crisis-reaches-full-throttle">Haiti has been weakened</a> for many years by a deep social and political breakdown, a deterioration of the economic and humanitarian situation and a generalized pattern of violence that has eroded the entire social and environmental fabric of the country.</p>
<p>When the health risks exacerbated by the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-health-pandemics-coronavirus-pandemic-haiti-0b632dd3dab61f9a76059860a158ef12">COVID-19 pandemic</a> are combined with the increased capacity of armed violence by organized gangs and the total collapse of Haiti’s armed forces, the result is an explosive cocktail waiting for a spark.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/07/assassination-its-president-puts-haiti-risk-anarchy-un-must-intervene/">There have been many calls</a> for a “robust” and “definitive” international response to the crisis in Haiti.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man lays flowers as a crowd gathered around an altar honoring the slain president" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411513/original/file-20210715-17-14e0a91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411513/original/file-20210715-17-14e0a91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411513/original/file-20210715-17-14e0a91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411513/original/file-20210715-17-14e0a91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411513/original/file-20210715-17-14e0a91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411513/original/file-20210715-17-14e0a91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411513/original/file-20210715-17-14e0a91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man lays flowers on an altar created outside the presidential palace in memory of President Jovenel Moïse, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article252675998.html">July 9 edition of the <em>Miami Herald</em></a>, columnist Andres Hoppenheimer implored U.S. President Joe Biden to assume leadership of a new UN force in Haiti. In Hoppenheimer’s view, this force would have “extensive powers and capabilities to prevent once and for all this cycle of violence and a new migration crisis in the region”.</p>
<p>Roberto Alvarez, minister of foreign affairs of the Dominican Republic, the country that shares a border with Haiti, <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article252675998.html">mentioned the danger</a> of a “somalization of Haiti that could affect the peace and security of the region as a whole.” Alvarez was referring to the catastrophic situation experienced by Somalis during a civil war that pitted different armed factions against each other and from which the country has not been able to recover to this day.</p>
<p>Even Haiti’s mysterious provisional prime minister, Claude Joseph, is appealing for foreign intervention. Overwhelmed by the events, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/10/1014936971/haiti-asks-for-us-troops-after-president-assassination">he has requested</a> that American soldiers and UN peacekeepers be sent to Haiti.</p>
<h2>Void unfilled since the departure of the UN</h2>
<p>The high degree of internal disorder in Haiti is motivating the new interventionist stances. The departure of the UN military forces in 2017, which coincided with the coming to power of Moïse in Haiti and Donald Trump in the United States, created a security vacuum that has not yet been filled. The fact that <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-12/haiti-gangs-complicate-recovery-effort-assassination">gangsterism has become a feature of daily life</a> in Haiti is also a concern.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph holds a news conference in Port-au-Prince. A photo of the late Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated at his home on July 7, hangs on the wall behind" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411514/original/file-20210715-13-6y516n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411514/original/file-20210715-13-6y516n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411514/original/file-20210715-13-6y516n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411514/original/file-20210715-13-6y516n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411514/original/file-20210715-13-6y516n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411514/original/file-20210715-13-6y516n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411514/original/file-20210715-13-6y516n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph holds a news conference in Port-au-Prince on July 13. He called for the intervention of UN peacekeepers on Haitian territory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given how acute the situation is, and how few resources the Haitian state has to deal with the crisis, many assume the immediate solution would require the re-engagement — either extensive or limited — of UN forces under the political umbrella of the U.S.</p>
<p>The United States, which is responsible for the Haiti dossier at the UN Security Council, has been the country’s guardian power <em>par excellence</em> since it invaded and subsequently occupied the country in 1915. It remains the ultimate arbiter and decision maker in disputes between Haiti’s different protagonists.</p>
<p><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8017337/us-colombia-agents-investigate-haiti-president/">Biden has stated</a> he “has no plans to provide military assistance at this time.” Short of a hypothetical Chinese-American partnership forming on the Haitian file at the Security Council, it’s difficult to imagine the international organization embarking on new military operations in Haiti.</p>
<h2>An external solution to an internal problem</h2>
<p>While UN military intervention may seem very appealing to uninformed observers, it would sustain the myth of an external solution to an internal, age-old problem.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-its-president-was-assassinated-haiti-needs-international-help-more-than-ever-164285">After its president was assassinated, Haiti needs international help more than ever</a>
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<p>At the same time, the current dynamic confirms the United States in its role as Haiti’s guardian power. The situation offers the opportune pretext and timing for providing a path forward on the ground, and for bringing Haiti back into the liberal democratic project that Washington and the United Nations have been carrying out in perfect synergy.</p>
