Haiti’s suffering, America’s responsibility

For too long, Haiti has suffered from chronic instability, violence, and desperate poverty. The surge in gang warfare and the exodus of Haitians fleeing Port-au-Prince have only compounded a long-running tragedy. As Haiti’s CARICOM sister, Barbados has a moral obligation to support the Haitian people during this crisis. But, we must be equally unambiguous about where the primary responsibility lies – with the United States and its long history of exploiting and undermining Haiti.

History, once you delve into it, tells a truly staggering tale. Haiti gained its hard-won independence in 1804 – the first nation to emerge from successfully taking up arms against the barbaric trinity of chattel slavery, colonisation and white supremacy.

The United States has been enthroned as the world’s first democracy. But when it declared independence from the British in 1776, at least one in five of its inhabitants were enslaved; its founding documents declared that its enslaved people were three-fifths human. Not Haiti in 1804. 

Therefore, it is not revisionism or ‘twistory’ but fact that Haiti was the first fully free nation in the Americas. But this fact was not lost on the enslaving nations of the US, France and Britain.

Haiti was forced to pay crushing “debt” payments to France – the colonial power it had overthrown. This bled Haiti’s economy dry from 1825, under threat of war by a restored French monarchy determined to punish a free republic by seeking to regain lost ‘property’ and capital of enslaved human beings. 

Starting in the early 20th century, Wall Street banks and the US government took over, determined to open Haiti to American corporate interests. US Marines brutally occupied the country for nearly two decades, killing thousands of Haitians who resisted, dissolving Parliament at gunpoint, and stripping Haiti of true independence for over 30 more years via financial strangulation. The historical amnesia of ultra-conservative 

Haiti’s debt and destabilisation served one key purpose – to enrich American banks and businesses. One hundred and ten years ago, eight US Marines seized control of Haiti’s gold reserve, valued at approximately half a million US dollars from the National City Bank, at the behest of both the bank and the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BNRH), itself a creature of the US banks, with the BNRH holding payments from the Haitian government. Adjusted for inflation and at current value, this amount would equate to US$13.5 million in 2021. 

The unrest from this dispossession culminated in the assassination of Haitian President Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam in 1915. The profoundly racist US President Woodrow Wilson then dispatched US Marines to Haiti with the stated intention to uphold political and economic stability and reinstate order. This military presence would endure until 1934. As US Major General Smedley Butler bluntly put it at the time: “I helped make Haiti…a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues.”

This shameful legacy of exploitation and underdevelopment is directly linked to Haiti’s turmoil today, the work not of a conspiracy theory but a community of vested interests. The steady flow of military-grade weaponry from the United States to Haitian gangs, enabled by lax US laws and porous shipping channels, is fanning the flames of the current crisis. Haitians flee their homes due to policy decisions made as much in Washington DC as in Port-au-Prince.

It is long overdue for the United States to confront and rectify the injustices inflicted upon Haiti. The American government must take decisive action, beginning with the strict monitoring and control of arms shipments to halt the deadly influx of US weapons into Haiti. Prioritising criminal prosecution for those involved in arms trafficking is imperative.

Furthermore, the US should fully fund any UN-led multinational security force in Haiti to assist in disarming criminal gangs. However, this assistance should not manifest itself through unilateral military invasion, which would only perpetuate the cycle of destructive foreign intervention.

Granting Temporary Protected Status to Haitian refugees is essential, providing them with safety and the ability to work in the US until stability is restored in their homeland. Immediate cessation of deportation flights is non-negotiable.

Substantial economic development aid should be directed straight to Haitian communities and institutions without imposing conditions that prioritise foreign corporate interests over those of Haitian citizens.

As a member of CARICOM, it falls to the bloc to establish a commission to thoroughly investigate historical foreign policies and interventions in Haiti, including France as well as the US – as an important companion to the bloc’s own reparations movement. The commission’s proceedings and findings should be openly accessible to the public. In collaboration with the Haitian academia and civil society, the commission can devise a comprehensive plan for reparations and future economic investment for fostering long-term stability and prosperity in Haiti.

The Haitian people’s resilience despite facing over a century of imperialist brutality is an inspiration. But their continued suffering is a stain on America’s purported ideals of democracy and human rights. If the United States wishes to be a force for good in our region, it must start by taking true responsibility and charting a new, just path forward with Haiti.