Haiti is politically paralyzed and engulfed by gang violence, its people victimized by kidnappers and desperate for basic necessities. Haiti’s unpopular prime minister Ariel Henry has vowed to resign once a transitional council is ready to guide the country out of its abyss. U.S. officials say the council could be ready within days, a critical step toward welcoming a U.N.-approved Kenyan police deployment whose main task is expected to be wresting control of the capital of Port-au-Prince from gangs.
In this episode of History As It Happens, Keith Mines of the U.S. Institute of Peace discusses the origins of Haiti’s descent into anarchy. Mr. Mines has spent decades working on governance, civil society building and post-conflict stabilization in Haiti, Central America and other troubled parts of the world.
“As I left Haiti I wrote a piece that said this country is going to need a long-term accompaniment, not occupation, not dominance, not a bunch of people telling them what to do, but a long-term accompaniment. And that was because the country had really been hollowed out. People had fled the country under [dictator Francois] Duvalier. They hadn’t returned. The U.S. embargoed the country for years leading up to the transition to democracy, so the country has been beaten down,” said Mr. Mines, who worked on prison, police and judicial reform in Haiti.
In Mr. Mines’ view, the decision to shut down the U.N. peace-keeping mission, despite it having caused some serious problems such as sexual abuse and the spread of cholera, opened the way for the resurgence of gang rule in Haiti since 2017. Then in July 2021, President Juvenal Moise, who had stayed on five months past the end of his term, was assassinated. For the past three years, the de facto prime minister, Mr. Henry, has maintained U.S. support while his popularity in Haiti has plummeted. Gangs now occupy an estimated 80% of Port-uu-Prince.
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