The land of voodoo, the birthplace of zombies, the cursed land guarded by Baron Samedi, the Lwa
or spirit of death. According to tradition, all this and more can be found in Haiti.
A Caribbean land populated by demons capable of taking away the will of many Haitians.
Well VisualPolitik viewers, this at least is what
many French thought when this place was still their colony of Santo Domingo. Or
even the Americans themselves when they invaded the country in 1916.
In fact, did you know that zombies became popular in the United States during the American invasion
in the early 20th century? So yes, that has been the main cultural influence of this country.
Of course, let's be honest. This macabre perception of Haiti and its people served
a very specific purpose: the ability to dominate a territory that had become the
richest colony in the world and which occupied an absolutely strategic position in the Caribbean.
Haiti could have become one of the richest countries in Latin America. However, destiny
had prepared a very different path for it, one that would lead it to become the poorest country
in Latin America, in the northern hemisphere and one of the poorest on the entire planet.
Beyond voodoo, zombies and spirits, Haiti today is practically what we could call a failed State.
Haiti has been in a spiral of political instability since its independence in
1804. In these almost 200 years, very few governments have remained stable.
In fact, certainly the most stable period of the country was also the cruelest period. We
are talking about the family dictatorship of Francois Duvalier and, after his death,
that of his son Jean-Claude. Between them, they held power for almost 30 years and established
one of the most extreme regimes of terror in history. But that will be the subject of
another video. Don't forget to subscribe to VisualPolitik so you don't miss it.
The fact is, of course, that all this instability was not fortuitous. After
its independence, Haiti inherited a brewing social
tension based on race... A situation that made violence become a national hallmark.
Now, however, things are even worse. Violence has raged out of control and is rampant. Large
parts of the country are in the hands of gangs and famine lurks. That is why the interim president,
Ariel Henry, is looking for a way to curb gang violence. To do so,
he is looking to two of his neighbors: The United States and El Salvador.
The question is, what exactly has caused Haiti's desolation? How precisely did
the country end up in the hands of gangs and criminal groups? How does the Haitian
government hope to mitigate the violence? What capacity does it have to do so?
Today we are going to answer these questions, but first, let's first look at a bit of history.
(ETERNALLY PUNISHED THROUGHOUT HISTORY)
I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone if I say that among the poorest
countries in the world we find places like Burundi, Somalia or Sierra Leone.
But what happens if we focus exclusively on the American continent? This is exactly what happens.
Yes, many of you might think that Venezuela and its Bolivarian revolution made it the
poorest country in the Americas... However, as you can see, Haiti is still "ahead".
You see, things got off to a bad start very early on. After its independence from France,
the European power began a harsh blockade against its former colony and demanded the
payment of 150 million francs. This, converted into dollars and adjusted for inflation,
would amount to more than $700 million dollars.
Of course, that was not the worst. Nor was the merely extractive occupation of resources that the
United States carried out between 1916 and 1934. Worse was the very dynamics of this country.
Tensions between the black and mulatto populations grew ever more intense,
power struggles were constant, coups d'état followed one after another and presidential
assassinations were not uncommon. All washed down, of course, with plenty of corruption.
So you could say that stability has been conspicuous by its absence.
Without going any further, Jovenel Moise, the president who was assassinated in 2021,
was also implicated in corruption cases. It is something like the prevailing norm.
(Thousands protest against corruption in Haiti
Protesters are demanding President Jovenel Moise resign for failing to tackle corruption. Months
of protests have engulfed the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. – DW)
Yet, the most striking feature of Haiti throughout its 200 years of independence,
and particularly in the last six decades, has been violence. Take a look.
In 1958, the Haitian dictator Francois Duvalier created the "Tonton Macoutes",
a militia whose objective was to increase the tyrant's control over the country and
reduce the presence and influence of the army. An army that had been trained by
the United States during its occupation and was not particularly loyal to him.
That is to say, the dictator created a sort of praetorian guard at his personal service
to control the streets. And when his son Jean-Calude Duvalier was finally overthrown
and this militia was disbanded, suddenly all kinds of gangs, militias and paramilitary groups began
to proliferate. Let's just say that the members of the "Tonton Macoutes" quickly found new jobs.
Things got even worse when in 1995 President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
who had been overthrown by the army in 1991 and returned to power in 1994
with the help of the United States, decided to dissolve the armed forces.
And do you know what? Like the former members of the "Tonton Macoutes",
many soldiers also sought new employment in the sector they knew best. That is,
they joined gangs and guerrilla groups or created them directly.
