In the past several weeks, I have watched dozens of sleek U.S. military planes descend over Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where I live. They were the first flights to land since gangs blockaded and halted commercial air traffic in March. U.S. news reports suggest that the aircraft contained civilian contractors and supplies to pave the way for the deployment of a Kenyan-led security mission to Haiti, which is expected to begin any day now.

But no one has informed Haitians who or what was on board. Even the members of Haiti’s new transitional government told me that they did not know precisely what the United States was flying into the country. Although the Haitian members of the presidential council have met with Kenyan and Haitian officials to discuss the force, they said they have not provided input to U.S. officials. Aides to newly installed Prime Minister Garry Conille confirmed that he has had no say on decisions related to the mission. It remains unclear what the force’s specific goals are or how it can contribute to rebuilding the Haitian state.

  • Talaraine@fedia.io
    401·
    6 months ago

    A couple of years ago I had a conversation with a Haitian native on this very topic. While I deleted my reddit account and no longer have access to that conversation, the gist was…

    Americans don’t seem to understand that every time they swoop in to ‘save’ Haiti, what they are really doing is enforcing the same colonial ideals that landed Haiti in the mess to start with.

    There’s no politician in play down there that isn’t on the take. His opinion was just to leave it alone and let the gangs sort it out. Either they’ll pull together a government or the last gang standing will.

    His statement had a lot more anger and quite a few expletives… They’re just sick of all of us, y’all.

    • cygnus@lemmy.caEnglish
      282·
      6 months ago

      Americans don’t seem to understand that every time they swoop in to ‘save’ Haiti, what they are really doing is enforcing the same colonial ideals that landed Haiti in the mess to start with.

      You might find the article reassures you on this point if you decide to read it!

      The truth is that the United States outsourced the Haiti mission to Kenya. U.S. President Joe Biden has admitted as much: “We concluded that for the United States to deploy forces in the hemisphere just raises all kinds of questions that can be easily misrepresented about what we’re trying to do,” Biden said in May during a news conference with Kenyan President William Ruto, adding, “So, we set out to find a partner or partners who would lead the effort that we would participate in.”

      • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
        186·
        6 months ago

        Is there reason to think this is anything more than a fig leaf? The US is obviously heavily involved in directing this effort, even if Kenya is doing the dirty work.

          • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
            31·
            6 months ago

            I mean you read the article right? It’s all about how the US has created this multinational coalition but that it’s really calling the shots. It almost seems like your excerpt was deliberately chosen to omit all of the other information that supports what I’m saying.

            So, I guess there would have to be a large accumulation of information that the US was not directing these efforts, despite members of congress and others having already confirmed that fact.

            • cygnus@lemmy.caEnglish
              31·
              6 months ago

              Kenya as far as I know has no experience in operations of this type — do you think it’s reasonable to expect them to do this alone? It makes sense that the US are helping to get this up and running. I expect a fuller handoff when whatever they’re doing is in place.

              • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
                32·
                6 months ago

                I’m not making a statement about Kenya, I’m saying I don’t trust the US’s intentions in this case based on their historical actions in Haiti. But no, I don’t think it would be good for Kenya to be involved unilaterally either. I would prefer to see a non-military solution.

                • cygnus@lemmy.caEnglish
                  4·
                  6 months ago

                  I would prefer to see a non-military solution.

                  Me too, but that would only really work if Haiti had a functional government to maintain order. Unfortunately that ship has sailed.

                  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
                    11·
                    6 months ago

                    First, I don’t accept that it can’t work, there are still holders of power in Haitian society, and if you get them to negotiate and agree to a peace then it will happen.

                    But even more importantly, having order imposed by force by hostile foreign governments is no more guaranteed to improve the lives of Haitians, and it could make things much, much worse. A real solution for Haiti needs to come from and be supported by the people. We’ve had a series of US imposed foreign puppets for about a century, and the current situation is the direct result of this failed policy. This medicine is already killing the patient, applying more won’t help.