As the United States navigates crisis in Haiti, a bloody history looms on the horizon

In September 1994, the United States was about to invade Haiti.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country’s first democratically elected president, had been ousted in a military coup three years earlier. Haiti had descended into chaos. Gangs and paramilitaries terrorized the population – taking hostages, assassinating dissidents and burning crops. The international embargo had stifled the economy, and tens of thousands of people were trying to immigrate to America.

But a few days before the first American forces arrived in Haiti, Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was a senator on the Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke out against military intervention. He argued that the United States had more pressing crises—including the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia—and that Haiti was not of particular importance to American interests.

“I think it probably isn’t wise,” Biden said of the planned invasion in an interview with TV host Charlie Rose.

“If Haiti – which is a terrible thing to say – if Haiti quietly sinks into the Caribbean or rises 300 feet, it won’t matter much in terms of our interest,” he added.

Despite Mr. Biden’s fears, the invasion continued, and the Haitian military junta surrendered within hours. Mr. Aristide soon returned to power and the Clinton administration began deporting thousands of Haitians.

Nearly a decade later, Haiti’s constitutional order will collapse again, resulting in yet another US military intervention, more immigrants and more deportations. When rebels threatened to invade the capital in 2004, Mr. Aristide resigned under pressure from US officials. An interim government was formed with American support. Violence and unrest continued.

The cycle of crisis and US intervention in Haiti – punctuated by periods of relative calm but little improvement in most people’s lives – has continued to this day. Since July, a presidential assassination, an earthquake and a tropical storm have deepened the unrest.

Mr. Biden, now president, is overseeing yet another intervention in Haiti’s political affairs, one his critics say follows an old book of Washington: supporting Haitian leaders accused of authoritarian rule, either because they advance American interests or because American officials fear instability. for the transmission of power.

Understanding US politics in Haiti over decades — sometimes driven by economic interests, Cold War strategy, and immigration concerns — is vital to understanding Haiti’s political instability, and why it remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, even after injecting more than $5 billion in aid. America in the last decade alone.

A bloody history of American influence looms on the horizon, and a century of American efforts to stabilize and develop the country have ultimately ended in failure.

American occupation (1915-1934)

Slavery policies and racial prejudice were major factors in early American hostility to Haiti. After the Haitian Revolution, Thomas Jefferson and many in Congress feared that the newly founded Black Republic would spread slave revolts in the United States.

For decades, the United States refused to formally recognize Haiti’s independence from France, sometimes trying to annex Haiti’s territory and practice diplomacy through threats.

Against this background, Haiti is becoming increasingly unstable. The country went through seven presidents between 1911 and 1915, all of whom were either assassinated or removed from power. Haiti was heavily indebted, and Citibank – then the National City Bank of New York – and other US banks seized much of Haiti’s gold reserves during that time with the help of the US Marines.

Roger L. Farnham, who managed the assets of Haiti’s National City Bank, then pressured President Woodrow Wilson for military intervention to stabilize the country and force the Haitian government to repay its debts, convincing the president that France or Germany might invade if America did not. .

The military occupation that followed remains one of the darkest chapters in American policy in the Caribbean. The United States installed a puppet regime that rewrote the Haitian constitution and gave America control of the country’s finances. Forced labor was used in construction and other work to pay off debts. Thousands were killed by US Marines.

The occupation ended in 1934 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighborly Policy. When the last Marines left Haiti, riots broke out in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Bridges were destroyed, telephone lines were cut, and the new president declared martial law and suspended the constitution. The United States did not completely relinquish control of Haiti’s finances until 1947.

Even as the United States grew tired of Duvalier’s brutality and precarious leadership, President John F. Kennedy objected to a plot to impeach him and mandate free elections. When Duvalier died nearly a decade later, the United States supported his son’s succession. By 1986, the United States had spent an estimated $900 million supporting the Duvalier dynasty as Haiti sank deeper into poverty and corruption.

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At the defining moments of Haiti’s democratic era, the United States intervened to pick winners and losers – fearing political instability and rising Haitian immigration.

After Mr Aristide was overthrown in 1991, the US military reinstated him. He resigned after less than a decade of disgrace, but only after American diplomats urged him to do so. According to reports from that time, the George W. Bush administration had undermined Mr. Aristide’s government in the years before his resignation.

François-Pierre-Louis is Professor of Political Science at Queens College in New York. He served in Mr. Aristide’s government and was an advisor to former Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis. He said Haitians are often suspicious of US interference in their affairs, but still take signals from US officials seriously due to the country’s long history of influence over Haitian politics.

For example, after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, US and international diplomats pressured Haiti to hold elections that year despite the devastation. The vote was disastrously abused, and the results were deemed illegitimate by international observers and many Haitians.

In response to allegations of voter fraud, US diplomats insisted that one candidate in the second round of the presidential election be replaced by a candidate who received fewer votes – at one point threatening to withhold aid due to the dispute. Hillary Clinton, then-Secretary of State, confronted then-President Rene Préval about putting Michel Martelly, America’s favorite candidate, on the ballot. Mr. Martelli won that election by a landslide.

The direct line of succession can be traced from that election to the current crisis in Haiti.

Mr. Martelly befriended Jovenel Moss as his successor. Mr. Moyes, who was elected in 2016, has ruled by decree and turned to authoritarian tactics with the tacit approval of the Trump and Biden administrations.

Mr. Moise Ariel Henry was appointed as Acting Prime Minister earlier this year. Then Mr. Moyes was assassinated on 7 July.

Mr. Henry was indicted in connection with the assassination plot, and the internal political flare-up that subsided after international diplomats upheld his claim to power re-established. Mr. Martelli, who has clashed with Mr. Moss over business interests, is considering another presidential bid.

Robert Maguire, a Haitian scholar and retired professor of international affairs at George Washington University, said Washington’s instinct to support members of Haiti’s political elite who seemed allied with American interests was an old instinct with a history of failure.

Another approach could be more successful, according to Mr. Maguire and other scholars, Democratic lawmakers and former US envoy for Haiti policy. They say the United States should support a popular committee of civilian leaders, who are drafting plans for a new interim government in Haiti.

However, this process may take years.

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