Haiti Collapses Into Civil War--U.S. Intervention?

 Some news from the world's oldest black republic. On Saturday, armed gangs launched coordinated attacks on two prisons in Haiti, including the National Penitentiary, resulting in over 4,000 prisoners being freed. The gangs had also captured a stadium and cut a fiber optic cable that provided Internet access to many of the country's population. On Sunday, the government ordered a curfew as part of a declaration of a 72-hour state of emergency, reported PBS. That article also relates:

    Gangs already were estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince, the capital. They are increasingly coordinating their actions and choosing once unthinkable targets like the Central Bank.

    Prime Minister Ariel Henry traveled abroad last week to try to salvage support for a United Nations-backed security force to help stabilize Haiti in its conflict with the increasingly powerful crime groups.

    Haiti’s National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the U.N. They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned.

    The deadly weekend marked a new low in Haiti’s downward spiral of violence. At least nine people had been killed since Thursday — four of them police officers — as gangs stepped up coordinated attacks on state institutions in Port-au-Prince, including the international airport and national soccer stadium.

    But the attack on the National Penitentiary late Saturday shocked Haitians who are accustomed to living under the constant threat of violence.

    Almost all of the estimated 4,000 inmates escaped. Three bodies with gunshot wounds lay at the prison entrance Sunday.

Yesterday, the gangs tried to take control of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport. The Daily Mail reported:

    The gangs' aim is to prevent Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning to Haiti, from where he is thought to be abroad.

    The gangs are led by Jimmy Cherizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who now runs the gang federation. He has claimed responsibility for the surge in attacks. 

    He said their goal is to capture Haiti’s police chief and government ministers and prevent Henry’s return. Control of the airport is key in their plan.

    The Toussaint Louverture International Airport was closed when the attack occurred, with no planes operating and no passengers on site. 

    Haitian newspaper, Le Nouvelliste reported that flights have been suspended for the past few days due to the violence. 

Today the gang leader, Cherizier, warned of civil war and genocide unless PM Ariel Henry resigns. 

    The stark comments from Jimmy Cherizier, known as 'Barbecue,' came as Henry appeared to be struggling to fly home, with the main airport under attack and neighbouring Dominican Republic refusing permission for him to land.

    Henry - who was supposed to step down last month - was out of the country last week when armed criminal gangs, who control large swathes of Haiti, launched a coordinated assault to oust him - leading to some calling Haiti 'failed state'.

    'If Ariel Henry doesn't resign, if the international community continues to support him, we'll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide,' Cherizier, a former police officer, told reporters in the capital.

    'Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us. It's out of the question for a small group of rich people living in big hotels to decide the fate of people living in working-class neighbourhoods,' the 46-year-old added.

    Cherizier, who is under UN sanctions for human rights abuses and who denies his nickname has anything to do with burning people alive, has claimed responsibility for the latest surge in attacks in the nation long gripped by conflict. 

The article ominously adds:

    Dan Foote, who as the Biden envoy opposed calls for any American boots on the ground in Haiti, said a U.S.-led military intervention can no longer be avoided.

    'It's an absolute necessity now,' Foote said in an interview. 'We've let this slide from worse to worst, all the while abdicating our responsibility to others. But nobody can argue that Haiti isn't a failed state when the penitentiary gets emptied out.'

    I know that no one is using the term "civil war" but that is what it looks like to me. There will be calls for the U.S. to send troops. And, of course, we will. We have a long history of doing so and, generally speaking, do not want a flood of refugees from Haiti. This October 2022 article from the AP gives some background on prior interventions by the U.S.:

    Seven Haitian presidents were ousted or killed from 1911 to 1915, prompting U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to send U.S marines to Haiti in 1914. The U.S. removed half a million dollars from the Haitian National Bank for alleged safekeeping in New York. A formal U.S. occupation began in July 1915 and lasted until August 1934.

    In September 1994, the U.S. sent more than 20,000 troops and two aircraft carriers to Haiti as part of an operation dubbed “Restore Democracy” under President Bill Clinton. The aim was to restore to power [President Jean-Bertrand] Aristide, who had been ousted in a 1991 military coup. Aristide had become Haiti’s first democratically elected president the year before. A smaller contingent of U.S. troops remained in Haiti until early 2000, often under U.N. auspices.

    A parallel United Nations peacekeeping effort was launched in September 1993 and ran until 2000.

    Aristide was overthrown again in February 2004 in a rebellion originally launched by a street gang. The U.S., which had pushed him to resign, flew Aristide out of the country and sent troops — as did Canada, France and Chile. They were soon replaced by troops of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which stayed until 2017.

But as the article notes, the occupations did not really do anything to improve the situation in Haiti.