Haiti sinks.
The agony of the Caribbean country is nothing new, but the cocktail of violence, corruption, misery and institutional collapse that today condemns millions of people to chaos has not only not reduced its enormous dimensions but also seems to have reached a tragic point of no return. .
The fall accelerated a year and a half ago with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
Since then the Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, has led the country in a context of deep political instability and enormous unpopularity.
Criminal gangs, known there as gangs, control up to 60% of the territory of Port-au-Prince, the capital, according to a UN estimate: entire neighborhoods, roads or markets remain under their control.
Close to 100.
000 people have been displaced from their homes due to violence in a capital and its metropolitan area that has three million inhabitants.
The immediate effect of this out-of-control situation has been to fuel a perverse and growing spiral of collusion between organized crime and public officials.
Added to this bleak picture are the protests.
The latest outbreak dates back to last January, when the murder of 14 police officers in three weeks was the spark that unleashed a violent protest by uniformed officers and former agents that even forced Henry to take refuge in the airport facilities.
Fed up and mobilizations have marked the management of the current prime minister since the beginning of his term.
In September, the announcement of a fuel price increase of more than 100% plunged Haiti into a new wave of demonstrations that paralyzed the country and deepened the crisis.
While thousands of people try to find a way out and flee in search of opportunities, the mixture of discontent and misrule also ends up affecting what remains of public services.
The latest protests caused a shortage of water, thus facilitating the spread of a new outbreak of cholera.
The disease reactivated an emergency that was considered to have been overcome since at least 2020. 13 years ago, after the earthquake that devastated the country and left more than 200,000 dead, almost one million infections were registered.
Then came the years of foreign aid and the deployment of the United Nations, but with international missions, cases of sexual abuse and the spread of other diseases multiplied.
The international community cannot ignore the continuous alerts coming from Haiti.
The deteriorating situation of the Caribbean country is increasingly desperate and there are no signs that the Haitian politicians themselves can reverse the situation on their own.
International help and involvement must arrive sooner rather than later, before having to deplore an even greater calamity again.