Esteemed members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me today. I am pleased to be here as part of your study on the current situation in Haiti.
I am Haitian, I am an expert on international relations, and I have been watching the political situation in Haiti. That is the lens through which I will be sharing my thoughts and observations on what I call the Haitian problem.
I'd like to start with a brief history of Haiti's evolution on the world stage.
A former French colony known as Saint‑Domingue, Haiti gained independence by dismantling the slave-based colonial structure that fuelled the capital accumulation regime. The new state's contribution to freedom and equality was extraordinary, both in terms of what it achieved domestically and in terms of the momentum it created around the world. This was especially true at the regional level, given the role Haiti played in the freedoms gained by people in Latin America.
After the country gained its independence, however, several generations of Haitians were still forced to pay reparations to the descendants of their former slave owners. The weight of Haiti's double debt—the reparations owed and the loans taken out to pay those reparations—was immense, setting Haiti on the path to underdevelopment, while making Europe's and North America's major financial centres richer.
The state of the country today is disastrous. The situation is dire. Haitians forced to leave the country to find work face inhumane conditions. More than just poverty, Haitians are experiencing terrible misery. Hospitals are left with nothing, roads are inaccessible, justice is non-existent and violence is at its peak. The government is not in control of anything. The country is dying a swift death; Haitians are in desperate straits.
Add to that the damage caused by repeated natural disasters and a rampant socio-political crisis, and you would be hard-pressed to find a worse situation. What is generally described as countrywide terror at the hands of criminal gangs is merely the product of a political phenomenon. Bolstered by foreign governments in the face of the current geopolitical tensions, economic elites and transnational political actors are using these impoverished members of society as pawns in their political war, arming them with weapons and ammunition and giving them political and legal protection.
In response to the situation, many are calling for new foreign intervention under the umbrella of humanitarian assistance. I strongly disagree with that recommendation. The events of the past 20 years clearly show that nothing good has come of such intervention. To advocates of intervention, I say have a look at the Organization of American States' assessment of foreign intervention in Haiti.
The organization's general secretariat released a statement on Haiti on August 8, 2022, and this is what it had to say:
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 cooperation.… Instead, this failure has to do with 20 years of erratic political strategy by an international community that was not capable of facilitating the construction of a single institution with the capacity to address the problems facing Haitians. After 20 years, not a single institution is stronger than it was before.
Also telling is the resignation letter of former U.S. ambassador and special envoy for Haiti Daniel Foote, and I quote:
This cycle of international political interventions in Haïti has consistently produced catastrophic results. More negative impacts to Haiti will have calamitous consequences not only in Haïti, but in the U.S. and our neighbors in the hemisphere.
In the face of such a situation, what can we do to encourage co‑operation with Haiti and help the country get back on track? First and foremost, nothing can happen until relative security has been restored. Right now, international co‑operation with Haiti should focus on the country's immediate security needs.
Haiti is a country on a unique and different track, a country whose security cannot be left solely to the whims of external forces or hypothetical friendly countries; nor can it be left exclusively in the hands of police. While it is necessary to support capacity building so that Haitian police can intervene, it is just as necessary to focus on the military's role in security and the redeployment of Haiti's armed forces.
At the same time, international mediation to resolve the political crisis must be encouraged. The resulting political compromise could ease the transition to an elected government, without outside forces getting in the way. Only on the basis of those concrete actions can Haiti—