There is no more failed country in the world today than Haiti. Chaos, violence, rape, murder, kidnapping, political instability, natural disasters, epidemics. The 21st century has been very cruel to Haiti, as it was once called “Pearl of the Antilles” and in 1821 it was the first government of an independent state to recognize the Greek revolution against Ottoman rule.
Two weeks ago, at the end of February, much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, fell to gangs in response to the announcement by interim (from 2021) president and prime minister, Ariel Henri, that elections would be postponed until August of 2025 (they already have seven years to organize elections in the country).
The leader of G9, one of the largest Haitian gangs, Mr Jimmy Sergier, an ex-cop nicknamed “Barbecue,” threatened civil war. The G9 and other gangs seized strategic infrastructure such as the international airport, assassinated members of the security forces and attacked prisons, causing the escape of 4,000 inmates last week.
In 2023, there were 4,789 murders and 2,490 kidnappings, according to the UN. The displaced reached 146,000. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, and half of its nearly 11.5 million people need humanitarian aid to survive. It is estimated that 200-300 gangs operate in the country, 23 of them (the strongest) in the capital. Until recently they controlled 60% of Port-au-Prince, after the latest developments they control 80%, maybe even more.
The starting point is the murder of Moises
Chaos is not today. It has continued to worsen since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in his home in July 2021. Henri, who succeeded him “temporarily”, has been calling for the intervention of an international force to restore order (the UN passed a resolution before five months but the force has not yet been launched). The country’s 9,000 police officers are not enough and last week, Henry visited Kenya and signed an agreement to send 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti.
After the dictatorships of Francois Duvalier or “Papa Doc” (1957-1971) and his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier or “Baby Doc” (1971-1986), Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the 1990-91 elections in a landslide. But in 1993 the UN and the following year the US sent tens of thousands of troops to Haiti to restore democracy after a military coup. Aristide was ousted from power again in 2004, and the UN again sent a peacekeeping force (which remained until 2019).
Members of the peacekeeping force as well as NGOs operating in the country have been accused of sexually exploiting Haitian women, often in exchange for food, water or medicine.
In January 2010, a devastating 7-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands. Tens of thousands of buildings collapsed in the capital, including the presidential palace. UN peacekeepers from Nepal, deployed to provide relief after the earthquake, brought a cholera epidemic that killed at least another 10,000 Haitians.
Violent and rigged elections, hurricanes – such as Thomas that caused floods that worsened the cholera epidemic in 2010 and the most destructive Matthew in 2016 – earthquakes such as the 7.2 Richter one in 2021 that killed at least 2,000 Haitians and displaced more than 1, 2 million. And all this in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Can Haiti be saved?
THE Romain Le Cour Grand Maison, a researcher for the organization Global Initiative Against International Organized Crime, who left Port-au-Prince last Sunday (3/3), described to Monde the situation that has prevailed in recent years: “The capital is divided into three zones. The lowlands, called the red zone, are controlled entirely by gangs, have either slums or run-down neighborhoods, and living conditions are appalling. A little higher begins the orange zone, where gangs do not have absolute control, fights break out sporadically and the risk of kidnapping lurks. Even higher, in the mountains, are the more affluent neighborhoods where foreigners and the local elite live, and they make up a very small percentage of the wider capital area. In these neighborhoods, life is constantly adjusting as the battles unfold in the city that people follow through the WhatsApp groups they’ve set up with the residents of their street, their neighborhood, their friends.”
Can Haiti be saved? The international community is not interested. Canada has not bowed to American pressure to lead a peacekeeping force, openly expressing pessimism about the mission’s effectiveness.
He eventually convinced Kenya to send 1,000 US-funded police, but this caused a lot of backlash in Kenya itself. Henry’s trip to Nairobi last week was about signing the relevant agreements. He has not yet been able to return to Haiti.
After “disappearing” for a few days, Henri landed last Tuesday in Puerto Rico where he remains “trapped” outside his country. The international airport – the only route out of Port-au-Prince until last week since the road network is controlled by the gangs who, at best, demand money at the many checkpoints they have set up – is today under gang control. .
The neighboring Dominican Republic, with which Haiti shares the same island, Hispaniola, refused Henri’s plane to land because it has closed its airspace to flights to and from Haiti. The only slim hope is for Henri to resign and for the country to be led to elections by a transitional government. But the chances of success of this scenario are small.
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