By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottown, PEI] Guardian
The ramifications of the political mess in Haiti that has followed the assassination of President Jovenal Moise in July have reached the American-Mexican border.
Haiti has suffered from years of political instability, culminating in the assassination, as well as in a deadly earthquake in August that killed 2,200 people. . Moise had been running the country by decree after failed elections two years ago.
It is also the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Since 2018, gross domestic product has fallen 18 per cent to $13.4 billion, according to the World Bank. Per-capita GDP is just $1,176 and nearly 60 per cent of the population lives in poverty.
Nearly half the population, or 4.4 million people, need immediate food assistance, and 1.2 million suffer from extreme hunger, according to the World Food Program.
Some American analysts have urged the incoming Democratic administration of Joe Biden to give Haiti, with its deteriorating security situation and its constitutional crisis, more attention.
Biden may do so now, but only after what he himself called the “heinous” killing of its president and the chaotic aftermath. While Haitian authorities have arrested many people, to this day no one really knows who ordered the murder and many questions regarding the death remain unanswered.
In fact Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry recently fired Port-au-Prince’s chief prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, and Justice Minister Rockefeller Vincent, accused of obstruction of justice. Henry has been linked to one of the suspects.
“In Haiti, more than a failing state we have a non-existent state,” remarked economist Joseph Harold Pierre, a consultant on Haiti and Haitian-Dominican relations for several international organizations. According to the National Human Rights Defence Network, there are more than 90 gangs in the country, likely with thousands of members and far more powerful than the police.
Rival gangs have taken over entire neighborhoods, driven thousands from their homes, closed a major hospital, shut down fuel distribution routes and barred farmers from markets.
Haiti Central Bank Governor Jean Baden Dubois remarked that chronic unemployment exacerbated by the pandemic has added to the problem. Now “gangs are the biggest employers,” he said. “We need to create jobs, while we are putting the gangs out of a job.”
Meanwhile, the troubles in Haiti have reached American shores, along the Rio Grande border. Recently, some 15,000 migrants were camped under a highway bridge attempting to get asylum in the United States, by crossing the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico to Del Rio, Texas.
A significant number had fled following the devastating earthquake that struck the country in 2010, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Many took up residence in Brazil, attracted by the promise of plentiful jobs during the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2014 World Cup.
When those jobs dried up, they began heading to other countries in Latin America. From South America the Haitians headed north to the U.S.
The Biden administration has sent thousands of Haitian migrants back to Haiti, using Title 42 of the United States Code of Federal Regulations, which allows the government wide authority to deal with epidemics.
Some have been expelled to Haiti by force, others convinced to cross the border back to Mexico, while a number remain in limbo in the U.S. By Sept. 24, the crisis had abated.
Haiti has long been subject to American attempts to control its politics. Between 1911 and 1915, seven presidents were assassinated or overthrown in Haiti, leading to American Marines occupying country. They stayed until 1934.
The United States intervened on the grounds that it was stabilizing a political crisis. But it consolidated the country’s finances according to U.S. banking interests. The American influence endured through the rest of the century, under the murderous, kleptocratic yet anti-communist Duvalier dynasty.
In 2004, the United States, allied with France and Canada, deposed the left-wing Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Instability brought in a United Nations peacekeeping force which did little to improve matters. Since then, things have become even worse, especially after the 2010 earthquake.
Meanwhile, more Haitians are heading north from South American countries. This problem isn’t going away any time soon.
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