Kenyan cops can’t guarantee U.S. domination of Haiti

The multinational security support mission (MSS) in Haiti, approved by the United Nations, funded in large part by the United States and led by cops from Kenya, began arriving in Port-au-Prince at the end of June. It’s the latest wrinkle in the long history of maneuvers and plots the U.S. has used to maintain its neocolonial grip on Haiti and sharpen the exploitation and economic enslavement of its people.

The stubborn and inspiring resistance of the Haitian people to U. S. domination has been a major factor in the tactical changes the U.S. has had to make.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti independent on January 1, 1804. The United States, where enslavement was legal before the Civil War and extremely profitable, ignored this change in Haiti’s status for 58 years until 1862.

U.S. Marines to Haiti, stole gold

At the beginning of the 20th century, the U.S. justified sending Marines into Haiti to “restore order there and to maintain political and economic stability in the Caribbean.” During this occupation, which lasted from 1915 to 1934 and began with U.S. Marines stealing Haiti’s gold reserves, the United States got the pro-American President Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave elected.

After some maneuvering and turmoil and with major support from the United States, François “Papa Doc” Duvalier took over in 1957; his son Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier succeeded him in 1971. He lasted until 1986 when swelling popular protests, called in Creole the “dechoukaj,” led the U.S. Air Force to fly him and his Mercedes, which he drove onto the plane, to the south of France.

There are various rumors about how he took the millions of dollars he had grabbed from Haiti’s public funds with him. U.S. officials said “he held $200 million to $500 million in foreign bank accounts.” (tinyurl.com/4ezb86s4). Other rumors said he took pallets full of cash or billions of dollars in gold. In 2007, the Swiss government said “Baby Doc” Duvalier had $6.3 million in a frozen account. (tinyurl.com/3mcfufkt)

Military rule, generally supported by the United States, interspersed with elections that put Jean-Bertrand Aristide into the presidency followed the fall of Duvalier. Aristide, a progressive force in Haitian politics, was opposed by the U.S. while the military governments put in place by the coups, of course, got U.S. support.

U.N.  intervention

The turmoil of the post-Duvalier years let the U.S. maneuver to get the U.N. to set up a “peacekeeping” mission called MINUSTAH, from the French initials for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. From September 1993 to June 1996, and again in April 2004, MINUSTAH spent around $7 billion according to U.N. estimates, almost totally on the cost of the cops and soldiers that the U.N. supported.

MINUSTAH was generally detested by Haitians, since it didn’t address the need for health care, education, economic development and infrastructure.

The Core Group of imperialists

Jovenel Moïse, who became president in 2017, did not bother to hold elections. He maintained support from the Core Group — the United States and its imperialist allies like Canada and France.

The Core Group likes to pretend that “elections” (in reality “selections”) will solve Haiti’s problems. Haiti currently has no elected officials. After accepting the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse three years ago, the U.S. then imposed Ariel Henry as a de facto prime minister and interim president.

Conditions under Henry grew so miserable — violence, lack of schools, health care, food, jobs, shelter — that large numbers of people were forced into desperate and even criminal acts just to survive. Instead of spending billions of dollars on providing “security,” the international community should have provided the infrastructure necessary to provide for people’s needs.

It was Henry who provided the excuse for Kenya to send its cops to lead the MSS. It was a coalition of the paramilitary groups that demanded and got his resignation.

U.S. imperialism fairly quickly set up a “Presidential Council” that is acting as the president and has selected Gary Conille as prime minister. In cahoots with the Haitian oligarchy, it is presently working to set in place a Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) with the same actors and sectors from Haiti’s political landscape that it has been using for decades.

‘Chance for a second social revolution’

As Berthony Dupont pointed out in Haïti-Liberté on July 24: “If ever there was a chance for a second social revolution in Haiti, it is now. There is not one legitimate, elected Haitian official that the imperialists can pretend to defend. Both North American and European imperialisms are collapsing. Biden, Trudeau and Macron all have approval ratings at around 30% or below. They are dramatically losing their wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen and the Sahel. Even their proxy, Kenya, is hobbled by debt and mass protests.”

Even though the U.S. capitalist class had promised to fully fund the multinational security support mission, it couldn’t get its act together enough to pay the Kenyan cops — the repressive forces it was using — the bonuses they had been promised.

Progressives in the United States owe an immense debt of solidarity to the people of Haiti whose struggles for centuries have done so much to advance the struggles of all poor and working people for their full emancipation. U.S., French and Canadian imperialists out of Haiti now!