<h2>The failure of the democratic stabilization project</h2>
<p>Since the invasion that followed the occupation of 1915-1934, the United States has had total control over the Haitian political space. This situation has been reinforced by the political and economic control exercised by Washington over international organizations and the wave of UN peace missions that has swept through the country since 1991.</p>
<p>The appointment of the American <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/profiles/helen-meagher-la-lime">Helen La Lime</a> as head of the <a href="https://binuh.unmissions.org/en">United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti</a> attests to the perfect fit on the ground between U.S. interventionist policies in Haiti and the institutional arrangement offered by the UN in Washington for this purpose.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Leon Charles, left, director general of the Haitian police, leaves a room after a press conference at police headquarters in Port-au-Prince" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411519/original/file-20210715-23-9zz006.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411519/original/file-20210715-23-9zz006.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411519/original/file-20210715-23-9zz006.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411519/original/file-20210715-23-9zz006.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411519/original/file-20210715-23-9zz006.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411519/original/file-20210715-23-9zz006.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411519/original/file-20210715-23-9zz006.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leon Charles, left, director general of the Haitian police, leaves a room after a press conference at police headquarters in Port-au-Prince on July 14. Charles gave an update on the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>But the current catastrophic situation in Haiti is in part a reflection of the failure of the liberal project of democratic stabilization in the country. The assassination of the president followed by the general uncertainty surrounding the country’s future trajectory show the conventional model and strategies that were put in place until now have exhausted their potential.</p>
<h2>Helping Haiti find its own model</h2>
<p>Mobilizing the same old policies would only amplify the chaos, further discredit external actors and increase internal rivalries. Too often the answers and solutions to the longstanding Haitian crisis have been thought of from the outside. This situation is humiliating and degrading for the very people who pioneered the freedom of black slaves in the world.</p>
<p>It’s urgently necessary to make a paradigm shift and put an end to this external shock therapy that has failed to generate a new social contract in Haiti and bring the country the prosperity it has been promised.</p>
<p>Of course, there is no guarantee that uniquely Haitian solutions will bring the long hoped-for peace. But there is a narrow window of opportunity here.</p>
<p>For too long the Haitian people have been treated as passive actors in solutions that come from the outside. It is time to put aside this interventionist model, which has only accompanied the destruction of the national social fabric, in order to help Haitians put their own model in place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164613/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chalmers Larose ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>It is necessary to put an end to the external shock therapy that has failed to generate a new social contract in Haiti and bring the country the prosperity it has been promised.Chalmers Larose, Docteur en science politique, Spécialiste en relations internationales, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1641402021-07-14T16:08:14Z2021-07-14T16:08:14ZHaiti’s revolutionary and intellectual history has lessons for the future<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/haitis-president-assassinated-5-essential-reads-to-give-you-key-history-and-insight-164118">recent assassination</a> of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s de-facto president who had been ruling by decree since 2018, was a shocking and historical moment. It has been more than a century since the last sitting Haitian president was murdered in 1915. As every day passes, the plot thickens further, and we may never know the full murky details. </p>
<p>Currently there is an ongoing power struggle among three would-be leaders: previous and incoming prime ministers Claude Joseph and Ariel Henry, but also Joseph Lambert, head of Haiti’s disbanded senate. </p>
<p>Haiti is often talked about by outsiders as a place where only bad things seem to happen. Yet behind the media stories of strife, disease and deprivation there is another Haiti – and a great success story. The <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/08/the-most-successful-slave-rebellion-in-history-created-an-independent-haiti-and-secured-the-louisiana-purchase-and-the-expansion-of-north-american-slavery.html">Haitian revolution</a> (1791-1804) is the only successful slave revolt leading to independence from colonial rule and the permanent abolition of slavery. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/haitis-president-assassinated-5-essential-reads-to-give-you-key-history-and-insight-164118">Haiti's president assassinated: 5 essential reads to give you key history and insight</a>
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<p>Haiti took on the most powerful nations of the day – the <a href="http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Slaves-Who-Defeated-Napoleon,5154.aspx">French</a>, the <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/british-army-and-slave-revolt-saint-domingue-1790s">British</a> and the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41715135">Spanish</a> – and won. Until relatively recently, Haiti’s story has sometimes been omitted from wider narratives about the age of revolutions.</p>
<p>After independence, leading Haitian intellectual Baron de Vastey – secretary to <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-kingdom-of-hayti-the-wakanda-of-the-western-hemisphere-108250">Henry Christophe</a>, who proclaimed himself Haiti’s king (1811-20) – wrote that: “Our independence will be guaranteed by the tip of our bayonets.” </p>
