Text: Josefina Salomón Illustration: Sergio Ortiz Borbolla
In Haiti, time seems to be measured in crises – and in international interventions. The arrival of a contingent of Kenyan police in June opened a new chapter in the complex history of the first country in the Americas to achieve independence and today the poorest and most unequal country in the region, which for months has been plunged into a wave of extreme violence.
The officers, who are leading a United Nations international mission funded by the United States and others, have been tasked with supporting the local police in restoring order after gangs took control of much of the country earlier this year, turning it into what has been described as a “war zone”.
Prime Minister Garry Conille – who was appointed on a temporary basis a month ago as part of a transitional government since the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry in March – said life in the capital, Port-au-Prince, has become a “battle for survival”.
The numbers, and the stories of those trying to survive, prove him right.
At least 3,250 people are estimated to have been killed since the start of the year, double the number from the same period in 2023, also a record-breaking year, according to UN data. More than 578,000 people have been displaced from their homes as a result of the violence, according to figures released by the International Organization for Migration – 20 percent of them now live in makeshift camps in inhumane conditions. In some areas, gangs pay families to stay in their homes and act as “shields” against police operations, UN officials told the Washington Post.
The criminal groups’ control on large areas of the country, which they wield with weapons trafficked from the United States and machetes, has extended to most hospitals and schools, many of which remain closed. The airport has recently resumed operations, although the gangs still have a stranglehold on key ports, which has severely affected food supplies. In fact, the food emergency already affects more than half the population, another tragic record.
“The situation in Haiti is very serious, particularly in Port-au-Prince,” Alexandra Filippova, Senior Lawyer at the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, which has been studying the situation in the country for years, told In.Visibles.
“The lack of security affects all aspects of daily life. People are hungry, access to health services is very difficult, institutions are not working, justice is not working, the list of problems is huge.”
One of the many reasons behind the crisis, experts say, is the country’s institutional fragility, particularly when it comes to its security forces. Haiti has 10,000 police officers with inadequate training and equipment to protect a population of 11 million people.
Against this backdrop, 200 Kenyan police officers landed in the country on 17 July, joining another 200 who had arrived nearly a month earlier. Another 2,000 security personnel from various Caribbean, African and Asian countries are expected to join the mission, although it is not yet clear when. The United States, which has already contributed US$40 million to the operation, has pledged another US$60 million.
They have a reason for this. Haiti is becoming a new epicentre of organised crime in the region.
Despite being one of the most sparsely populated and poorest countries in Latin America, Haiti’s strategic position in the international drug and arms trafficking corridor, combined with the fragility of its institutions, make it a perfect platform for illicit markets.
This is the context that gangs have taken advantage of to develop, strengthen and expand in recent years, according to experts from the Global Initiative against Organised Crime.
The gangs managed to amass so much power and territorial influence that they played a key role in former Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s decision not to return home from an international trip in February and to resign from his post in the context of the explosion of violence. Ironically, Henry was trying to negotiate the details of the international mission. Since then, the transitional council has been trying to lay the groundwork for general elections to be held in 2025.
The arrival of the Kenyan police has been greeted with a great deal of hope — and a lot of scepticism.
Filippova says that, despite the critical situation, there is a shared sense of frustration with international interventions in Haiti. This is the fourth to arrive in the country. All have had problems.
The US-led military interventions in 1994 and 2004, aimed at “defending democracy” and “establishing order”, failed to address widespread human rights violations. More recently, between 2004 and 2017, a Brazilian-led UN peacekeeping mission was accused of abuses, and Nepalese troops arriving to assist victims of the brutal 2010 earthquake were accused of generating a cholera outbreak that killed nearly 10,000 people.
“The current crisis in Haiti did not come out of nowhere. It is frustrating to see the same patterns repeated when international actors intervene in Haiti, creating situations that increase local vulnerabilities and lead to acute crisis situations like the one we are seeing now. This includes destructive and irresponsible practices that weaken the state, along with police and military interference that has led to the Haitian government being largely out of touch with the population itself, all while civil society is pushed to the sidelines,” explains Filippova.
Although Kenya was one of the few countries to offer assistance to Haiti’s police, critics have questioned how they will be able to support the fight against a type of criminal organisation they do not have experience in and with which they do not even share a common language. Moreover, it is a force that has faced accusations of committing human rights violations. In the week that the international mission began operating in Haiti, Kenyan police brutally repressed a demonstration against tax hikes in the country’s capital, Nairobi. Thirty-nine people were killed.
Filippova says the lack of transparency regarding the rules of conduct of mission members is “very worrying”.
“There is a lack of clarity about the accountability mechanisms that will be put in place to ensure that the mistakes of past missions are not repeated. Outsourcing policing never works. The only way Haiti can return to some kind of normalcy is to rebuild the institutions of governance and have its own police.”
The scepticism surrounding the mission is shared.
Experts from the Global Initiative against Organised Crime said that while the mission “provides some ‘oxygen’ to the local police, there is still a lot of uncertainty about its plans and strategy”.
Police who spoke to Washington Post reporters argued that part of the problem is the lack of a plan with clear objectives and defined roles. They complained that they are being asked to take a leadership role when they are less well equipped and fewer in number than the Kenyans.
Diego Da Rin, Haiti expert at the International Crisis Group, explains that the main challenge facing the mission is trying to regain control in areas that are difficult to access and where Haitian security forces have not entered for years, where gangs are, in effect, the state.
“In these areas, which have been war zones for years, it is necessary to rebuild schools, health infrastructures, hospitals, police stations, not only to establish police control. The state has to be present in all its forms in these areas in order to create opportunities for all these people who will no longer have the gangs as a source of income. And for all these families and people who have decided not to join these armed structures but who also live in absolutely deplorable circumstances,” he explained to In.Visibles.
The control of the criminal gangs is so entrenched that they demand a seat at the decision-making table.
Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, a former policeman who leads the gang alliance and is now one of the most powerful men in Haiti, said in an interview with France 24 that they will not lay down their arms until they are heard.
Da Rin explained that this context presents new challenges.
“Any kind of negotiation with the gangs is going to be extremely difficult to present in a way that will be welcomed by the population, because the vast majority of Haitians are against any kind of amnesty. These are leaders of criminal groups that have ordered indiscriminate massacres of civilians, gang rapes of large numbers of women and girls, the kidnapping of hundreds of thousands of people.
The search for a long-term sustainable solution is the main challenge for Haiti.
Fillipova says the key is to achieve justice for victims of violence and human rights violations and the integration of young people who were recruited by gangs, offering them non-punitive alternatives, as well as the integration of all groups in society, particularly women, in the reconstruction process.
“Women seem to be left out of the discussion. The transitional council has no women with voting rights and this is very problematic.”
Da Rin says the key is to address the crisis holistically, beyond the security aspect.
“Haiti is not only facing a security crisis. Haiti has suffered from great political instability for many years, high rates of corruption, an economic crisis and one that affects the poor the most. There are a huge number of challenges. And a strategy that focuses solely on solving purely security problems will not be able to bring about a real change in the country’s situation. It is like putting a band-aid on a big wound”, he concluded.
This story was originally published in InnContext.
