Haiti / The paradise that became hell

Haiti is a tropical paradise in the Caribbean. It could be a country that we would see in pictures and want to get a ticket right away. Instead, what we see in the pictures from Haiti are people killing each other in the middle of the street and other people, with a look of despair, dying either from starvation or from all forms of violence. What went so wrong in paradise?

There are many places where one can trace the beginning of the countdown to Haiti. One of them is the assassination of the then President of the country, Jovanel Moise, on July 7, 2021. Moise had won the 2016 elections, the last ever held in Haiti. In those elections, participation did not exceed 21%. Democracy was already a distant dream for the country, but it continued to exist, even on the surface.

Today, there is not even that appearance, as the country has fallen into complete lawlessness. On Sunday, March 3, armed gangs stormed the country’s two largest prisons and freed more than 3,800 inmates. The government declared a 72-hour state of emergency and a night-time curfew. But with gangs now exercising de facto power in 80 percent of Port-au-Prince and senior government officials, including Deputy President Ariel Henri, out of the country, the word “government” seems more like a joke. A few days after the prison raid, gunmen made a second attempt to seize Port-au-Prince’s international airport.

The second – backwards – turning point for Haiti was the devastating earthquake of 2010, from which the country never recovered. Other disasters, not natural, had preceded: The 29-year rule of “Papa Doc” and “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the infamous dictators, but also the impact of the huge “reparations” that Haiti was forced to pay to France for generations after independence in 1804. In short, or better in one word, the problem of Haiti is colonialism.

From a regular colony to a debt colony

Haiti formally declared independence from France in 1804, following a slave revolt inspired by the American Revolution. However, the French never came to terms with the idea of ​​losing their former colony.

Between 1814 and 1825, France repeatedly sent delegations to Haiti to negotiate with its new leaders to restore relations between them. The Haitians did not even want to see the French and the negotiations failed. Then, in 1825, King Charles I decided that France would recognize Haiti’s independence, but only if the country paid France the space fee of 150 million francs. The amount was intended “to compensate the French colonists for their lost revenue from slavery.” Rejecting the request would mean war.

Haiti could not go to war with France so its leader, Jean-Pierre Boyer, signed a document agreeing to pay France “in five equal installments”. The deal forced Haiti to take out huge loans. The young nation was on its knees and could not be consistent with creditors, despite the fact that Boyer imposed unimaginable taxes on the Haitian people in his failed attempt to repay them. Haiti’s debt to France took 122 years to pay off. Haiti had turned from a real colony into a debt colony.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Americans enter the scene. The US military occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934 and controlled its government. During this period, the US designed Haiti’s economic model with the sole aim of attracting foreign investment. They are doing something very familiar, they are keeping wages and corporate taxes very low in order to create “growth”. In return, foreign investment would, in theory, bring improved infrastructure and jobs. For many of its inhabitants the promises of the Americans were a light in the tunnel of absolute poverty. Part of the Americans’ plan worked: American agricultural enterprises profitably engaged in the cultivation of coffee, bananas, and sugar in the 1910s and 1920s. Later, they expanded, establishing rubber plantations and textile mills.

Haiti’s export-centric economic model turned out to be a very good idea indeed. For everyone except the people of the country. After decades of extremely business-friendly policies, three-quarters of Haitians still live on less than US$2.40 a day.

Two bloodthirsty dictators

In 1957, a Michigan-educated doctor, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, takes power in a coup and promises to expel foreigners and “redistribute the wealth.” His dictatorship is one of the coldest and most paranoid the planet has seen. Duvalier abolished all parties, closed the military academy and founded the Tonton Macoutes paramilitary group, modeled after the SS. The Tonton were trained by American officers and their mission was simply to kill anyone they deemed not serving the regime.

Duvalier filled the country with prisons, which he often visited to personally oversee torture and executions. He collected the heads, hearts and lungs of his executed enemies and ordered voodoo to become the country’s official religion. In the 1961 election, Duvalier received 1,320,748 votes, 100% of those registered.