<p>When the US <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/haiti#:%7E:text=Following%20the%20assassination%20of%20the,This%20occupation%20continued%20until%201934.">occupied Haiti in 1915</a>, writers were at the front of the resistance. Haitian author <a href="https://www.haitiinter.com/edmond-laforest-le-suicide-comme-acte-ultime-de-rebellion/">Edmond Laforest</a> committed suicide by tying a Larousse dictionary around his neck in protest. </p>
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<img alt="Bust of General Toussaint Louverture in Bordeaux, France." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411248/original/file-20210714-15-1d6muzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411248/original/file-20210714-15-1d6muzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411248/original/file-20210714-15-1d6muzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411248/original/file-20210714-15-1d6muzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411248/original/file-20210714-15-1d6muzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411248/original/file-20210714-15-1d6muzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411248/original/file-20210714-15-1d6muzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Father of Haiti’s revolution: General Toussaint Louverture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jefunky via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>Later, a group of young Haitian Marxist writers – who came to be known as the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40654477">generation of 1946</a>, inspired by the surrealism of French artist André Breton, led a successful revolt which would overthrow the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,933561,00.html">arch-conservative president Élie Lescot</a>.</p>
<p>For a period of almost 30 years from 1957 to 1986, Haiti was ruled by the notorious father-son dictators, François “Papa Doc” Duvalier (1957-1971) and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier (1971-1986). This was a very dangerous time for Haitian writers and journalists, many of whom were killed, tortured, imprisoned or disappeared. </p>
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<img alt="Portrait photograph of Haitian dictator Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411253/original/file-20210714-27-q2d9nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411253/original/file-20210714-27-q2d9nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411253/original/file-20210714-27-q2d9nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411253/original/file-20210714-27-q2d9nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411253/original/file-20210714-27-q2d9nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1173&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411253/original/file-20210714-27-q2d9nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1173&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411253/original/file-20210714-27-q2d9nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1173&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The rule of Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier and his son Jean Claude or ‘Baby Doc’ was marked by arrests and disappearances of opposition figures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Volcaniapôle via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>One of Haiti’s most famous writers, <a href="https://haitisupportgroup.org/jacques-stephen-alexis/">Jacques-Stephen Alexis</a>, was “disappeared”, presumed murdered in 1961 when he tried to return to Haiti to overthrow Duvalier. <a href="https://haitisupportgroup.org/yvonne-hakim-rimpel/">Yvonne Hakim Rimpel</a>, a journalist critical of Papa Doc, was silenced on January 5 1958 when she was kidnapped, beaten, tortured, probably raped, and left unconscious on a street. After two years in hospital, she recovered, but never wrote again and died in June 1986.</p>
<p>Contemporary Haitian-American writer-performer <a href="https://thehaitianroundtable.org/honorees/michele-voltaire-marcelin/">Michèle Voltaire Marcelin</a>, in her one-woman show Women’s Words, recalls both Rimpel and <a href="https://www.lunionsuite.com/tag/rosalie-bosquet/">Rosalie Bosquet</a> aka Madame Max Adolphe, the infamous torturer at the dreaded Fort Dimanche prison. </p>
<p>Since the time of the Duvaliers, often in the absence of democratic political opposition and a free press, Haitian writers, activists and journalists have been the voice of opposition. Haitian writers including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/world/americas/30haiti.html">Frankétienne</a> and <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/743209/summary">Gary Victor</a> portray Haiti’s past and present as a repeating dictatorship of corrupt power – something illustrated by the <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/93-931.html">1991 coup</a> against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a charismatic former priest who was the first democratically elected president of Haiti.</p>
<p>Haitian writers and journalists reflect Haitians wanting change, but they sometimes inadvertently end up on the same side as foreign capital and undemocratic coup leaders. It is as if the never-ending cycle of dictatorship can never be broken. During Aristide’s second presidency, charismatic radio journalist Jean Dominique <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-murder-dominique-idUSBREA0H0G020140118">was murdered in April 2000</a>, allegedly by Aristide’s supporters. For his critics, this was a sign that even a democratically elected leader could resort to autocratic methods when it suited him.</p>
<h2>Age of ‘<em>ensekirite</em>’</h2>
<p>The simmering scandal over the alleged embezzlement of billions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/haiti-protests-summon-spirit-of-the-haitian-revolution-to-condemn-a-president-tainted-by-scandal-126315">PetroCaribe oil</a> loans from Venezuela, has brought wider corruption issues to the forefront and prompted widespread street protests and signs of opposition mobilising on social media. Meanwhile Haitian intellectuals, activists and journalists accused Moïse of human rights violations, the stifling of opposition voices, political assassinations and the imprisonment of political prisoners. </p>
