At a time when insecurity, poverty and despair are driving tens of thousands of women, men and children from Haiti to venture dangerously out to sea or as far as South America on thousands of kilometers through the mountains, the jungle, exposed to the worst attacks, to reach the United States and, from there, with a bit of luck Canada, we have to go back to square one to better understand the fate reserved for their country.
We must first realize how much the Haitian people have always been at the heart of the world’s major issues and have had to pay the price for their insolent arrival on the scene of free nations.
Former French colony, in the hell of the European powers which dispossessed, dehumanized, destroyed peoples all over the planet, the improbable nation, the Republic of Haiti was born from the rebellion of 500,000 black slaves who will succeed to free themselves.
Their feat will give impetus from 1804 to the global surge of the movement of decolonization and the abolition of slavery.
But postcolonial hegemony and the will of the United States, under the inspiration of the Monroe doctrine, to dominate the Americas, Haiti will not come out of it. Under the rule of autocratic and predatory regimes supported by Washington, the young Republic will find itself disjointed many times. The economy of the country handicapped from the start under the weight of the heavy debt of repair demanded by France, the Public Treasury of Haiti will be for more than a century in the hands of a French bank, then German and American.
From supranational humanitarian aid, from the goodwill of crisis logistics following natural disasters, the country has also suffered. The wealthy service providers in the country and the international NGOs have taken in a lot, the population has seen only passing.
Haiti will not escape the formidable networks of drug traffickers in the region either. These transnational criminal organizations are masters at destabilizing weak states through corruption and violence. They know how to seize the territories, clear the circuits of their numerous traffics, not only of narcotics, but also of weapons and people. And to better terrorize, targeted attacks and kidnapping are their most formidable tactics.
In Haiti as elsewhere, members of the police, the political sector and business circles are under the leadership of these criminals. President Jovenel Moïse, like others, has also come dangerously close and is not the first in the region to have been liquidated by these thugs who, once they enjoy impunity, only become more powerful.
And what about the recklessness of the Canadian and American governments in their decisions to deport small traffickers of Haitian origin to Port-au-Prince, without even consulting the country’s authorities, thus unleashing an insurmountable scourge on the weak nation. These deportees, who obviously were not prosecuted, strong in their networks, quickly anchored their criminal activities in Haitian soil and swelled the ranks of the nebula of drug traffickers.
The problem is continental. The Republic of Haiti will not be able to cope alone. The responsibility must be shared between all the international protagonists of this drama. A real common exercise of truth and accountability is needed, in a concerted and orderly manner.
The country’s sovereignty has been abused so often that it is in tatters. Following the assassination of President Moïse, it was foreign ambassadors, with the consent of their capitals and the participation of the United Nations, who proceeded without restraint to install Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the de facto government. currently in exercise in Haiti. This is an unusual situation in contemporary history. We are witnessing an absolute debacle of multilateralism. This happened without consideration for a beleaguered population that has been calling for respect for the rule of law for years and for the mobilization of hundreds of Haitian civil society organizations concerned with a return to constitutional order.
To honor the position in which he was placed and restore confidence in the judicial system, the Prime Minister would have had to accept to submit to the questioning of justice, to answer questions in the investigation around the assassination of President Moses.
After a year of chaos, total insecurity, against a backdrop of the resurgence of cholera and a worsening humanitarian crisis, Ariel Henry recently reached an agreement with part of civil society giving rise to a High Council of the Transition (HCT) and a Body for the Control of Government Action (OCAG). Will this agreement lead to an inclusive societal alliance, a consensual formula for transitional governance, a force of proposal carried by the Haitians and the Haitians themselves, with the ultimate goals of the higher interest of the nation and the good common ?
We need a roadmap that allows us to go to the most urgent, that is to say, to eradicate the armed gangs that control the capital and paralyze the country.
For that, Haiti undeniably needs strong reinforcements, drawing inspiration from what other countries on the continent and elsewhere in the world have been able to implement in similar circumstances.
We need inclusive, robust and representative governance, solidly structured to properly establish the terms of international cooperation in solidarity with Haiti. If only for the urgent supervision of the Haitian National Police, unfortunately very infiltrated by criminals, as for the control of port activities in order to fight effectively against the circulation and trafficking of arms mainly from the United States . The economy of insecurity is flourishing and its beneficiaries are resisting all the changes that are necessary for the reconquest and securing of the national territory.
In these same terms, it will be possible to identify a response strategy to cholera and the humanitarian crisis. This would also allow for the reorganization of the electoral process, the reactivation of the judicial system and certainly a constitutional reform to essentially simplify and modernize political governance.
Peace and security can only be built with the essential contribution of the populations. Experiences carried out elsewhere have demonstrated this through the strengthening of civil resistance, support for initiatives and fundamentally non-violent citizen actions. They have the advantage of being in favor of progressive reforms, justice and social cohesion. Women, it is well known, play a key role in the success of these civil resistance campaigns and their involvement increases public participation rates.
Hurry up. The country is in danger. Haiti needs a united front to emerge from this crisis and move towards an elected government endowed with the necessary legitimacy emanating from a clear mandate from the Haitian people to face all the fundamental problems.