Once again, the international community will intervene in Haiti, this time to stabilize the security situation in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where gangs have terrorized civilians for the past two years.
The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution Monday authorizing a multinational security mission — led not by UN peacekeepers but by Kenya’s national police force — to tackle gang-related violence. Following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, several armed groups, mostly under the banners of the gang federations of G9 and G-PEP, effectively took control of the capital — trafficking drugs, extorting and kidnapping ordinary citizens, recruiting children, and raping and murdering both their enemies and innocent civilians alike.
A number of stakeholders agree that an intervention is critical to stop the violence, and given that the Haitian National Police force is outgunned and underpaid, it has to be an external force of some kind. But given the sometimes-grim history of international security missions in Haiti (including creating one of the worst cholera outbreaks in modern times), a longer history of imperial and colonial interference, and a lack of investment in Haiti’s governance structure and economy, there is also real fear about the long-term effects of another such intervention.
Complicating all of this is Haiti’s political situation. Following Moïse’s assassination, Ariel Henry — a neurosurgeon who was awaiting appointment to the prime ministership — took control of the government. In his capacity as head of state, Henry has presided over a rout of Haiti’s governmental institutions (such as they were). He’s also allowed gang violence to proliferate to the point that it has effectively cut off Port-au-Prince from the rest of the country.
“It’s as bad as it’s ever been,” Keith Mines, the director of the Latin America program at the US Institute of Peace, told Vox.
Most Haitians…
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