<p>Haitians are worried about the escalating crisis of what they call <em>ensekirite</em> – widespread insecurity and gang violence – over many years. Incidents include the <a href="https://www.nlg.org/report-the-lasalin-massacre-and-the-human-rights-crisis-in-haiti/">November 13 massacre</a> of 71 people in 2018, including children and a baby, in the Lasalin neighborhood of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, which human rights organisations have identified as government-orchestrated.</p>
<p>In recent weeks and months, many voices have been silenced. On one particularly bloody night recently – June 29 – 19 people were murdered. Among the dead were the well-known human rights and feminist activist <a href="https://lenouvelliste.com/article/230165/antoinette-duclaire-activiste-politique-et-feministe">Antoinette “Netty” Duclaire</a> as well as <a href="https://cpj.org/2021/07/haitian-journalist-diego-charles-shot-and-killed-in-port-au-prince/">Diego Charles</a>, a journalist for Radio Tele Vision 2000. Duclaire had been outspoken about the corruption and impunity of the Moïse government. Charles, meanwhile, was investigating recent killings including that of <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article245352670.html">Monferrier Dorval</a>, the head of the Haitian bar association. </p>
<h2>What next for Haiti?</h2>
<p>Moïse’s killing leaves a serious power vacuum. When he died, the country had only 11 elected officials, including the president. Now just ten senators remain and are disputing the leadership. Nobody is keen for a repeat of the United Nations intervention, which ran from <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/minustah">2004 to 2017</a>. During this time, UN troops <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-un-finally-admits-role-in-haiti-cholera-outbreak-here-is-how-victims-must-be-compensated-64140">introduced deadly cholera</a> to the country, and were accused of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-an-uproar-over-aid-and-sexual-exploitation-ignored-womens-actual-experiences-92200">sexual exploitation</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/they-put-a-few-coins-in-your-hands-to-drop-a-baby-in-you-265-stories-of-haitian-children-abandoned-by-un-fathers-114854">fathering many children</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/they-put-a-few-coins-in-your-hands-to-drop-a-baby-in-you-265-stories-of-haitian-children-abandoned-by-un-fathers-114854">'They put a few coins in your hands to drop a baby in you' – 265 stories of Haitian children abandoned by UN fathers</a>
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<p>In the absence of a president and a parliament – and given the tiny and repugnant business elite who own almost all of Haiti’s resources – it is falling to intellectuals, journalists, activists and students to channel and express the people’s hopes for the future. For these people, there is a strong risk of being murdered or kidnapped.</p>
<p>The murder of de-facto president Moise, shocking as it is, is a chance for Haiti’s civil society to join with activists and Haiti’s intellectuals, students and artists to harness the PetroCaribe spirit of the mass demonstrations and push for an end to the era of <em>ensekirite</em>. If these voices are heard then maybe Haiti will finally get the leaders that the visionary revolutionaries leaders dreamed of more than 200 years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Douglas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why the rest of the world needs to listen to Haitian voices and take a longer view of Haiti’s unique history.Rachel Douglas, Lecturer in French and Comparative Literature, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1642872021-07-12T23:32:36Z2021-07-12T23:32:36ZWho’s running Haiti after president’s assassination? 5 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410852/original/file-20210712-70850-ddr3l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2468%2C1633&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Haitians seeking asylum
gather July 10, 2021, at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti after the president's assassination plunged the country further into chaos,</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-look-on-as-haitian-citizens-gather-in-front-of-the-news-photo/1233910041">VALERIE BAERISWYL/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Two men are vying to control Haiti after President Jovenel Moïse’s July 7 assassination, creating more turmoil for a nation in crisis. Here, scholar Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, a Haitian studies scholar and author of “<a href="https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30616455112&searchurl=sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dhaiti%2Bbreached%2Bcitadel&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1">Haiti: The Breached Citadel</a>,” explains the unusual situation that gave rise to this power struggle – and asserts that Haiti may never get the democracy it needs.</em> </p>
<h2>1. Who is running Haiti right now?</h2>
<p>Prime Minister Claude Joseph has assumed power. However, Joseph was only an acting prime minister. Appointed by President Moïse in April 2021 on an interim basis, he was supposed to have been replaced on July 7, 2021, by <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article252574293.html">Dr. Ariel Henry, a former interior minister and neurosurgeon</a>. The day before the transition was to happen, the president was assassinated. </p>
<p>Both claim they are the legitimate prime minister. But neither Joseph nor his would-be successor as prime minister have been approved by the Haitian legislature, a necessary step, because there is no functioning Haitian legislature at the moment. Lawmakers’ <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2020/01/18/jovenel-moise-tries-to-govern-haiti-without-a-parliament">terms of office ended in January 2020</a> and President Moïse never held legislative elections to elect new lawmakers, as called for by statute. </p>
