2024-03-26 00:54:53
Gang wars, prison assaults and large protests have plunged Haiti into total anarchy since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. The worsening of the socio-political and economic crisis in the country is now leading to a mass exodus of Haitians. Has Haiti really become a failed state? What does the Caribbean country need to get out of this deep crisis?
The resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in power since Moïse’s assassination, would be a first step to reestablish governance in the country, which has not held elections since 2016. Henry was due to leave the government in February, but remained in office after an agreement with the opposition. For this reason, the armed gangs that control a large part of the country attacked the presidential headquarters, the airport and the prisons, from which some 3,000 prisoners escaped.
“Henry’s resignation is not going to change anything, but it is part of the solution. People want to see another side, even though that side could be worse. “Henry has been indolent towards the suffering of the people,” says Haitian economist and political scientist Joseph Harold Pierre, who is director of the Center for Strategic Development of the Caribbean, in an interview with DW.
The priority: resolving insecurity
After Henry’s resignation, the so-called “transitional presidential council” was formed, which is made up of seven members from the country’s largest political parties, the private sector and the Montana Accord, a coalition that had proposed an interim government after the assassination. by Moïse.
“This council will be able to do a better job. Haiti is currently a failed state that cannot guarantee security even for itself,” Pierre notes optimistically. However, Colombian-Haitian researcher Wooldy Edson Louidor, from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, explains that several organizations have been denouncing some members of said council for having criminal implications in previous regimes. “Obviously, we must also pay attention to these complaints,” says Louidor.
Protesters carry a coffin with the image of Prime Minister Ariel Henry during a protest.Image: Joseph Odelyn/AP Photo/picture alliance
The only way for the Caribbean nation to move forward, Louidor believes, is for “Haitians to agree to put the country above their interests, and for everyone – the diaspora and people within the country, rich and poor , and the political factions – look for a Haitian solution to this situation of chaos and disorder.”
Support for international intervention?
According to expert Pierre, the main reason for the serious situation in Haiti is that Haiti does not have elites that function as support for the governments. “For a State to exist, there must be an economic, political and intellectual elite behind it,” he emphasizes. But that would be, at best, a long-term perspective, since what he immediately urges is “to solve the problem of insecurity, and to do so a strong and determined mission is needed,” he emphasizes.
In that sense, Pierre supports an intervention by foreign forces in the country. “The ideal would be to help the Police solve the problem, but they are too weak and also have members who are linked to the gangs. The solution would be for a foreign mission to intervene in Haiti,” says the political scientist.
For his part, Louidor prefers that the Haitian Police be strengthened so that it can fight against armed gangs: “This must be done with international support in terms of strategies or logistical support, but the support of the Haitian civilian population is recommended and human rights organizations,” he points out.
The Kenyan government had promised to send police to lead an international mission against criminal gangs, supervised by the UN. For this reason, Henry had visited the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, from where he could not return to his country due to the outbreak of violence that caused the closure of the main Haitian airports. The president is currently in California, United States, after leaving Puerto Rico, the country from where he announced his resignation.
Dominican soldiers monitor Haitians queuing to cross the border.Image: Fran Afonso/REUTERS
International and durable solution
But it seems to Pierre that a Kenyan intervention offers few guarantees of success. “I am not very convinced of an intervention from Kenya, I would prefer it to be one from developed countries, such as the United States, Canada or France,” he maintains.
Washington, at least, has not for now ruled out sending forces to Haiti as part of an “international solution” to confront the spiral of violence facing the country. But organizations like Amnesty International view these types of foreign interventions critically and demand lasting solutions instead.
“Military solutions or external interventions have not addressed the causes of the crisis, and, therefore, far from moving towards sustainable stability, they have left in their wake a legacy of human rights violations and impunity that continues,” said La Semana. past Ana Piquer, director for the Americas of Amnesty International.
Experts Pierre and Louidor agree that the West and the international community have some responsibility for what is happening in Haiti, also for the colonial past or the American occupation.
If Haiti stabilizes, Pierre highlights, it has “great economic potential,” taking into account that more than half of the Haitian population, of eleven and a half million inhabitants, is under 25 years old. “First we would have to educate this population, create jobs, and then invest in other industries. But for there to be foreign investment, the country has to function again,” Pierre insists.
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