CETRI
The European Parliament had already taken a position on the situation in Haiti at the end of 2019. However, following developments in the political situation at the beginning of 2021, the High Representative for European Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, did not respond - or sidestepped the matter - to questions on this subject. On 20 May, the Parliament finally came out of its reserve to adopt a resolution. Although many elements constitute clear advances, they continue to be hampered by the silences and contradictions of the international community. The Haitian people in particular have the right to expect us to satisfy their thirst for freedom.
The resolution notes the gravity of the crisis and the deteriorating security situation. It also notes that President Jovenel Moïse is constantly strengthening his power : by governing by decree ; by seeking an unconstitutional referendum ; and by remaining at the head of state, believing, against the majority of the population and the Superior Council of the Judiciary, that his presidential mandate did not end on 6 February 2021.
Corruption and impunity are endemic and almost systematic - evident in both the looting of the “elite” and the extortion practised by gang leaders, leading the country into a vicious circle of violence and confiscation of public space. The European Parliament recalls that the report of the Haitian Court of Auditors, now being suppressed, implicates Jovenel Moïse in the embezzlement of funds from the Petrocaribe programme, and “that the violence in Haiti is closely linked to armed gangs, some of which are supported and financed by the local oligarchy”. This is why we are calling for an audit of European funds to the country.
Europe seems to have captured the scale of the population’s discontent and the significance of the « waves of large-scale mobilizations against the high cost of living, authoritarianism and corruption. » It recognizes the social roots of the political crisis : Haiti is one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the world, where access to basic social services, already limited, has been further reduced. Women in particular are affected by this.
However, requests to the international community remain timid. Recalling « the importance of harmonized, coordinated and strengthened international action in support of the Haitian people. » It remains is to connect the consequences, by condemning the double disharmony of diplomacy determined more by the decisions of Washington (and the European Union) than by the voices of the Haitian people.
The European Parliament is certainly unambiguous about the June 27 referendum (since postponed), desired by Jovenel Moïse. It is prohibited by the Constitution, and the EU does not support it. However, the European Parliament still continue to call on the Haitian authorities to organise free and credible elections. Given, the control of armed gangs over entire neighbourhoods, the lack of legitimacy of the authorities and the numerous irregularities for which they are responsible, is this not simply about denying the reality ? In any case, it is a disregard for the demand that unites the vast majority of Haitian civil society : a transition to rupture.
On the front line
Haitian women are on the front line. Not only in the demonstrations, but also in their daily lives, when life has become a gruelling struggle. More than 4 million people are suffering from hunger, hospitals lack everything, schools have had to close their doors many times due to insecurity, all public institutions and infrastructures are dysfunctional, captured by the clique in power, and mobility is the object of calculations that are as vain as they are fearful. Yet it is mainly women who have to provide food, care, education, etc.
Insecurity in Haiti is a weapon of war. Kidnappings have increased in recent months and are almost always accompanied by rape. The same applies to massacres - twelve since 2018 (not counting the violence that again affected the capital at the beginning of June) - of which impunity prolongs and consecrates the atrocities. This violence is not blind, as it strikes first and foremost women and serves as a magnifying glass to the strategy of the authorities.
The first decree issued by Jovenel Moïse, after 6 February 2021, consisted of the confiscation of land from thousands of people, including several hundred peasant women from the Solidarité des Femmes Haïtiennes (SOFA) organisation who were trained in ecological farming. These lands, located in the Savane Diane, were thereafter allocated to a family of the oligarchy, for the purpose of creating an agro-industrial free zone, intended for export.
The situation in Haiti is concerning. Has time frozen “at the end of defeats / of anger and despair” (Évelyne Trouillot) ? On closer inspection, however, the false impression of inevitability and powerlessness is shattered to make way for our responsibility in the current tragedy and must lead in accordance with the formidable determination of Haitians, and especially Haitian women, to build the conditions for a free and dignified life.
An international appeal, Stop silence Haiti, signed by a hundred civil society organisations, has just been made public. We fully support this call for a change in international policy towards Haiti. As, what is happening there is not a distant and exotic spectacle, but the site of a common struggle, involving us as Europeans, as MEPs and as women.
Signatories :
Maria Arena, Groupe de l’Alliance Progressiste des Socialistes et Démocrates ;
Saskia Bricmont, Groupe des Verts/Alliance libre européenne ;
Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, Groupe des Verts/Alliance libre européenne ;
Caroline Roose, Groupe des Verts/Alliance libre européenne ;
Marie Toussaint, Groupe des Verts/Alliance libre européenne ;
Marisa Matias, Groupe de la gauche ;
Idoia Villanueva, Groupe de la gauche.