<p>So the country has been operating without a parliament for the past 18 months. <a href="https://theconversation.com/haitians-protest-their-president-in-english-as-well-as-creole-indicting-us-for-its-role-in-countrys-political-crisis-160154">Moïse ruled by decrees</a> – “decret-lois” – that did not require legislative approval. In the U.S., executive orders would be a close parallel. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410854/original/file-20210712-27-1cc0j3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph speaks at a press conference at his residence." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410854/original/file-20210712-27-1cc0j3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410854/original/file-20210712-27-1cc0j3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410854/original/file-20210712-27-1cc0j3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410854/original/file-20210712-27-1cc0j3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410854/original/file-20210712-27-1cc0j3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410854/original/file-20210712-27-1cc0j3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410854/original/file-20210712-27-1cc0j3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Acting Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph at a press conference at his residence in Port-au-Prince on July 8, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/prime-minister-claude-joseph-speaks-during-a-press-news-photo/1327699231">Getty Images/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>2. Who is officially supposed to replace the president of Haiti if he dies or becomes incapacitated?</h2>
<p>For long stretches of its history, the Haitian Constitution named the president of the Cour de Cassation – chief justice of the Haitian supreme court – as first in the line of succession, followed by all other judges of the high court, based on seniority. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Haiti/haiti1987.html">Constitution of 1987</a> was amended to say that the prime minister would become the transitional chief of state – but only after he had been ratified by both houses of the legislature, comprising the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. </p>
<p>Well, Haiti’s legislature is not in operation right now. You have only 10 sitting senators out of 30, and no deputies left. So the constitutional provision cannot be applied. And the president of Haiti’s high court died of COVID-19 in June 2021. </p>
<p>This is the thing that’s most worrisome to me: Whatever the Constitution provides for at the moment cannot happen. </p>
<h2>3. What is the US government’s position on Haiti’s leadership crisis?</h2>
<p>The U.S. helped create the situation by its continued support of President Moïse, who had become <a href="https://theconversation.com/slain-haitian-president-faced-calls-for-resignation-sustained-mass-protests-before-killing-164131">despised by many Haitians</a> even before he overstayed his four-year term. After his 2016 election, Moïse quickly lost all credibility because of a corruption scandal, with all sectors of the Haitian population – its small political elite class, the wealthy, the middle classes and the broad peasantry. </p>
<p>But former President Donald Trump liked Moïse. President Biden supported his administration, too, but hasn’t paid much attention to Haiti – until now. So far, the U.S. has denied a request from Haiti’s interim prime minister to send troops “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/we-need-help-haitis-interim-leader-requests-us-troops/2021/07/10/72a1d3ca-e133-11eb-a27f-8b294930e95b_story.html">to assist and help us</a>.” </p>
<p>The U.S. has also called for <a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-july-7-2021/">national elections to be held by the end of the year</a>, as scheduled – as if “democracy” means only elections. The definition of democracy in the U.S. is very instrumental: Either you have an election or don’t you have an election, so you’re either a democracy or you aren’t. </p>
<p>It’s not as simple as that. Democracy is a process.</p>
<h2>4. So what would a Haitian democratic process look like?</h2>
<p>Haitians have always sought democracy.</p>
<p>After all, Haiti was the first country the world to abolish slavery. Fourteen days after declaring independence from France, in 1804, the Haitian chief of state <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-haitis-founding-father-whose-black-revolution-was-too-radical-for-thomas-jefferson-101963">Jean-Jacques Dessalines</a> declared Haiti would provided refuge and <a href="https://theconversation.com/haiti-protests-summon-spirit-of-the-haitian-revolution-to-condemn-a-president-tainted-by-scandal-126315">guaranteed freedom for all and any Black persons who reached its shores</a>. Dessalines was soon killed.</p>
<p>What modern Haitians want is democracy – that’s “Haitian democracy, not American democracy,” to quote a peasant woman <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30616455112&searchurl=sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dhaiti%2Bbreached%2Bcitadel&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1">speaking to a reporter in 1987</a>.</p>
<p>But what Haitians want has been ignored since 1915, the last time a Haitian president was assassinated. That opened the door for a brutal <a href="https://theconversation.com/haitis-president-assassinated-5-essential-reads-to-give-you-key-history-and-insight-164118">19-year U.S. military invasion and occupation</a>. Even before 1915, there were 19 U.S. military <a href="https://time.com/5682135/haiti-military-anniversary/">interventions in Haiti</a>, and many more since. </p>
<p>It’s the rare Haitian president who can be elected without the consent of the United States, and none <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/04/world/haiti-s-coup-test-case-for-bush-s-new-world-order.html">survive without Washington’s support</a>. Several presidents elected by Haitians have been overthrown with the <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/122994mag-woolsey.html">U.S. government’s help</a>. </p>
