In 2010, millions of people were killed by an earthquake that struck Haiti. To a state already rife with systemic corruption, the earthquake was a devastating blow to the already cracked foundation that the nation was built upon. In the coming years, Haiti’s failure as a state would be exposed in the forms of vast territorial gang wars and a police force that refused to take action to protect the Haitian people.
In July 2021, Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in the midst of ongoing efforts to rebuild infrastructure and housing that was damaged by the 2010 earthquake. Within a year, Dominican Today reported that the President of the Dominican Republic deemed the situation across the border, “a low intensity civil war.”
Haiti’s rotting corpse, left at America’s doorstep, should be taken as a preventative warning of the fragility of modern day society. Our society, though vastly different on the outside, is structurally similar to Haiti, composed of three accelerants for corruption: a wealth disparity where 1 percent of American households hold 32.3 percent of our country’s wealth, according to the Federal Reserve; minimal transparency between the government and the public; and extensive monopolistic powers.
Haiti’s origins are not too dissimilar to our own. With a revolutionary beginning, Haiti was the second country in the Americas to declare independence from an oppressive colonial overlord, according to the U.S. Department of State. Similarly, Haitian economic figures from the CIA World Fact Book state that the “top 20 percent of households hold 64 percent of the total wealth.” The correlation between this statistic and the Federal Reserve statistic referenced earlier is undeniable: the majority of U.S. wealth and Haitian wealth is held by a group of select elites.
These elites can be directly related to monopolistic powers within each nation, with two examples being the Haitian Energy Sector and Silicon Valley. Companies in either sector wield vast amounts of capital and influence over their separate governments. According to Washington Monthly, the Haitian Energy Sector was likely responsible for the assassination of President Moise. Though on the surface, the American business world refuses to admit to maintaining a similar amount of power, in reality, American monopolistic powers have the ability to exert an even greater amount of influence over our economy than the destructive force that is the Haitian Energy Sector.
This leads to the final parallel: minimal transparency and accountability from the ruling class. Misinformation among Haitians is rampant, headed by local leaders and dividing the country into two factions: the elite and the poor. Similarly, in the U.S., friction between all divides in our society has sprung cracks in a foundation that we believed to be unbreakable.
With a rich history and culture, and holding the title of the only successful slave revolution in history, Haiti’s failure as a state is a disappointing and alarming reality exacerbated by corruption.
This poses the question, should the United Nations and, by extension, the United States intervene in Haiti? David Oxygène, the secretary general of the National Movement for Liberty and Equality of Haitians for Fraternity states that “all military interventions bring about occupation and that is never good for any country; 1915, 1994, 2004, they all brought disease, hunger, poverty, and destruction” referring to the numerous shortcomings of previous occupations in Haiti. In this case, Oxygène’s examples of attempted solutions to prior instability in the Haitian state could not be more relevant. His first example, the 1915–1934 U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, is deemed by history.state.gov as “a result of increased instability in Haiti in the years before 1915… Between 1911 and 1915, seven presidents were assassinated or overthrown in Haiti, increasing U.S. policymakers’ fear of foreign intervention.” This resulted in a 1915 invasion where according to history.state.gov, “Haitian President Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam was assassinated and the situation in Haiti quickly became unstable. In response, President Wilson sent the U.S. Marines to Haiti to prevent anarchy.” For his second example, Oxygène references the 1994 – 1995 Intervention in Haiti, of which history.state.gov describes, “On July 31 the Security Council passed UNSCR 940, the first resolution authorizing the use of force to restore democracy for a member nation… The Haitian leadership capitulated in time to avoid bloodshed.” For his final example, Oxygène notes a recent event in Haitian history, the 2004 Haitian coup d’état and its aftermath. A UN force of United States Marines, Canadian, French and Chilean troops arrived as a peacekeeping force with an official 7000 strong peacekeeping mission arriving in July 2004.