Even the US could no longer turn a blind eye, not because Duvalier was killing, they cared little about that, but because all the financial aid they sent to Haiti ended up in his pockets. During his dictatorship, “Papa Doc” stole over $1 billion.

There is controversy over whether Duvalier was truly paranoid or whether he was using these methods to terrorize his people. It doesn’t even matter. During his administration, 300 thousand Haitians fled to the US. Haiti was in a permanent state of chaos. Illiteracy reached 90% of the population.

Duvalier died in 1971, after first constitutionally securing his succession to his son, Jean-Claude – “Baby Doc” – Duvalier, who turned out to be even worse. He killed indiscriminately and sold the blood of Haitians to American companies until he was kicked out of the country in 1985. He returned in 2011, faced charges of corruption and human rights abuses, was acquitted in 2013, and died a year later. Father and son had managed to leave Haiti in ruins.

A country in ruins

Haiti never recovered from the devastation after the 2010 earthquake, despite the billions of dollars spent on it

Ruins that literally happened in 2010, with the great earthquake that hit the island. More than 300,000 people were killed and nearly 1.5 million of Haiti’s 10 million residents were left homeless. The country never recovered from the disaster, despite the billions of dollars spent on it. The government, after decades of dictatorship, was completely unable to coordinate the efforts, as well as the hundreds of foreign aid agencies and international organizations that rushed to Haiti to help. The international community has, by common admission, failed to address a humanitarian challenge of this magnitude.

The international community has also failed in its efforts to relieve the Haitian people of permanent deprivation. The Haitian government is cash-strapped and unable to provide basic services. The country survives – if that is called survival – with borrowed funds, which finance 20% of the national budget. This gives lenders such as the International Monetary Fund enormous leverage. In 2018, deadly protests broke out over gas prices after Haiti’s creditors recommended ending subsidies.

Long-standing discontent grew during Moise’s tenure. His assassination was preceded by months of protests demanding his resignation. He had refused to hold parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2020 and summarily dismissed all of the country’s elected mayors in July 2020. Although he himself was dead, his party retained power. Since then, things have gone even further downhill.

Today Haiti’s only hope for a return to normalcy lies in the hands of foreign powers, but the prospect of their arrival has led to the opposite result: The decision of the UN Security Council in October 2023 to send a multinational force to Haiti, led by 1,000 police officers from Kenya, rallied the gangs, who are trying to dominate the country before the arrival of foreign troops. The two main gangs have allied and seek to overthrow the interim government.

Through 2023, nearly 4,000 people were killed and 3,000 kidnapped by the gangs, according to the UN. About 200,000 people have been displaced and half of Haitians do not have enough food. Basic services, such as electricity and clean water, are unreliable to say the least. The country’s economy is in constant contraction.

Haiti’s current prime minister, Ariel Henri, is widely regarded as illegitimate and has repeatedly failed to hold elections. The political power vacuum created space for Haiti’s already powerful gangs to expand their influence in the capital. Against them they have a vastly inadequate police force, with around 10,000 active police officers across the country, when UN estimates suggest around 26,000 are needed.

The UN’s announcement of the force was met with modest optimism. His previous peacekeeping mission in the country was marred by allegations of sexual violence and the fact that sewage from a UN camp led to a cholera outbreak that killed 10,000 people.

Five months after the UN mandate was given to the force, no one has been to Haiti and time is running out, as the resolution is valid for one year. But things are complicated as, in Kenya, a court ruling ruled the plan unconstitutional. Henry went to Nairobi to try to save the plan and it is unclear when he will return. His absence from the country contributed to the gangs attacking the prisons.

Some believe that the only solution is an amnesty for the gangs and their inclusion in the political life of the country. For most Haitians, however, it is unthinkable to be ruled by their murderers. Henri has promised elections for August 2025. No one believes him. Meanwhile, Haiti has a government again. It is the first country in the world run by gangs.