<p>One was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Bertrand-Aristide">President Jean-Bertrand Aristide</a>, a Roman Catholic priest from the slums, who was elected in 1990. Poor Haitian people, the majority, massively voted for him, and he brought people like them – the peasants, the urban working classes – into power. This horrified the Haitian middle and upper classes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410856/original/file-20210712-25-1pipphg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide holds up his thumb covered in ink after voting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410856/original/file-20210712-25-1pipphg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410856/original/file-20210712-25-1pipphg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410856/original/file-20210712-25-1pipphg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410856/original/file-20210712-25-1pipphg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410856/original/file-20210712-25-1pipphg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410856/original/file-20210712-25-1pipphg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410856/original/file-20210712-25-1pipphg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Haitian presidential candidate Jean-Bertrand Aristide after voting in Haiti’s 1990 presidential election, Dec. 16, 1990. Aristide won in a landslide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/haitian-presidential-candidate-father-jean-bertrand-news-photo/108682571">JEROME DELAY/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aristide <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/12/nyregion/thousands-of-haitians-protest-coup.html">was overthrown by the Haitian army</a> seven months into office. He later returned to power and <a href="https://www.ijdh.org/2007/02/topics/politics-democracy/u-s-reporting-on-the-coup-haiti/">was overthrown again</a> – a coup <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/03/01/aristide.claim/">he says was U.S.-backed</a>. The U.S. denies involvement.</p>
<h2>5. What does so much foreign intervention in Haiti’s history mean for its future?</h2>
<p>If Haiti is to have a real representative democracy, the Haitian power structure must reflect the culture of the Haitian people. That may take a revolution – and with the U.S. engagement there, that’s unlikely to happen.</p>
<p>One moment in which <a href="http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/86.87eng/chap.4c.htm">this process began to occur</a> was the 1987 constitution, which was published in both Creole and in French. Voted on in a referendum, it passed with stunning popular approval.</p>
<p>In several moves aimed at removing colonial influence, the new constitution made Haitian Creole an official language of Haiti and removed Catholicism – the French faith – as the state religion. It also decriminalized <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-haitian-voodoo-119621">the Haitian religion Vodou</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>The changes mandated by the new constitution are very much still in progress. Ninety-five percent of Haitians do not speak a lick of French – but the schools overwhelmingly teach in French. Until recently the courts and the legislature conducted all their business in French. This means the people don’t know what’s going on in their country. </p>
<p>If the state institutions do not reflect the country’s culture, then a country can never be democratic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick D Bellegarde-Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>President Moïse is dead. Two politicians say they’re in charge. Parliament is suspended. A Haitian studies scholar explains Haiti’s power vacuum and says elections alone won’t restore democracy there.Patrick D Bellegarde-Smith, Professor Emeritus of Africology, University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1641312021-07-07T17:35:54Z2021-07-07T17:35:54ZSlain Haitian president faced calls for resignation, sustained mass protests before killing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410191/original/file-20210707-15-hoh0xe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C0%2C5439%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Presidential guards patrol the entrance to the residence of late Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 7, 2021. Moïse was assassinated there early that morning.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXHaitiPresidentKilled/ba54598fe1b6408482316521c76c6012/photo?Query=Haiti&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=24622&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/07/world/jovenel-moise-assassinated-killed">assassinated in the early morning hours of July 7, 2021</a>, in a brazen attack on his private home outside Port-au-Prince, the capital. </p>
<p>Moïse’s wife was also shot in the assault that killed her husband. The assailants have not been identified, and Haiti’s prime minister reports he is running the country. </p>
<p>Moïse’s assassination ended a four-and-a-half-year presidency that plunged the already troubled nation deeper into crisis.</p>
<h2>A political novice</h2>
<p>Jovenel Moïse, 53, was born in 1968, meaning that he grew up under the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. Like most Haitians today, he lived through turbulent times – not only dictators but also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/7/haitis-turbulent-political-history-a-timeline">coups and widespread violence, including political assassinations</a>. </p>
<p>Moïse, a businessman turned president, made his way into politics using political connections that stemmed from the business world. Initially he invested in automobile-related businesses, primarily in the north of Haiti, where he was born. Eventually, he ultimately landed in the agricultural sector – a <a href="https://www.economy.com/haiti/indicators">big piece of the economy in Haiti, where many people farm</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399496/original/file-20210507-19-crdlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Valerie Baeriswyl / AFP via Getty Images" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399496/original/file-20210507-19-crdlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399496/original/file-20210507-19-crdlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399496/original/file-20210507-19-crdlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399496/original/file-20210507-19-crdlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399496/original/file-20210507-19-crdlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399496/original/file-20210507-19-crdlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399496/original/file-20210507-19-crdlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in November 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/haitian-president-jovenel-moise-speaks-during-a-military-news-photo/1183269268?adppopup=true">Jovenel at a podium with men sitting behind him</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2014, Moïse’s agricultural finance company Agritrans <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190214-haitis-banana-man-president-under-siege-frozen-crisis">launched an organic banana plantation</a>, in part with state loans. Its creation <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2016/01/22/haiti%E2%80%99s-fraudulent-presidential-frontrunner-seizes-land-his-own-banana-republic">displaced hundreds of peasant farmers, who received minimal compensation</a>. </p>
