Unchecked armed violence. Rape. Kidnappings. Political instability. Corruption. Haiti is on the edge of a precipice.
And once again, the United States and others in the international community are dragging their feet in helping to return the country, which is also amid a constitutional crisis, to law and order.
All agree that Haiti’s struggling national police force needs help and no elections can occur until the country’s security problems are under control.
It is time for Haiti’s so-called friends to stop chattering about the problems and step up. The longer nations wait to send a lifeline to Haiti, the greater the likelihood that there will be little to save as women and girls increasingly become victims of sexual violence by gangs, and young men are recruited to take up arms.
Law and order have all but disappeared as murder and kidnapping escalate, largely carried out by ruthless armed gangs. Those groups, which now control over 60% of the Haitian capital and are extending their grip outside Port-au-Prince, have become the de facto government.
They are running amok, undisturbed by a depleted and demoralized Haitian National Police and the absence of an elected president or a functioning governing or legal system.
Two years after the still-unsolved assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, the country remains submerged in chaos as gangs fill the vacuum. Their growing power has led to the near collapse of hospitals, deepening hunger and child malnutrition among millions of Haitians, and growing displacement as Haitians, rich and poor alike, find themselves exiled in their own country.
This month, Doctors Without Borders was forced once more to temporarily suspend treatment at a medical facility. This time, it was their trauma facility in the capital, and the decision came after approximately 20 armed men stormed its hospital in Tabarre to get to a wounded patient in an operating room.
Violence has intensified, the head of the United Nations office in Port-au-Prince, Maria Isabel Salvador, recently told the U.N. Security Council.
“Sexual violence, including collective rape and mutilation, continues to be used by gangs to terrorize and inflict pain on populations and neighborhoods under the control of rivals,” she said. “Access to education, food, water, sanitation and health care services has been severely limited by gang activity. In areas affected by gang violence, economic activities are periodically — if not permanently — paralyzed.”
Haitians at home and in the diaspora know the situation is dire. Fed up, thousands demonstrated last weekend in Miami — and across the U.S. and Haiti — begging for help.
In recent months, more than 30,000 Haitians have fled to America as part of President Joe Biden’s humanitarian program. The program gives nationals of Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela the chance to legally live and work in the U.S. for two years as long as they have a financial sponsor. As admirable as the program is, draining Haiti of the talents and the police officers it needs to help rebuild a country slipping into the abyss is not a solution. It’s a Band-Aid, and the time for Band-Aids is over.
That escape passage is closing for Haitians and other refugees thanks to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has set out to make it almost impossible for the undocumented to live even in the shadows in Florida. He has also vowed to protect our border, so the idea of Haitian refugee boats arriving here is dimmer than ever.
Things are getting worse fast. Upon departing Haiti last month after a 10-day visit, the United Nations’ new independent expert on human rights, William O’Neill, said, “I found a country bruised by violence, misery, fear and suffering. The human rights situation is dramatic; all rights are violated. A panel of experts just reported increased levels of armed violence and gang encroachment into new territories.”
The U.N. has reported that people fed up with violence have taken the law into their own hands and killed at least 264 alleged gang members this year in vigilante killings.
The only reasonable solution is outside help, and it should be in the deployment of a multinational force, as requested by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to help the Haitian National Police. Nine months after he called for such a force, following the request by Haiti’s caretaker government, there are still no takers. Sure, some African nations such as Rwanda have offered to participate, as has Jamaica, Haiti’s neighbor. But as the situation demonstrates, the police need military muscle and equipment to help them root out vicious armed groups.
During his recent visit to Port-au-Prince and days later to Trinidad and Tobago to meet with Caribbean leaders, Guterres reiterated his call for “a robust” force to come to Haiti’s rescue. He made the plea again right before the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of Haiti at its meeting. Alas, once again, there were no takers, just talkers.
The thinking, correctly so, is that order first must be restored before democratic elections are held.
This is by no means inexpensive, but the alternative will be costlier. The U.S. has thrown money at the problem, more than $110 million in humanitarian aid for Haiti this year. But without improved security, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti will continue to worsen. Instead of nearly half of the population, 5.2 million, needing humanitarian aid, it will be millions more in the population of almost 12 million.
As reported by Miami Herald correspondent Jacqueline Charles, there is an unexpected glimmer of hope: The Rev. Tom Hagan, a respected American Catholic priest, told Charles that he has engaged four rival gang leaders in peace talks. They have committed themselves to ending the violence, even signing a pact that says: “We promise our loving God to work hard to end violence, to bring peace to all people.”
This is heartening news, but it won’t be enough. People’s lives are at stake. Once again, the world must come together to rescue Haiti, and quickly — while there is still something to save.
This editorial originally appeared in the Miami Herald.
