Haiti he made his debut as prime minister for the umpteenth time. Alexis Didier Fils-Aimé replaced Gary Conillerelieved by the Presidential Transition Council after just five months in office. This is another regression of the first country of Latin America and the Caribbean in obtaining independence. In your case, of France in 1804. The beginning of the most recent crisis dates back to assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. The humanitarian debacle, fueled by the growing power of gangs in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, led to the resignation of the prime minister in March Ariel Henrya sine qua non condition for gangs to avoid a civil war.
Moïse had assumed the presidency on February 7, 2017. That date marked in 1986 the end of the dictatorship of François Duvalier, Papa Docestablished in 1957 and continued after his death, in 1971, by Jean-Claude Duvalier, Baby Docpresident for life since he was 19 years old. Papa Doc replaced the army with a parapolice force, the Tonton Macoutes. In almost three decades he liquidated 30,000 Haitians and diverted fortunes abroad. In 1990, the priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide won the first democratic elections in history. He was overthrown the following year by General Raoul Cédras. USA He replaced the deposed president in 1994. It happened Rene Prevalhis disciple. Aristide, re-elected in 2000, created another parapolice body. And so on.
The gangs now dominate 85% of the territory. A former police officer, Jimmy Cherizier, aka Barbecuemanages at will the criminal gangs that, according to UNcaused the death of almost 5,000 people in the first nine months of 2024. Haitiisolated by North American airlines Spirit, JetBlue and American Airlines As a result of attacks against its planes, it was once again left in a kind of limbo. Bullets pierced the planes. A flight attendant was injured. The streets were empty and schools, banks and government facilities suspended their activities.
Joe Biden’s government wanted to finance the multinational force via Kenya, but the United States Congress withheld the funds
In the midst of chaos, Leslie Voltaireleader of Presidential Transition Councilrequested on October 21 that the international mission in the country become a peacekeeping operation. “The initiative so that the peace forces of the UN come back to Haiti Just five years after his departure, it emerges after a new wave of gang violence, including what appears to be one of the country’s worst massacres in decades and the launch of coordinated attacks in parts of the capital and beyond. cities”, describe Renata Segura and Daniel Fortiresearchers from The International Crisis Group.
He UN Security Council approved in October 2023 a multinational force led by Kenya that was going to support the national police and create the conditions to hold presidential elections at the end of 2025. They were not peacekeeping troops. They depended on voluntary contributions. At first, when the 380 Kenyan police officers and 30 Kenyan soldiers arrived, Bahamas, Belize and Jamaicathe gangs retreated. Then, upon noticing the shortage of equipment and ammunition in that force, they returned to the fray. They massacred a hundred people in the city of Pont-Sondenorth of Port-au-Prince. Its residents had refused to be extorted.
He Joe Biden government wanted to finance the multinational force via Kenyabut he United States Congress withheld the funds. The reason: Republicans “remain unconvinced that Washington must assume the financing of the mission and they consider that the Biden administration has not yet articulated a clear strategy or an exit plan,” Segura and Forti maintain. Haitians, in turn, retain a poor memory of the UN peacekeeping missions between 2004 and 2017: they contaminated the water with waste liquids that contained the cholera bacteria, left hundreds of babies as a result of relationships with Haitians that were not always consensual, and violated the human rights of civilians with the excuse of fighting against gangs.
Haitians find themselves at that crossroads: live at the mercy of gangs or accept foreign troops. In three years there were more than 10,000 deaths and 700,000 displaced. The country still could not recover from the tremendous earthquake of 2010: it left more than 220,000 dead and 300,000 injured. The scars of that catastrophe are preserved in the streets of Port-au-Princewith buildings in ruins. A postcard from southern africawhich extension in the Atlanticdue to internal conflicts and the democratic pandemic on the island Hispaniolashared with Dominican Republic. Curiously, one of the strongest economies in the Caribbean. Not here anymore, far from the radar.
Note: this is an article republished from the media “El Interin” through a cooperation agreement between both parties for the dissemination of journalistic content. original link.
Jorge Elías is a prominent Argentine journalist specializing in international politics and international relations. He was a correspondent in the United States, Mexico and Canada, as well as has vast experience in investigations related to international politics. He is also a member of the Institute of International Politics of the National Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and a consulting member of the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI).
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