<p>But the business brought Moïse prominence. It was as a famed banana exporter that Moïse met then-Haitian President Michel Martelly in 2014. Though he had no political experience, Moïse became <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/haiti/politics-moise.htm">Martelly’s hand-picked successor in Haiti’s next election</a>. </p>
<p>Martelly was <a href="https://www.wlrn.org/show/latin-america-report/2016-01-11/haitis-cursed-presidential-election-is-voting-there-set-up-for-failure">deeply unpopular by the end of his term</a>, but party leaders assumed that Moïse would be more welcomed given his relatable background in farming.</p>
<h2>A divisive and unstable presidency</h2>
<p>Instead, Moïse barely eked out a <a href="https://haitiliberte.com/the-record-low-voter-participation-in-haitis-2016-election/">win in a November 2016 election</a> that fewer than 12% of Haitians voted in. His meager electoral victory came after two years of delayed votes and <a href="http://worldpolicy.org/2016/03/22/haitis-unending-electoral-transition/">confirmed electoral fraud by Martelly’s government</a>. </p>
<p>In 2017, Moïse’s first year in office, <a href="https://haitiliberte.com/le-rapport-petrocaribe-de-la-commission-senatoriale-speciale-denquete-du-senateur-evalliere-beauplan/">the Haitian Senate issued a report accusing him</a> of embezzling at least US$700,000 of public money from an infrastructure development fund called PetroCaribe <a href="https://time.com/5609054/haiti-protests-petrocaribe/">to his banana business</a>. </p>
<p>Protesters flooded into the streets crying “<a href="https://theweek.com/articles/840427/fight-transparency-haiti">Kot Kòb Petwo Karibe a</a>?” – “where is the PetroCaribe money?” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protests signs seen laying on the ground, saying 'Jovenel must go' in English and Creole" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399480/original/file-20210507-19-12nvewv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399480/original/file-20210507-19-12nvewv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399480/original/file-20210507-19-12nvewv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399480/original/file-20210507-19-12nvewv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399480/original/file-20210507-19-12nvewv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399480/original/file-20210507-19-12nvewv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399480/original/file-20210507-19-12nvewv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protest signs in Port-au-Prince in March 2021 before a protest to denounce Moïse’s efforts to stay in office past his term.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/signs-are-seen-on-the-ground-before-haitians-demonstrated-news-photo/1231992427?adppopup=true">Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lacking the trust of the Haitian people, Moïse relied on hard power to remain in office. </p>
<p>He created a kind of police state in Haiti, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-haiti-military/haitian-army-set-to-make-controversial-return-after-two-decades-idUSKBN1DJ01M">reviving the national army</a> two decades after it was disbanded and <a href="https://cepr.net/whats-in-haitis-new-national-security-decrees-an-intelligence-agency-and-an-expanded-definition-of-terrorism/">creating a domestic intelligence agency</a> with surveillance powers. </p>
<p>Since early last year, Moïse had been ruling by decree. He effectively shuttered the Haitian legislature by refusing to <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2020/01/18/jovenel-moise-tries-to-govern-haiti-without-a-parliament">hold parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2020</a> and summarily <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article249251975.html">dismissed all of the country’s elected mayors in July 2020</a>, when their terms expired.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/haiti-protests-summon-spirit-of-the-haitian-revolution-to-condemn-a-president-tainted-by-scandal-126315">Sustained protests</a> – over gas shortages and blackouts, fiscal austerity that has caused <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/02/25/can-haiti-rid-itself-of-jovenel-moise">rapid inflation and deteriorating living conditions</a>, and <a href="http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Killing_With_Impunity-1.pdf">gang attacks that have killed several hundred</a>, among other issues – were a hallmark of Moïse’s tenure. </p>
<p>Existing street protests exploded in early 2021 after Moïse refused to hold a presidential election and <a href="http://www.haiti.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/CCI-CONSTITUTION-Note.pdf">step down when his four-year term ended in Feburary</a>. Instead, he claimed his term would end one year later, in February 2022, because Haiti’s 2016 election was postponed. </p>
<p>Before his death, Moïse planned to <a href="https://www.liberationnews.org/fierce-struggle-resists-u-s-backed-haitian-presidents-power-grab/">change the Haitian Constitution</a> to strengthen the powers of the presidency and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-03/proposed-changes-to-haiti-s-constitution-may-keep-moise-in-power">prolong his administration</a>. </p>
<h2>Memories of a dictatorship</h2>
<p>For months before his assassination, Haitian protesters had been demanding Moïse’s resignation.</p>
