As of: March 17, 2024, 7:57 a.m
By: Giorgia Grimaldi
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Haiti is descending into chaos.
Why the international community is also to blame for this and what could happen next.
On board the luxurious cruise ships that arrive here every day, there is a magnificent view of the Caribbean island of Haiti: white sandy beach surrounded by the warm turquoise sea, palm trees sway in the wind and lush tropical rainforest stands out on the volcanic island.
Wealthy tourists like to spend their South Seas vacation on the north coast, on the Haitian Cape.
But the tropical dream is an illusion because this part of the island is privatized.
Acute escalation: Haiti without leadership
In the south and inland, cars and containers have been going up in flames for years, criminal gangs control the streets and food is so expensive and scarce that there is not enough for many.
According to the United Nations, around 362,000 Haitians are currently displaced within the country - almost half of the approximately eleven million inhabitants suffer from acute hunger.
“I ask all Haitians to remain calm and do everything possible to ensure that peace and stability return as quickly as possible,” interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry said on March 12, announcing his resignation.
Henry had been in office since the unsolved assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021.
As of mid-March 2024, gangs have around 80 percent of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince under their control.
The German ambassador and other diplomats have left the country.
The gangs also block the airport so that Henry, who was in Kenya at the time of the escalation, cannot enter and is in Puerto Rico.
The port also had to close.
Freight containers containing food cannot be forwarded.
State of crisis in Haiti © Odelyn Joseph/Picture Alliance
USA, Canada and Caribbean countries call for presidential council
At a meeting on March 11, the heads of government of the Caribbean Community of States (Caricom), as well as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided to create a Presidential Council.
This should appoint a new interim prime minister and a cabinet, set up an electoral council and, together with the international community, promote the deployment of a multinational force to support the Haitian police.
A timetable was not given.
The crisis-hit country is in turmoil.
The revolt on the island is not a newfangled phenomenon, but rather deeply anchored in Haiti's DNA.
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Haiti, first black republic
At the beginning of colonialism in 1492, Christopher Columbus reached the island, named it “Hispaniola” and claimed it for Spain.
About half a million indigenous people lived on the island and were wiped out.
The colonialists abducted Black people from Africa and enslaved them to work on coffee and sugar plantations on the island.
France and Spain fought for ownership of the island until it was divided in 1776. They called the Spanish colony Santo Domingo, today's Dominican Republic.
France kept the other half.
Haiti was France's most productive colony until the enslaved people revolted in the late 18th century.
While other islands, such as Martinique and Guadeloupe, are still part of France - and therefore also the EU - as overseas territories, Haiti fought for freedom as part of an unprecedented and bloody revolution.
In 1804, Haiti became the first black republic in the world.
But the price for this was high.
Barbecue (M), leader of the gang “G9 and Family” © Odelyn Joseph
More on this: Haiti expert: “The gangs want to prevent a police mission”
Isolation and debt
Surrounded by the colonies of powerful nations, Haiti's trade relations suffered.
France, Spain and Great Britain did not want to trade with the first Black Republic.
They feared that the revolutionary spirit could spread to the other colonies.
France also demanded high reparations payments because it had lost Haiti as a lucrative colony.
Over decades, the Republic paid France 150 million francs in gold (which would be equivalent to several billion euros today).
With this massive debt, Haiti had a difficult start to independence.
Various governments then drove the island state further into poverty.
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Unrest, natural disasters and botched relief efforts in Haiti
Poverty and limited resources led to violence and escalation.
In 1915, a Haitian president was assassinated for the first time.
This was followed by foreign intervention: US forces occupied the country for 19 years.
The occupying troops supported the elite, who in turn protected later regimes, including the brutal dictatorship of François Duvalier.
Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, the country looted, while Democrats fled abroad.
The population's trust in politics, but also in foreign intervention, is crumbling.
After the dictatorship collapsed in the mid-1980s, the government apparatus lost its influence.
Since then, Haiti has found itself between crisis and interim solution, with powerless presidents and without a functioning parliament.
Interim Prime Minister Henry has attempted to mobilize relief troops several times in the past.
But foreign missions are frowned upon by the population.
The last U.N. peacekeeper sent to Haiti to calm the situation after a 2004 coup sparked a cholera outbreak by polluting the island's main freshwater source and was accused of numerous sex crimes.
In addition, natural disasters such as strong earthquakes (2010 and 2021) and periods of drought are increasing people's suffering.
Why has gang violence escalated in Haiti and what happens next?
At the end of February 2024, the two most powerful gangs joined forces.
Their leader, ex-policeman Jimmy Chérizier alias “Barbecue,” declared that if Henry did not resign, there would be a civil war.
Not only did they block the port and airport, but they also freed more than 4,500 prisoners from prison.
The escalation coincided with Henry's trip abroad, which took him to Kenya on March 1 - the East African country now wants to lead the next security mission in Haiti.
The gang leader, who presents himself as a fighter for the people, rejects the formation of a transitional council.
He told local media, referring to the meeting of the heads of government of the Caribbean community of states, the US Secretary of State and Canada's Prime Minister: They will “not recognize any government that emerges from this meeting” and that it is up to the people alone to decide.
More on this: Police operation against gang violence - Why Kenya wants to help Haiti
(With material from dpa)