Coming Soon: Purging Old Corrupt Oligarchs to Bring in the New
Another Haitian Government Bites the Dust
On an island nation in the Caribbean there is chaos. As an old boss once told me, “in chaos there is profit.” I’m sure he didn’t coin the phrase, but it certainly described his modus operandi.
Haiti, the half-an-island nation left in perpetual purgatory for committing the sin of being the first to overthrow their slave masters, is once again racked by violence, and a coalition of nations of the world are saying they feel obligated to intervene to restore order.
Civil society groups in that nation, citing past interventions – as well as fears that another foreign-led mission would prop up corrupt Haitian officials – had previously rejected an October 2022 appeal for an armed force to restore order.
From Al Jazeera:
Wariness over foreign deployments stretches back to Haiti’s independence from France in the 1800s.
The country has seen numerous foreign interventions since then, including a 1915 invasion by US Marines that began a 19-year occupation and a US mission in the 1990s to remove a Haitian military government following a coup.
More recently, UN deployments in Haiti have widely been viewed as failures: UN peacekeepers sent to the country after a devastating 2010 earthquake were linked to a cholera outbreak that killed about 10,000 people, and UN troops who withdrew from the country in 2019 also have been linked to sexual violence against Haitian women and girls.
The US and Canada, among others, have imposed a series of sanctions against Haitian politicians and others over their alleged support for gangs and other destabilizing activities, such as drug trafficking and government corruption.
This week in Jamaica, Caribbean leaders are holding an emergency meeting on the situation in Haiti to address the deteriorating situation. Invited are representatives from the U.S., France, Canada, the United Nations and Brazil in the hope that some sort of international force can be hobbled together to intervene. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced he will be joining the meeting.
On Sunday, the United States said it had airlifted non-essential American staff from its embassy in Port-au-Prince, along with conducting an operation to augment the security of the facility. The point was made that only Americans were included in the airlift in response to rumors about government officials being ferried out.
Armed groups –referred to in the media as street gangs– have attacked police stations and the National Palace in recent days. The airport is closed, the main port has been seized, food is becoming scarce, and the economy has ground to a halt. More than 3800 inmates have been freed following attacks on the two largest prisons in the country.
Gangs, often armed with weapons originating in the United States, have been a fact of life in Haiti for decades. They are a byproduct of a failed national economy, providing employment and meaning for thousands of desperate people. Outside criminal groups and foreign governments have hired local gangs for protection and political aims.
During the Trump administration, the gangs gained a new sense of purpose.
From Agence France-Presse via Barron’s:
But a tipping point came in 2018, experts say, when the government turned to the gangs to quell a vast popular uprising demanding political change and an end to corruption.
Subsequent massacres by the gangs revealed their "instrumentation by the powers that be," Frederic Thomas, a researcher at the Tricontinental Centre (CETRI) in Belgium, told AFP.
Haiti has become a "narco-state," said Jean-Marie Theodat, a geographer at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris. He believes Henry has been "objectively complicit in the takeover of the country by bandits" like influential gang leader Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier, a former policeman who took the lead in the latest violence
If one is to accept government-controlled sources, then these criminals are engaged in cannibalism as part of a no-holds-barred campaign of terror. They reportedly already control 80% of the capital city.
A coalition of gangs called Viv Ansanm (“live together”) launched an intensified assault on February 29. Gang leader “Barbecue” Chérizier held a press conference a few days later, warning: “If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide.”
Chérizier told ABC News: "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. Not only are we fighting against Ariel Henry, but we are also fighting against everyone who has some complicity."
Current disorders coincided with the departure of Henry, who was headed for Kenya, hoping to persuade that government to lead a U.S. sponsored multinational force to squash gangs in order to buy time to organize elections. (A Kenyan court in January declared this plan unconstitutional.)
Now he’s trapped in Puerto Rico, unable to return to the capital. Whether he’s staying under his own volition, or being held prisoner by the Secret Service agents who met him at the Luis Munoz Marin international airport isn’t clear.
The Dominican Republic, which occupies the other half of Hispaniola, has told Henry not to come, after a plan to sneak him in at night via helicopter from Santo Domingo surfaced.
