Last month, the president of Haiti was assassinated, the victim of an internal power struggle. When he was buried two weeks ago, Haitians mourned not only for their president but also for their shattered country.
Haiti is now, for all intents and purposes, run by gangs. They operate without recourse. Government officials, including the president, became too aligned with different gangs, so they grew in power. Struggles within the government were amplified on the streets. Then COVID hit and the economy took a dive. Since then, Haiti’s warlords have been massacring residents and torching homes. In June alone, there were 150 gang-related deaths across the country. Nineteen thousand have fled their homes due to gang violence. Others shelter-in-place, fearing they cannot leave their homes without being shot or kidnapped. Dozens of charities and NGOs have left Haiti. Feelings of despair and hopelessness abound. Many Haitians blame their government for the current turmoil. More blame foreign governments, including the United States, for creating the conditions that led to this.
Fixing this problem requires new perspective. One thing is certain, the typical approaches of passing out aid money, or forcing new elections will not work. Those have both been tried and one reason many NGOs left was that the billions of aid dollars promised after the apocalyptic earthquake of 2010 were never distributed. No, solving this problem takes a recognition of the bigger picture and planning a development trajectory that gives Haiti time to evolve and embrace all that it missed.
The next step is to constitute a fiefdom, where a ruler has the power to preserve order—a modern monarchy, if you will. Morocco might be a good model. In that environment, over time, Haiti will develop the underlying conditions needed to embrace rule-of-law and move forward. The common solutions will not work.
Source:
Anthony Faiola, “Haiti Buries a President, but Crisis Lives On,” Washington Post, A1, 25 July 2021.
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