<p>For many Haitians, Moïse’s undemocratic power grabs recall the 30-year, U.S.-backed dictatorships of François Duvalier, known as “Papa Doc,” and his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399495/original/file-20210507-13-17wn3bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black-and-white image of François Duvalier, in a suit, and his wife, in a dress, surrounded by watchful men" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399495/original/file-20210507-13-17wn3bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399495/original/file-20210507-13-17wn3bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399495/original/file-20210507-13-17wn3bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399495/original/file-20210507-13-17wn3bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399495/original/file-20210507-13-17wn3bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399495/original/file-20210507-13-17wn3bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399495/original/file-20210507-13-17wn3bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">François Duvalier with bodyguards and his wife, Simone, after they voted in Haiti’s 1957 presidential election, in which Duvalier was a leading candidate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/francois-duvalier-is-shown-with-his-wife-simone-after-they-news-photo/101945949">AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both Papa Doc and Baby Doc relied on <a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/haiti.htm">murdering</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-02-03-mn-3859-story.html">brutalizing</a> Haitians to remain in power, with the unspoken approval of <a href="https://origins.osu.edu/article/pact-devil-united-states-and-fate-modern-haiti/page/0/1">Western political interests</a> in Haiti. Working with the Duvaliers, U.S. manufacturers in Haiti ensured that their investments were profitable by pushing for wages <a href="https://theconversation.com/gas-shortages-paralyze-haiti-triggering-protests-against-failing-economy-and-dysfunctional-politics-116337">to remain low and working conditions to remain poor</a>. </p>
<p>When mounting Haitian protests ended the regime in 1986, Baby Doc fled the country. The Duvaliers had enriched themselves, but Haiti was left in <a href="https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1835&context=graddis">economic collapse and social ruin</a>.</p>
<p>The 1987 Haitian Constitution that Moïse sought to change was written soon after to ensure that Haiti would never slide back into dictatorship.</p>
<p>Beyond Moïse’s use of state violence to suppress opposition, anti-Moïse protesters before his killing pointed out another similarity with the Duvalier era: the United States’ support. </p>
<p>In March, the U.S. State Department announced that it supported Moïse’s <a href="https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/03/09/the-biden-administration-is-greenlighting-haitis-descent-towards-dictatorship/">decision to remain in office until 2022</a>, to give the crisis-stricken country time to “elect their leaders and restore Haiti’s democratic institutions.”</p>
<p>That stance – which echoes that of Western-dominated international organizations that hold substantial sway in Haiti, <a href="https://dyalog.org/refleksyon/2019/2/11/the-core-group-as-a-parasite-on-haitian-sovereignty">such as the Organization of American States</a> – sustained what was left of Moïse’s legitimacy to remain president. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399493/original/file-20210507-19-1yjhdms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Crowd in the street under smoky skies hold up a sign with U.S., Canadian and other foreign flags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399493/original/file-20210507-19-1yjhdms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399493/original/file-20210507-19-1yjhdms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399493/original/file-20210507-19-1yjhdms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399493/original/file-20210507-19-1yjhdms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399493/original/file-20210507-19-1yjhdms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399493/original/file-20210507-19-1yjhdms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399493/original/file-20210507-19-1yjhdms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters in Port-au-Prince in 2019 highlight the role of foreign governments in supporting President Jovenel Moïse, who was accused of corruption.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-carry-a-cross-bearing-images-of-canada-us-and-news-photo/1149703953?adppopup=true">CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Haitians unhappy with continued American support for their embattled president held <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hundreds-haiti-protest-demand-leaders-resignation-75387503">numerous demonstrations outside the U.S. embassy</a> in <a href="https://www.garda.com/crisis24/news-alerts/445921/haiti-activists-to-protest-outside-the-us-embassy-in-port-au-prince-feb-22-24">Port-au-Prince</a>, while Haitian Americans in the U.S. <a href="https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/solidarity-rallies-call-for-end-to-u-s-backed-dictatorship-in-haiti/">protested outside the Haitian Embassy in Washington, D.C.</a></p>
<p>From its invasion and military occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934 to its support of the Duvalier regime, the U.S. has played a <a href="https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-14-the-united-states-and-latin-america/moments-in-u-s-latin-american-relations/a-history-of-united-states-policy-towards-haiti/">major role in destabilizing Haiti</a>. </p>
<p>Ever since the devastating Haitian earthquake of 2010, international organizations like the United Nations and nonprofits like the American Red Cross have also had an <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-decade-after-the-earthquake-haiti-still-struggles-to-recover-129670">outsize presence in the country</a>.</p>
<p>Now, the unpopular president that foreign powers supported in hopes of achieving some measure of political stability in Haiti has been killed. </p>
<p><em>This story is a substantially updated and expanded version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/haitians-protest-their-president-in-english-as-well-as-creole-indicting-us-for-its-role-in-countrys-political-crisis-160154">an article</a>, originally published on May 10, 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164131/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamanisha J. John does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in his home outside Port-au-Prince ended a presidency that had plunged the already troubled nation deeper into crisis.Tamanisha J. John, Ph.D. Candidate of International Relations, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.