There is never any good news from Haiti. There never has been. There is no country in the Western Hemisphere as cursed as Haiti. The place has been starving and violent and miserable the whole of my lifetime. We have intervened there and established a protectorate there and tried to foster a functioning democracy and it fails every single time.
Chaos is simply the norm in Haiti. Observe this old Blogger post from 2011:
1849 - Soulouque decides to get the jump on his Boyerist backers and cleans house. He declares himself Emperor Faustin I and creates an all new noble class of Princes, Dukes, Counts, Barons, etc. He rules the country with an iron fist, invades the Dominican Republic several times, and very nearly starts a war with the United States over a guano island.
1858 - Faustin is overthrown by one of his dukes, Fabre Geffrard, who re-establishes a Republic, complete with legislature.
1862 - Gefrard tires of the legislature and gets rid of it. He gives himself a raise, 2 plantations, and the use of army and hospital funds.
1867 - Sylvain Salnave overthrows Geffrard, who flees to Jamaica. Civil War ensues.
1869 - Nissage Saget overthrows Salnave. A new Constitution is attempted.
1874 - Saget steps down, or is thrown out, or something, and Michel Domingue is elected, or seizes power, or something. Another constitution is put together, and this one seems to work.
1876 - Under the new Constitution, Domingue transfers power to Lysius Salomon. A period of relative peace, semi-democracy, and almost prosperity ensues. Haitian culture and industry thrive a bit.
1888 - President Salomon abdicates and flees to Paris.-Revolutionary Nonsense “A Brief History of Haitian Democracy”,
This has been going on forever. There is no period in Haitian history where democratic power is consistently transferred peacefully. That’s not how it works there. That’s not how it has ever worked. Haiti is an authoritarian society, simple as. The modernist expectation that electoral democracy works at all times and in all places dies on the French half of Hispaniola. They’ve been trying it for 2 centuries. They have failed. There is no reason to expect that it will be successful in the future.
Whenever Haiti explodes, the United States feels a need to step in. We have before. We will again. There’s a legitimate reason not to want Haiti to become a haven for warlords and narco-goons, exporting traumatized immigrants all over the Americas. But the manner of our imperial intervention is what matters. In 1915, we sent in the Marines and set up a Protectorate for decades, modernizing and “educating” in our pompous progressive manner. In 1996, we threatened invasion to force the military regime to give way to the democratically-elected president. In neither case did we achieve our goal of turning Haiti into a functioning democracy. It’s time to stop shoving Haiti into a box that does not fit it.
Ergo, what do? Simple:
Reach out to whoever’s running what’s left of Haiti’s military, and offer him The Deal.
The Deal is, we provide you with funds, and guns, and other such, to wipe out the gangs and restore order to society.
You will retain access to these things, as needed, so long as you build a peaceful and orderly society.
We do not care how many heads you have to break in order to achieve this goal. Within limits, of course, if you become a psycho, someone else gets The Deal.
We do not care if there are elections, now or ever. We do not care how you organize your economy. “Peaceful and Orderly” is the benchmark, not “Democratic”, or even “Capitalist”.
If Our Guy fails to achieve this, pick someone else and offer him The Deal. Same rules.
When Our Guy dies or is overthrown, or whatever, offer the New Guy The Deal.
If Haiti’s debt problem gets in the way of Our Guy keeping his end up, square it with the IMF. Take care of business.
If Democracy actually comes, and The Deal becomes unnecessary, great. We’re done here, have a good time, see you at the next OAS conference…
This has the benefits of realism, and will be less expensive, and probably less destructive, in the long run than trying to prop up democracy among a people this given over to violence. Democracy, pace Thomas Jefferson, cannot grow in soil polluted with blood. The occasional Revolution is good. Endless Revolution is Satanic. Let the country have order, give it a chance to build wealth, and see if they can find their way to liberty. If they never do, order will work.
Fantastically pragmatic. The way the West used to be. Alas we are no doubt to blame for their failures. That would be the modern conclusion.
they call it Haiti because you would hate to live there.