CETRI
On June 19, before the UN Security Council, the picture drawn up by the special representative of the United Nations secretary general in Haiti, Helen Meagher La Lime, contrasted with the analyzes of Haitian organizations. The self-satisfaction that she agreed with went hand in hand with the support given to the maneuvers of the Haitian government to reform the Constitution and fix the electoral calendar. The lack of reference to corruption, the empty and hollow words around “Good governance” and of “The fight against impunity” operated as a denial of the situation, which had led to the popular insurrection two years earlier.
On July 6, 2018, at the announcement of a sharp increase in fuel prices, demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, were ablaze. A few weeks later, a tweet from Haitian filmmaker Gilbert Mirambeau JR, asking where the billions of the Petrocaribe agreement were, went viral. The Petrochallengers movement was born. The two explosions – against dear life and against corruption ; against life stolen in short – converged in a mobilization of unprecedented scale, which shook the country for two years. But Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, directly implicated in corruption cases, did not give in. His power no longer due to the national oligarchy and the support, embarrassed or committed, of the international, he resorted to a war of attrition, and to war at all.
Terror, complicity, denial
On November 13, 2018, armed groups linked to the public authorities carried out a massacre in La Saline, a working-class district of Port-au-Prince, killing 59 people. Reports from the UN and local human rights organizations pointed to the responsibility of power. However, the investigation is stopped, and the violence has increased and become commonplace. What is more, the main organizer, former police officer Jimmy Cherizier, aka “Barbecue”, is at the center of a new massacre.
Between 23 and 27 May, in Pont rouge, a neighborhood close to La Saline, the G9, the alliance formed by armed gangs, killed 34 people. Again, this is an approximation, due to the difficulty of accessing this area and the new gang tactics of burning or making bodies disappear. State responsibility is again questioned. The gangs are said to have moved on board the police tanks. The upsurge in violence aims to control territories and votes for the next elections. How many massacres will it take to lift the mask of indifference and cynicism, to recognize in beheadings and burnt bodies the mirror of international diplomacy ? So that the press talks about it, so that public opinion is moved, so that policies change ? The international is one of the strongest links of impunity in Haiti. And we will not get rid of this responsibility with a new batch of peacekeepers and humanitarian aid. Current violence is fed and exploited by a government which, without the support of the international “community”, would have already fallen under pressure from the streets.
Stability of macroeconomic governance
Certainly, the United States bears a heavy responsibility. But the European Union and all of the international institutions have made it their accomplices, by aligning themselves with Washington’s position. Let the “negroes” massacre each other, so be it. Provided that the boat-people do not invade the American coasts, that stability – that of macroeconomic governance is understood – reigns, and that a State (as puppet as it is) controls the populace.
The likelihood of future massacres is high. Jovenel Moïse demonstrated his obstinacy in clinging to power. Its unpopularity, already abyssal, increases as the situation deteriorates. And it will get worse. Failing to convince, he seeks to conquer. Will Haitians have the strength to return to the streets and repeat the 2018-2019 uprising to derail power ? Will the international continue its absurd policy of “stability” ?
Less than a month after the Red Bridge massacre, Helen La Lime Meagher spoke “The hard-won gains in security and development over the past fifteen years”. This denial of the increase in poverty (over 59% of the population), insecurity, corruption and the cost of living sounded like a slap in the face of Haitians. Without a new uprising in Haiti, nothing will change. But if the shock wave of it is not reflected and amplified by the pressure of actors in the United States and in Europe against their governments, the denial and the complicity risk being perpetuated. With the consequences that it would be hypocritical to forget. The bitter taste of the end of the Trial from Kafka : “It was like shame had to survive him.” And the duty to change this shame into revolt.
