Haitian musician Jean Jean-Pierre says most people he knows who live in Port-au-Prince avoid leaving their homes unless they need food or other essential supplies. 

The reason? Violence. Murder. Gangs.

“When you do go out you are so aware of everything – a car behind you, a motorcycle behind you. You never know if a vehicle just wants to pass you, or pass you and force you to stop for a kidnapping because it happens so often,” said Jean-Pierre, 69.

“They catch you and demand $200,000. Where do I get $200,000 from?”

The Caribbean nation has long been in turmoil. 

But over the last few years on every metric from territory controlled by gangs to kidnappings, from homicides to the number of police killed, from social unrest to economic conditions, the situation has deteriorated.

The recent chaos could complicate U.S. foreign policy on drug trafficking and immigration and a United Nations report released recently concludes that increasingly sophisticated weapons being smuggled into Haiti from the U.S. – and more specifically, from Florida – are adding to the chaos.

Why is Haiti such a mess?

Gangs now control much of the capital Port-au-Prince following President Jovenel Moïse’s 2021 assassination. His killing was orchestrated by a group of foreign mercenaries, mostly Colombians and a few Haitian-Americans, according to charges brought by the U.S. Justice Department. The gangs use commercial terrorism, sexual violence, massacres, extortion and kidnappings to accumulate power and fund their operations. Acting President Ariel Henry, a former neurosurgeon, has appealed for armed foreign intervention to help stabilize the country.

There are few signs it’s about to happen.

An estimated 200 gangs now hold sway in Haiti, around 100 in Port-au-Prince alone, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, a Switzerland-based group. The U.N. says 60% of territory in the capital is controlled by gangs. 

The U.S. repatriated more than 21,000 Haitians in 2022, according to data collected by the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency. They are being returned to a country where thousands have been displaced and murder is common.

The U.N. says kidnappings recorded by Haiti’s police in 2022 soared by 105%, to 1,359 victims, compared to the year earlier. Homicides were up 35%, to 2,183. Accounts of gangs using sexual violence to humiliate and consolidate power are proliferating. There are about 9,700 active-duty police officers in Haiti, but the U.N. says a “significant number of them” may in fact be members of gangs.

“Haiti is a failed state,” said Daniel Foote, a former U.S. envoy to Haiti who resigned from the role in September 2021. His resignation was driven in party by frustration over what he said was a “deeply flawed” U.S. policy toward the country, including an “inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees.”

The U.S. detained 7,175 Haitian migrants in 2022, a nearly 700% rise since 2019, according to data from the U.N.’s Office on Drugs and Crime.

Foote said that successive U.S. administrations have mostly looked at Haiti through a national security prism that focuses on immigration – in terms of how many Haitians are trying to get to U.S. soil, the so-called boat people. “What they don’t realize is that with the gangs in control – without a credible counterforce – a trafficking hub has been created right in the Caribbean. Drugs, arms, people – these are going through Haiti to the U.S. whether it’s via Haitian gangs or Mexican and Venezuelan ones.”

The Gangs of Haiti: Who’s in control?

Haiti: a timeline

Haiti’s history and development have been blighted by colonization, by foreign interventions, catastrophic natural disasters and disease epidemics, non-functioning political systems, organized crime and corruption.

Pivotal events in Haiti’s history

• 1492: Explorer Christopher Columbus lands, names the island Hispaniola, or “Little Spain.”
• 1496: Spain establishes a settlement at Santo Domingo, now the capital of Dominican Republic.
• 1697: Spain gives the western part of Hispaniola to France. This becomes Haiti.
• 1791-1803: General Toussaint Louverture, a former slave, leads a rebellion to conquer Haiti. Louverture abolishes slavery and proclaims himself governor-general of all of Hispaniola.
• 1804: Haiti becomes independent. Jean-Jacques Dessalines declares himself emperor.
• 1806: Dessalines is assassinated. Haiti is divided into a Black-controlled north and mixed-race-ruled south.
• 1818-43: Pierre Boyer, a white France-born military commander, unifies Haiti. Black people are excluded from power.
• 1915: Amid civil unrest, the U.S. invades Haiti over concerns about its investments in the country.
• 1934: U.S. withdraws troops from Haiti, but maintains fiscal control.
• 1956: Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, a French Martiniquan, seizes power in a coup. He is elected president a year later.
• 1971: Duvalier dies. He is succeeded by his son “Baby Doc,” who declares himself president for life.
• 1986-1988: “Baby Doc” flees Haiti amid popular discontent with his rule. Leslie Manigat becomes president. He is then ousted in a coup led by Prosper Avril, a senior military commander. Avril installs a civilian government.
• 1990: Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president. It is effectively Haiti’s first entirely free and peaceful vote.
• 1991: Aristide is ousted in a coup led by military commander Raoul Cedras. The U.S. imposes economic sanctions.
• 1994: Aristide returns to Haiti. U.S. forces oversee a transition to a civilian government. 
• 1995: United Nations peacekeepers replace U.S. troops.
• 2000: Aristide elected president for a second time.
• 2001-2004: Aristide’s government survives two attempted military coups. He is then forced back into exile.
• 2004: More than 5,000 people across Haiti and the Dominican Republic die in flash flooding and a tropical storm. Meanwhile, armed gangs are blamed for rising levels of violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
• 2008: Food riots takes place as Haiti’s Parliament dismisses Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis.
• 2009: The World Bank and International Monetary Fund cancel $1.2 billion of Haiti’s debt — 80% of the total.
• 2010: As many as 300,000 people are killed in a magnitude-7.0 earthquake, the worst in 200 years. The U.S. takes control of Haiti’s main airport to ensure orderly arrival of humanitarian aid flights. International donors pledge billions in aid. That same year, a cholera outbreak kills an estimated 6,000 people, triggering violent protests.
• 2011: Michel Martelly, a former pop star with strong military ties, wins the presidential election.
• 2012: As cost of living protests accelerate, Hurricane Sandy decimates crops and leaves 20,000 people homeless.
• 2016-2019: Jovenel Moïse, a businessman, is elected president. He is plagued by corruption allegations. Category 4 Hurricane Matthew strikes Haiti and kills hundreds of people.
• 2021: After surviving a coup plot, Moïse is assassinated in his home. Ariel Henry becomes acting president.

SOURCES Haiti’s U.S. Embassy; BBC; Associated Press

Haiti in chaos as economy tanks and violence soars

Daily life has spun out of control since Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced a rise in fuel prices last month, after which protests erupted across a country already in the grips of an economic crisis. (Oct. 6)

AP

Published
10:06 am UTC Mar. 11, 2023
Updated
10:06 am UTC Mar. 11, 2023

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