Haiti should be among global priorities

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/10/2022 (1082 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I’ve been writing and thinking about Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, for more than 30 years. And to be honest, I still haven’t figured out the right policy prescription for what ails the seriously troubled Caribbean country.

What I do know is that Haiti is now facing one of its worst periods in recent memory (after a series of previous earthquakes, hurricanes and infectious-disease outbreaks). Yet very few people seem to be aware of what is happening on the ground in Haiti – or perhaps even care to know.

Kindly bear with me, because the list of what plagues Haiti today is indeed a long one. To begin, the former elected president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in his own home in early July of 2021. As the investigations drag on, no one is really sure who exactly was responsible for his death.

At any rate, he was subsequently replaced by the country’s then-vice president, Ariel Henry, on an interim basis. But it’s not clear when, or if (there has already been one postponement), democratic elections will be held in the poverty-stricken country.

Increasingly, Haiti is becoming ungovernable, unstable and overwhelmed by criminal violence and widespread corruption. It’s no longer a fragile state; it’s a failed state that is enmeshed in a humanitarian catastrophe of mammoth proportions.

It’s no lie to say Haiti’s economy, such as it is, is on life support. Trade exports have slowed to a trickle, and new foreign investment is largely non-existent. The country’s GDP is slated to grow by an anemic 0.6 per cent in 2022; inflation has soared to more than 30 per cent and food prices have more than tripled (in a country where food insecurity takes on a whole new meaning).

According to UNICEF, one in 20 children in Cité Soleil, Haiti’s largest shantytown, are “at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition” in the absence of food and health care. And roughly 20 per cent of those children under five years old are inflicted with severe or moderate acute malnutrition.

Indeed, the only thing keeping these children from dying right now is the World Food Program, which delivers boxed meals twice a day to the destitute.

Most troubling, gang violence and kidnappings in Haiti have become endemic. And this situation has only been exacerbated by the flood of deadly guns – such as AK47s, .50 calibre assault rifles and high-powered rounds – coming into Haiti via Miami. The country is a veritable tinderbox, and violent gangs are currently blocking roads to seaports, food warehouses and the capital’s main fuel terminal.

In one particularly stark example in mid-July, deadly gang warfare left almost 500 dead or injured in Cité Soleil. Jeremy Laurence, a UN human rights official, was quoted as saying, “We are deeply concerned by the worsening violence in Port-au-Prince and the rise in human-rights abuses committed by heavily armed gangs against the local population.”

It’s no surprise , then, that Haitians are fleeing the country in droves – oftentimes risking life and limb in dangerous attempts to reach the U.S. Tens of thousands of desperate Haitians have sought to cross the U.S.-Mexican border in search of a better life (only to be deported back to Haiti).

Since October 2021, almost 7,000 Haitian migrants have also tried to reach greener pastures in south Florida in rickety boats.

The lack of any meaningful international response even prompted the OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro to go public in August with his displeasure with the hemisphere’s deafening silence toward Haiti. “The last 20 years of the international community’s presence in Haiti has amounted to one of the worst and clearest failures implemented and executed within the framework of any international co-operation,” he said.

Should the world respond with a massive humanitarian assistance program? Does it need to focus on rebuilding Haiti’s institutions, strengthening civil society and encouraging democratic development? Or should there be a return to a UN-mandated multinational peacekeeping mission (with Canada’s participation) for Haiti? I wish I knew.

By the end of September, thousands of Haitians were protesting in major cities and demanding the ouster of interim PM Henry. “Families don’t know what to do. If Ariel doesn’t leave, we’re going to die,” some angry demonstrators chanted.

There is even talk of deploying a rapid-response force to the country in hopes of restoring public security and order. If only it was that simple to right the Haitian ship.

Peter McKenna is professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.