Apparently no one knows what is happening right now in Haiti. But we all know exactly what has been going on for more than 200 years. The first nation in Latin America and the Caribbean to obtain its independence has since been isolated by foreign powers, who have never forgiven the Caribbean country for that great historic feat, the fruit of the only successful slave uprising to lead to the founding of a state.
At the height of the French Revolution of 1789, the colonized took account of the repercussions of liberty, equality, fraternity, as well as the hypocrisy and racism of their metropolis, engaged in maintaining double standards in terms of the rights of man.
In 2009, when Haiti was by far the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, after centuries of isolation and harassment by world powers that sought to recolonize it, President Barack Obama received a copy of Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America, from Comandante Hugo Chávez. The text narrates, among other episodes, the first embargo decreed by the United States, in 1806, against the small nation of Haiti.
The recent rebellion of the masses that we have seen in the neighboring nation actually began in July last year, when the Haitian government decreed an increase in fuel prices, which generated greater shortages, hunger, and unsanitary conditions in marginalized neighborhoods of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and in the rest of the interior. According to government sources, the measure was taken to unburden the state budget of the cost of fuel subsidies, thus laying the blame for the country’s recession at the feet of the protesting masses of Haiti.
The protests were preceded by a scandal that shook social media, when President Donald Trump referred to El Salvador, Haiti, and African nations as “shithole countries.” This episode incited Haitian nationalism, having been the victim of the cruel U.S. occupation (1915-1934) which further sank the country into inequality, once again establishing racial segregation and semi-slave labor, with the massacre of 1,500 workers, as recognized in 1922 by the U.S. Senate.
As such, on the morning of July 6, 2018, the frustrated and enraged Haitian masses, with no clear political objective or organization, attacked every symbol of power. The national police, whose own pay checks had been delayed, did nothing to contain the two-day avalanche. The outcome: hotels, restaurants, and stores saw the largest looting on record.
It was the cry of freedom of the oppressed, who have seen how international aid funds disappear into a bottomless barrel. It was the anger of the inhabitants of neighborhoods like the multicolored Jalousie, where the majority of the people live, which was not allocated funds for health, food, electricity or medicines, but rather for paint, to offer guests at nearby hotels a more “picturesque” view. According to reports, locals mockingly refer to such urban image policy as “the Botox,” an attempt to conceal the true face of Haiti.
IN THE STREETS AGAIN
At the beginning of February 2019, forces opposed to the government assembled, together with the masses, in an attempt to take power. As well as the increase in fuel prices last year, the Haitian currency, the gourde, continued to devaluate, while blackouts and a health and food crisis saw young people increasingly take to the streets to voice their opposition to President Jovenel Moise.
Although the exact death toll is unknown, at least seven have been reported dead since the protests began. Worse still is the state of collapse in which the country finds itself, with the total closure of essential services, leading experts to predict the outbreak of another humanitarian crisis. Government cuts are coupled with the hardships resulting from hurricanes and earthquakes, since the nation of rich arable land is geographically vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change.
To make matters worse, U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal, known as the blue helmets, recognized their responsibility as the source of the most recent cholera outbreak, an epidemic that continues to claim thousands of lives in Haiti, especially of children. With a very low human development index, the nation is not in a position to continue with its policy of cuts, “botox,” and pacts with regional hegemonic powers, at the expense of a national plan to save the country.
The protests against Moise, a middle-class professional who promised to get the country’s finances in order, are mainly led by young people, many of them universities graduates who, despite their academic efforts, find only marginal employment is available to them.
“Moise launched clean-up programs which he said would create 50,000 jobs. So young people are graduating from university and he has only brooms to offer them?” AFP quoted Marco Beausejour, a 27-year-old university graduate who studied accounting, as stating. This in a country where the majority of the population doesn’t even complete secondary education. For the professional sector, the general feeling is that the government doesn’t respect them.
“A government that cannot provide food and water to its people must step down, but it is also necessary that the bourgeoisie stop hoarding all the wealth. We, the popular neighborhoods, are the majority,” young protester Prophete Hilaire told the same news agency. Despite Moise’s calls for dialogue and recognition of the crisis in the country, the organized opposition has rejected any negotiation process and will only accept the government’s resignation.
In addition to the currency depreciation and inflation (resulting in shortages), the demonstrators argue that there are cases of corruption at the highest government levels. According to an audit conducted by the High Court of Accounts, it was found that at least 15 public officials were involved in irregularities related to the oil trade, EFE reported. This investigation also pointed toward private companies belonging to the President himself.
The opposition coalition, Democratic and Popular Sector, maintains the pressure in the streets, with the single request that Moise resign. Until now, this group has been the organized force to express the indignation of the masses, in this land forgotten by many. However, its concrete government proposals are yet to be analyzed since, more than an insurrection, the country requires a fair and rational program.
NOT A PRIORITY
Haiti is not a priority for the hemispheric powers, which avoid referring to the crisis in the Caribbean country. In recent demonstrations in front of the White House against a U.S. military invasion of Venezuela, also visible were placards reading: “Haiti, we will never forget you.”
Meanwhile, both the U.S. and Canada have withdrawn personnel from their embassies in Port-au-Prince, leaving only emergency staff. The Spanish delegation to the country has also taken measures, in the face of increased violence and insecurity. However, the West maintains a position of silence with regard to Haiti, a kind of “that’s just the way they are” attitude, imbued with the usual racism.
In this “invisible” nation, governability is just one problem among many that have accumulated over decades of foreign occupation, bad government and brutal dictatorship (the Duvalier era). One in two Haitians is illiterate, with nearly 200,000 children unschooled, who will likely end up joining the angry masses.
In shacks crowded on mountain slopes, exposed to future natural, political and economic disasters, Vodou practices have flourished, offering a religious and cultural response to the national crisis. Legend has it that through a Vodou ceremony, manifested was the deity Ogu, the spirit that foresaw the success of the rebellion that would give Haiti its independence, more than two centuries ago.
