Henry Srebrnik: Why is Haiti in perpetual crisis?

Article content

The Caribbean nation of Haiti, the western third of the island of Hispaniola, has been an independent state for 220 years. Indeed, it is the second oldest nation in the western hemisphere after the United States.

Yet it remains in perpetual turmoil. The underlying assumption is Haitians cannot manage their own affairs. The government is corrupt or ineffective or both. One writer has called it, uncharitably, a “permanent slave revolt.” But is that the whole story?

History says otherwise. Even after two centuries, Haiti has rarely, if ever, been allowed to manage its own affairs. In Haiti, foreign intervention and humanitarian disaster have become so intertwined that it is hard to tell one from the other. They are locked in a vicious cycle.

Haiti had been a French colonial possession with perhaps the most brutal plantation system built on the enslavement of Africans. It wrested its independence from France in a revolution during the Napoleonic wars in Europe.

But few countries got off to as inauspicious a start as Haiti. It remained surrounded by British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonies where slavery remained legal and so it was shunned by European powers. France demanded the then enormous sum of 150 million francs in return for “losing” its colony diplomatic recognition. It was not fully paid until 1947.

The United States, the only other independent republic in the Americas, was wary of a free Black country whose example might encourage rebellions by its own enslaved people. It refused to recognize Haiti until 1862.

Even then, Washington treated Haitian sovereignty very cavalierly. It sent the U.S. Marines to govern the country from 1915 until 1934. In the 1950s the U.S. acquiesced in the establishment of a brutal dictatorship under the reign of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, who was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. The latter was overthrown by a popular uprising in 1986.

A succession of ineffectual leaders, often deposed by violence, followed over the next four decades. Fourteen presidents have ruled the country, some for only days, since then. Haiti has been in even greater turmoil since the assassination of the most recent president, Jovenel Moise, in 2021.

There have been no elections since 2019. Following repeated delays to hold legislative elections, the terms of all elected official have run out, leaving the country’s institutions rudderless. Since Moise’s murder, the country has been governed by Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

A wave of violence broke out in late February while Henry was visiting Kenya to push for a UN-backed deployment of a police force led by Nairobi, to fight criminal gangs.

Since then, gangs have taken control of about 80 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have extended their reach into the countryside. Haitian police have been outgunned and outnumbered by the gangs.

From where did these gangs emerge? During the 29 years of the dictatorship of the Duvaliers, a paramilitary force called the Tonton Macoutes used extreme violence to stamp out any opposition to the Duvalier regime. Though those are long gone, since then gangs have continued to exert varying degrees of power, sometimes shielded and encouraged by the politicians with whom they forged alliances.

In 2018 the Moise government turned to the gangs to quell a popular uprising demanding political change and an end to corruption. The power vacuum created by his murder three years later allowed these gangs to become more influential.

They have attacked key infrastructure, including two prisons where the majority of the 3,800 inmates escaped. The airport in Port-au-Prince remains closed, and the main seaport, which serves as the primary gateway for food imports, suspended operations on March 7 after it reported looting. Gangs attacked two upscale neighbourhoods in the capital March 18 in a rampage that left at least a dozen people dead.

More than 360,000 Haitians have been internally displaced because of the violence, the UN’s International Organization for Migration has reported. They are living on the streets, in tent cities or in overcrowded schools. Almost half of Haiti’s people are struggling to feed themselves, with several areas close to famine,

The idea of a nation of some 11 million people being run by gangs is of huge concern, particularly the potential impact on outward migration during an election year in the United States.

On March 11, a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) finally convinced Henry to leave office. He has been replaced by a transitional presidential council which will pave the way for new elections.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had earlier called for the creation of a “broad-based, inclusive, independent presidential college.” It will also enable the pending deployment of the multinational Kenyan-led security force.

He also announced that Washington plans to provide “significant” logistical, communications and medical support. Will that turn things around? A UN stabilization mission from 2004 to 2017 had achieved mixed results against the gangs. But it is remembered mostly for a cholera outbreak that killed nearly 10,000 people.

The country’s most notorious gang leader, Jimmy Chérizier, had demanded that the prime minister resign. He got his wish. Guy Philippe is another gang leader. He helped lead a coup against a former president, Bertrand Aristide, in 2004. He has now openly expressed his desire to be Haiti’s next president.

Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island