These were gangs that began to collaborate with the various political factions. In fact,
President Aristide himself – the one who disbanded the army – had his own guerrillas, the "chimeras",
who were in charge of attacking the opposition and silencing dissidence. And so it was until
2004 when he was overthrown again, this time by a gang known as the "Cannibal Army" along with
the paramilitary group "Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti”.
And that, VisualPolitik viewers, is how Haiti came to resemble the boardgame Risk for gangs,
paramilitaries and criminal groups. They took turns imposing their laws.
And not surprisingly, between power struggles, social confrontations,
corruption and generalized violence, we cannot be surprised to find news stories like this:
(UN warns of "catastrophic" levels of hunger in parts of Haiti. – DW)
In a country of barely 12 million people, almost 5 million are on
the verge of starvation, and more than half of them are children.
In addition to this we must add the cholera epidemic that is sweeping the country and
that has already amassed at least 15,000 cases and left 450 dead. As far as we know.
The situation is critical.
And when critical situations arise, desperate measures are taken. Listen up.
(A DESPERATE PRESIDENT) As I have already said, Haiti's
extreme violence is not exactly new. However, what I have not yet told you is that since 2021, the
levels of violence and criminality have reached levels not seen since the Duvalier dictatorship.
And the question is, why? Well, basically, because of the assassination of Jovenel Moise.
President Moise was implicated in a corruption scandal related to the embezzlement of funds
from Petrocaribe, the Venezuelan-sponsored project to sell its oil in the region.
However, his presidency was not only marked by corruption,
but also by perpetuating himself in power without calling elections when they were
due and remaining in office after his term ended on 7 February 2021.
In the end, in July of that same year he was assassinated by a militia
composed mainly of Colombians. Of course, the assassination remains a mystery to this day:
Two of the assassins were DEA informants and several had been trained by the US
military. Several hypotheses have been put forward, but the most widely held is that
Moise was killed just before publishing a list of drug traffickers to be pursued.
Whatever the case, the fact is that Moise was overthrown, and as always happens,
the power vacuum is quickly filled by other players. And this is where
one of the great protagonists of this video appears: Ariel Henry,
Haiti's interim president, Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior.
And believe me, since his inauguration, Henry has had enormous opposition. A
neurosurgeon and now interim president,
he is tremendously unpopular. A large part of Haitians see him as an illegitimate president.
And not only because he has succeeded a presidency whose term had already expired,
but also because he has refused to hold elections,
even though he promised that by the end of 2022 there would be a date set for
the elections. However, he then argued that the necessary conditions had not been met.
So, far from the elections being called,
after all the deadlines have expired, we find ourselves with news like this:
(Haiti left with no elected government officials as it spirals towards anarchy.
Last 10 remaining senators leave office, with gangs controlling much of the capital,
a malnutrition crisis and a cholera outbreak. – The Guardian)
In other words, in addition to the fact that Henry has refused to leave the presidency,
now there are no longer any deputies or senators because their terms have expired.
To give you an idea, even the gangs are demanding elections. But since Henry has decided to turn a
deaf ear... Violence has skyrocketed even more. For example, in the four years between 2018 and
2022 alone, the number of homicides practically tripled to touch the barrier of 20 homicides per
hundred thousand inhabitants, making Haiti one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
The gangs have taken to the streets to achieve what their political partners cannot at the
ballot box: power over much of the country and especially much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Supported by narcotics and arms trafficking, the gangs, especially those linked to the coalition
of gangs known as G9, have managed, as you can see on the map, to take control of a
large part of the coast of the Port-au-Prince Bay, the nerve center of the Haitian economy.
In fact, to give you an idea, the G9 has even taken over the country's main oil terminal,
the Varreux terminal, which threw Haiti into total chaos,
since oil is the main source of energy. To put all this in perspective, let's recap:
We have a country taken over by gangs, with sky-high violence rates, a lot of corruption,
a cholera outbreak, the lowest per capita income in the Americas,
no institutions and a president who does not want to leave power.
In other words, we have all the possible ingredients to bring the country to the
brink of collapse. And that is precisely the situation in which Haiti finds itself.
And that has led President Ariel Henry to make this decision:
(Haitian government asks for international military assistance. – CNN)
Exactly, VisualPolitik viewers, the Haitian president himself has
called for other countries to intervene in the country, particularly the United States. But,
the question is, who on earth would be willing to carry out such an operation?
That is, to deploy troops to fight gangs and drug trafficking in a
completely broken country. Do you really think this is even possible?
Well, the truth? It seems unlikely. In fact, the United States does not want, under any
circumstances, to have to send troops again, as it did in 1916 and 1994, achieving practically
nothing except to put authoritarian governments in power that ended up making things even worse.
So Washington ducked the issue and passed the buck to Canada. Trudeau quickly refused. He
said that Canada would not organize such an intervention unless there was unanimity among
all political actors in the country. As you can imagine, that is practically impossible.