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Jonathan Katz (he’s the guy who revealed Alabama Sen. Katie Britt’s lies about immigrant crime) lived in Haiti and remains informed on that nation’s politics. From his The Racket Newsletter:
What matters for the moment is what happened after the murder. Moïse had spent the last years of his life destroying what was left of the Haitian government, which was already in shambles after decades of mostly malevolent U.S. interference (including several invasions, blessing coups in 1991 and 2004, and reversing the results of the 2010 election, thus bringing the pro-business-class, American- and narco-friendly Martelly to power). He and Martelly had squandered and stolen the remaining funds meant to recover from the catastrophic 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of the Haitian capital. Parliament and all local political offices in the country had been emptied, as Moïse—following some previous presidents’ precedent—had refused to hold a single election after coming to office, and was seemingly planning to extend his term past any discernible constitutional limits
With Moïse’s death, then, there were now no constitutionally elected officials left in Haiti. So, after fumbling around a bit, a group of ambassadors consisting of the United States and its major allies (France, Canada, Brazil, etc) ordered Ariel Henry—a seventy-something neurologist who’d entered Haitian politics as part of the faction that ended up carrying out the 2004 coup—to form a government. (Moïse had announced his intention to nominate Henry as prime minister but didn’t get a chance to put him up for a ratification vote in front of the rump parliament before he was cut to pieces in his bedroom.) The idea was that Henry would crack down on criminal gangs and hold “free, fair, transparent and credible legislative and presidential elections in the shortest possible time.”
That was nearly three years ago. No elections were ever held. A nuanced, detailed political transition plan proposed by a broad-based coalition that included several major Haitian political parties, professional organizations, labor unions, farmers’ alliances, and religious and diaspora organizations was ignored by both Henry and the Biden administration. The gangs grew in power and ambition, the streets exploded with unrest, and some old putschist actors came crawling out of the woodwork. Evidence emerged that Henry himself was, at a minimum, in touch with people accused of plotting Moïse’s assassination—during the assassination. Then came this week.
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As Katz points out, we’re now in the middle of an often-repeating three part cycle: Demand Elections, send in an armed force to restore order, and when that government is no longer useful, dump them.
The US is desperate to get a non-white, non-colonial nation to lead this latest round of salvation in military garb, and there aren’t many takers.
All of the interventions in Haiti have been tainted by a survival ethos driven by starvation and the willingness of corporate entities to profit from chaos. From an international point of view, the interests competing against the US won’t be inclined to lend a hand; unrest works in their interests. Case in point: the Trump campaign’s agitation on migration at the southern border. Watch for lots of visuals of Haitian refugees.
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Monday News You Should Read
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How a Small-Time Soccer Team Draws a Crowd: With Its Activism via the New York Times
. “When I was a kid and a young man there was no contradiction between loving books and loving football,” Roddy Doyle, the novelist and a lifelong Bohemians fan, wrote in an email. “They were all cultural choices we made, our badges of identity.”
He added: “Bohemians come close to delivering that blend that has always been my idea of culture: a stadium in an area that crackles with history and is also a magnet for newness; a team that wears jerseys that feature Dublin musicians and have ‘Refugees Welcome’ printed across their chests; fans who sing a song composed by Brendan Behan just before kickoff. Supporting Bohemians is a stew. But the football is vital.”
For all the causes, the activism, the growth and the commercial success, Mr. Doyle wrote, the best part of being a Bohemians fan to him is the same as it has always been: “Being in the crowd when they score.”
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Some journalists seem bored by the biggest story of our lifetimes by Mark Jacob at Stop the Presses
The most important reason that this year’s election is no rerun is that Trump’s dictator talk has gotten progressively worse. It’s clear that this November’s election will be a referendum on democracy vs. fascism. It will be an election to decide whether it’s our last fair election.
Yes, it’s a race between two old white guys we already know. But the choice is stark. When the Times argues ridiculously that neither Biden nor Trump is a “change candidate,” it’s ignoring the fact that both of them have clear visions for transforming American politics.
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Shameless Plug
The Jumping Off Place posts for the Week of March 11, 2024
Election Stress Disorder and the State of the Union by Jim Miller
The Feminine Face of GOP Fascism: Katie Britt’s Strange, Deep Kitchen By Kelly Mayhew
First We Kill All the MBAs by Joel Martin
A Future for San Diego’s Roads Means Everybody Gets a Chance by Doug Porter
The Poetry of Liberation: Remembering raúlrsalinas on His 90th Birthday by Brent Beltrån
Americana Book Report: Lauren C & the Queen of the Underworld by Mel Frielicher
Lord, Save Me from the Techno-Optimists! by Ian Duckles
Exercising Resistance Muscles by Jenn Budd
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