For more than a year, Henry's government had been demanding the formation of an international security force to intervene. But although the United Nations issued a decision approving the force and forming its structure five months ago, no force has been activated yet. The latest round of unrest in Haiti came after Henry traveled to Kenya and signed a deal that he hoped would bring a thousand Kenyan police officers to the country — an attempt to support a faltering plan exploited by armed gangs seeking to oust him.
There was a notable lack of enthusiasm among global partners, with the United Nations saying it would only provide oversight of a mission to Haiti, not lead it, and the United States refusing to send personnel. Many ordinary Haitians also fear foreign intervention, fully aware of its painful history in the country.
Former diplomat James B. Foley, who served as U.S. ambassador to Haiti from 2003 to 2005, told Politico in 2022 that Haitians are deeply patriotic and hate the prospect of another foreign occupation after a series of failures by the international community in their country. Henry's government first called for intervention.
Henry had always been unpopular within Haiti. This week, he finally lost the support of the United States, which is now calling on the prime minister to step down and hold elections. But it is not clear how any elections can be held without restoring security, with or without foreign powers.
International intervention in Haiti goes back a long way. Haiti was once Saint Dominique, or the “Pearl of the Antilles” of the French Empire, and its highly profitable agricultural economy was built on the shoulders of slaves imported from West Africa. After a slave revolt in 1791 led to the Haitian Revolution, Haiti faced not only an invasion from returning French forces, but also attempts by its imperial rival Britain on its way to independence.
In the twentieth century, it was the United States' turn. The 1915 invasion turned into an occupation that lasted until 1934. The intervention came after a period of political turmoil in the country and appeals from US banks that held debts to President Woodrow Wilson, but was marred by numerous abuses – including the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank. The forced labor system that saw the American occupation use peasants in forced, unpaid labor.
When the US-educated François Duvalier took power in 1957, he did so largely by portraying himself as an opponent of US imperialism. Duvalier, known as Papa Doc, remained in power until his death in 1971, when he was succeeded by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier, or Baby Doc. The nearly three decades of co-rule by men was known for corruption, oppression, and violence.
In 1994, the United States sent 20,000 troops to Haiti in Operation Restore Democracy, which aimed to return Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power after a military coup. American troops joined the United Nations peacekeeping force that entered the country in 1993. These foreign forces would remain until 2000.
When Aristide was forced to leave power again in February 2004, the United States helped him escape and sent troops along with Canada, France and Chile. The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym MINUSTAH, served in the country from 2004 to 2017 before being replaced by a smaller follow-up mission that concluded in 2019.
Whatever the intentions, there was little evidence that these interventions helped Haitians. “In all, the U.S. military and its agents have been present in Haiti for at least 41 of the past 108 years, always in the name of securing peace, political stability, and human rights — and they have never succeeded in actually doing so,” Jonathan M. Katz wrote for Foreign Policy magazine last year.
In many cases, the interventions have made life worse, with accusations of sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers and reports of a massacre committed by Brazilian soldiers working for the UN in 2005.
A cholera outbreak, which was rare in Haiti, after the 2010 earthquake was linked to the deployment of UN peacekeepers to Nepal, where the disease is spreading. The outbreak killed at least 10,000 people in Haiti, but the United Nations provided little compensation. “They brought cholera to Haiti and they have to compensate us,” victim Locman Tabouto told my colleagues in 2022. “It's an injustice. It's an unspeakable abuse.”
Could this time be different? Both the United States and the United Nations have stepped back from leadership roles, which reflects how bad previous interventions in Haiti are, but also the wide range of other global issues in other parts of the world at the moment. But few countries are willing or able to take their place.
American pressure on Canada to lead a peacekeeping force did not succeed, as Canadian officials expressed public pessimism about the project. “We have to acknowledge that there is a history of what I would call large-scale military interventions that have not worked,” Bob Rae, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, told the Globe and Mail a year ago.
When the UN Security Council approved a peacekeeping force in October, Kenya was instead appointed leader of the newly formed Multinational Security Support Force, and pledged 1,000 police officers, with $200 million in US support. , hoping that the United Nations Security Council can send a peacekeeping force. Other countries will supplement the workforce.
On one level, the presence of African police officers may avoid some of the colonial undertones of previous interventions, but some major problems remain: few Kenyan officers are likely to speak French or Creole, for example, and Kenyan police have been accused of widespread abuses. the range. at home.
There was significant backlash in Kenya to this plan, with opposition politicians pointing out that there was a desperate need for police officers in Kenya. In January, a court ruled that the proposed deployment was unconstitutional, in part because there were no bilateral agreements between Kenya and Haiti. Henry's trip to Nairobi last week was partly designed around the signing ceremony for these agreements, although it is unclear how this will address wider criticism of the court.
The chaos that Haiti has witnessed since Henry left the country has only magnified the need for security there, with new estimates this week suggesting that two-thirds of the country is directly vulnerable to political violence. It has also created a more volatile situation that will be more difficult to contain. The gang's most prominent leader, Jimmy “Barbeck” Scherizer, this week criticized foreign countries for supporting the unpopular prime minister, and warned of a bigger conflict unless he resigns.
“Haiti will either become heaven or hell for all of us,” Cherizier told reporters on Tuesday.