So the question is, what then? Maybe the UN? Well, that doesn't look likely either. In fact,
it is only relatively recently that the UN ended its Stabilization Mission in Haiti. And,
apart from a more than obvious failure, to top it all off, the intervention of the blue helmets was
fraught with controversy for having apparently provoked several rapes of Haitian women,
covert murders, the introduction of cholera in the country, etcetera,
etcetera, etcetera. It is almost certain that this time the UN will prefer to stay out of it.
Therefore, what the United Nations has proposed is that this intervention be carried out by a country
that I’m pretty sure many of you did not expect to see in this story: I am talking about the United
Mexican States... Mexico! And why Mexico?
Basically because of the country's experience in the fight against organized crime. And not only
that, it would also alleviate the arrival of Haitian refugees on its own shores.
Be that as it may, for the moment this option is stalled. Something like,
"We have enough problems as it is!” So then... Is Haiti destined to be taken over by
gangs? Will the country end up exploding? Well... For the moment what we know is that the president
has taken notice of another security strategy. A strategy that has been making headlines in the
international press. I'm certain many of you already have an idea... Let’s take a look.
(BUKELE'S PLAN FOR HAITI?)
Indeed, today we have to talk once again about the controversial Bukele,
the architect of the destruction of the balance between security and freedom in
El Salvador, but for many, also the messiah of peace in Latin America.
We have already told you both on VisualPolitik and in our weekly Patreon bulletin, about what
Bukele is doing in El Salvador. But in case anyone is lost, I’ll summarize it for you.
Overall, the Salvadoran president has implemented an extremely heavy-handed
strategy against the gangs and crime plaguing the country. He
has militarized public security and provided better equipment to both military and police.
In addition, in order to carry out its drastic measures, the strategy decreed a State of
emergency that has allowed it to suspend several fundamental rights such as the inviolability of
correspondence, privacy of communications, the right to defense and freedom of association.
A measure that has also allowed the government to
detain gang members and suspected gang members without the need for a warrant.
It has also adopted controversial measures such as prison sentences of up to 15 years
for graffiti alluding to gangs, the reduction of food and confiscation of mattresses in prisons,
and the imposition of sanctions on media outlets that publish gang messages.
In other words, it has blatantly ignored the protection of individual
rights and liberties. However, at the cost of less freedom and
fewer guarantees... the extreme measures have increased security in the country.
Look at this. As you can see,
the annual homicide figure in El Salvador has been falling since 2016,
but it is undeniable that Bukele has achieved radically lower numbers... Even though that
has come at the cost of such significant issues as legal security, the presumption of innocence
and due process. And then it remains to be seen what will happen with the big drug traffickers.
But it's clear that all these things in places like Haiti don't seem to
matter much to them either because they don't really exist right now.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Bukele's strategy has been considered a success and now
the government is considering trying to replicate it in the island nation.
(Haiti to mobilize armed forces against gangs. – TeleSur)
Now, do you think Ariel Henry would be able to do the same as Bukele in El Salvador?
Of course, in the country right now there are hardly any freedoms or rights to lose, the gangs
are constantly exercising their violence through rape, looting, murder, kidnapping, extortion and
the like. On that front, the proposed extreme measures do not seem that much of a problem.
But what about Haiti's real capacities? That is,
once it has re-established its army, its police, and its penitentiary capacity.
Well, VisualPolitik viewers, the truth is that with the data in hand
it seems unlikely for the Haitian government to pull off a Bukele.
As you can see, Haiti, a country with almost twice the population of El Salvador,
has less than half the number of police officers, a miniature army and very little prison capacity.
Especially after the construction of the mega-prison in El Salvador,
which will be able to hold up to 40,000 additional prisoners.
The curious thing about all this, by the way, is that between 2019 and 2021,
Haiti received about $2.5 billion in international aid which as you can see has not been put to good
use. Keep in mind that Haiti is, according to Transparency International, one of the 10
most corrupt countries on the entire planet. So there doesn't seem to be much hope there either.
In other words, Haiti's future does not look good. Surely now
you understand better why this is the poorest country in the Americas.
The question is: do you think it would be worthwhile for the United States to
try to stabilize Haiti again? How can corruption be fought in Haiti?
Will Ariel Henry succeed in finding the key to end the gangs? What is the best
formula for fighting violence? And another question, what was your image of Haiti?
Leave us your impressions in the comments and let's open a debate. As always,
don't forget that here on VisualPolitik we release new videos every week,
so subscribe to this channel and hit the little bell so you don't miss any of our updates. If
you liked this video, LIKE it and see you in the next one. All the best and see you soon.