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.
Looks like they’re getting ready for whatever play they intend to make against the gangs and are trying to keep exacts on the hush hush to avoid the gangs being able to make preparations.
They’re called gangs in print but it’s worth remembering that these organizations have military training and equipment at their disposal far exceeding what you’d picture when someone says the word “gang”, at this point it’d be more accurate to consider them warlord bands.
There’s something off to me about the media exclusively referring to them as gangs.
I feel like if they were in another part of the world they’d be calling them paramilitaries or militant groups.
It’s because they want to remove the political goals some of these groups have from their public narrative.
Which, you can debate how underhanded doing something like that is, or how good or bad based on what those narratives are.
You have any information about their political goals? I went looking not too long ago and I wasn’t really able to find much.
There’s something off to me about the media exclusively referring to them as gangs.
I think that “strongmen” or maybe “warlords” is normally reserved for people who control a lot more territory than this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gang_war_in_Haiti.svg
Each group here controls tiny patches of territory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_war_in_Haiti
By 2022, researchers estimated that about 200 gangs operated across Haiti. Of these, half were located in Port-au-Prince. The more influential gangs control large swathes of territory, including entire municipalities and communes.
If we call them that then we have to call their migrants refugees and give them asylum.
I am very concerned about the situation in Haiti and the global public seems to have a very poor understanding of the situation. Media coverage of the crisis there has been very biased and superficial. This concerns me because the powers that be may not have Haitians’ best interests at heart and without public oversight these military solutions could end up creating further problems.
If anyone here lives in Haiti I would be very interested to hear any knowledge they could share of what is really happening and how they think it can be solved.
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.
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.”
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.
Media coverage of the crisis there has been very biased and superficial.
Can you be more specific? Is there any particular coverage that you find biased and superficial?
I will admit that some outlets undoubtably cover this better than others, but that is the case in all conflicts.
The whole framing of this conflict as a “gang” issue is very problematic in my view, since these warring factions are more of competing political actors seeking to control the country. While they may or may not be engaged in traditional criminal activity, their primary goals are political, not merely economic as with typical organized crime. Yet there has been essentially no attempt to explain who the various factions are and what their goals are. They are just described as gangs that are going on killing sprees for no reason (with an unspoken implication that Haitians are just violent savages). From my limited research on the topic, this is highly inaccurate.
That said, I really am not too knowledgeable about the situation there which is why I was hoping someone from outside of the US media ecosystem could share some real knowledge.
Is there any particular coverage that you find biased and superficial?
Very hard to find one that is NOT biased. Canibal savage gangs? Sure
Heres someone from Haiti talking about it
Lol, sounds totally unbiased to me…
After all, why wouldn’t you believe in unbiased reports from a channel named “neutrality studies”?
a Kenyan-led security mission to Haiti
This is very odd, but also very intriguing. The President met with Biden a month ago, so this tracks. I kinda hope this happens just to see how it plays out.
Edit: this will also be a great test of who reads past the headline. There are going to be a lot of knee-jerk “Murica Bad” comments.
The President met with Biden a month ago
But…the president IS Biden…
OHHH!!! You mean the president of Haiti. Ok. Didn’t realize they had a president. That whole sentence threw me for a loop.
I’m going to blame this heatwave frying my brain. I’m not stupid, I’m just…stupid.
…wait.
Ha, sorry about that — the President of Kenya, actually. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/05/23/fact-sheet-kenya-state-visit-to-the-united-states/
I’m just glad for once the US is letting some other country take the lead. Let the Haitians hate Kenya for trying to stabilize their country. I’m sure the US will be seen and the puppeteer pulling the strings though.
Idk why but I’m getting big deja vu from this story.
