Intervention in Haiti: Can the world respond without interfering?

Even for a nation facing constant political turmoil and violence, chaos in Haiti has escalated to unprecedented levels since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021. Armed gangs have immobilized the capital, Port-au-Prince, shutting down the already troubled economy and creating fear among citizens to even walk the streets.

The administration of Prime Minister Ariel Henry has issued a “distress” call for international military intervention to avoid a “major humanitarian crisis.” The United States and Canada responded over the weekend with a shipment of armored vehicles; and the United States and Mexico are preparing a United Nations resolution that would authorize an international mission to help improve security in Haiti. But the fraught history of foreign intervention in Haiti – independent since enslaved people revolted in 1804 – means most Haitians foresee less help than hindrance in the request.

Here’s a brief on the complexities of international responsibility in the face of Haiti’s crisis.

Does Haiti need intervention?

“I can’t say that the government controls the situation in the country right now,” admits a Haitian government appointee who asked not to be named. As a result, lives are at stake after gangs closed access to one of the country’s main fuel terminals, forcing gas stations to shutter and hindering essential services like banks and hospitals.

Though the official – like many Haitians – holds antipathy for any international involvement in the nation’s affairs, they concede that Haiti obviously needs short-term help to secure rule of law.

“If we have some kind of foreign intervention, maybe we can have some change quickly,” says the official.

But, in the long run, they and other Haitian observers note, the country will still be left with the problems it has always had.

What has gone wrong and what has gone right with interventions?

While interventions have brought temporary stability, it’s rarely lasting – and new problems often ensue, says Frantz Voltaire, a Haitian author, professor, and filmmaker living in Montreal.

The impulse to intervene in Haiti, overtly with troops and humanitarian aid, or opaquely through diplomacy and carrot and stick economics, depended on the crisis at hand. And it has always carried with it the whiff of what one Haiti watcher calls “neocolonial trappings.”  

Poverty and violence in Haiti can have political repercussions when waves of migrants land on the shores of other Caribbean nations and the United States. So tinkering behind the scenes to prop up a government or spirit away a besieged president, or outright help to restore rule of law, might help those foreign governments more than the Haitian government. Humanitarian crises like hurricanes and the catastrophic 2010 earthquake can be cause for compassion and huge outlays of aid that solve momentary problems but not necessarily long-term structural ones.

Haitian suspicions are stoked by the long history of outside intervention starting with 17th-century French colonization and slavery and the huge debt of reparation imposed by France after Haiti won independence. The U.S. occupation in the early 20th century set the stage for the Duvalier family dictatorship from 1957 to 1986. And there have been several military and peacekeeping missions in the past 35 years.

The legacy of this history is seen in Haiti’s dysfunction: Since the fall of the Duvaliers in 1986, there have been 15 presidencies – only one of them widely hailed as democratically elected. Most recently, after they were brought in to help after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, U.N. peacekeepers were believed to have introduced cholera to the water supply and were involved in a sexual abuse scandal.

It doesn’t help that Haitian institutions are depleted and disorganized, says Mr. Voltaire. At the moment, for example, the National Assembly has so many unfilled seats that a quorum can’t be reached. And Prime Minister Henry is seen by many as illegitimate because he was never confirmed by the Assembly.

On the other hand, says Robert Maguire, a Haiti expert and retired professor at George Washington University, a share of that disarray is a product of the global powers that meddled in Haitian politics and unfit leaders.  

Is there an international responsibility to intervene?

Intervention of any sort is always vulnerable to accusations of interference ­– even when invited in a dire situation like Haiti faces today.

But global powers should feel a certain responsibility to Haiti, says Robin Derby, a scholar of Caribbean affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles and an opponent of military intervention.

“We need to begin discussions with groups outside of government for a way forward,” she says. While the U.S. government, for example, doesn’t typically deal with nongovernmental bodies, there are strong grassroots organizations in civil society in Haiti. One such group of civic, religious, and political groups – after Mr. Moïse’s assassination last year – developed the Montana Accord as a path forward, starting with a provisional government to take over from Mr. Henry and hold elections.

Dr. Maguire suggests that as a starting point, the U.S. needs to enforce its own laws, particularly when it comes to international weapons trafficking and money laundering by Haitians and Haitian Americans in the U.S. who are instrumental in funding the violence in Haiti.