Haiti: endless cycle

Of the so many conflicts existing in the region, what is happening in Haiti is an embarrassing situation that not only remains over time regardless of who takes power, but only few cares while the rest of the world tries to minimize it, and the issue is being silenced in the media. Others just ignore it and act as if nothing is actually happening.

Haiti is a country lacking solid structures, the result of social imbalance, extreme poverty and other redundant forms of disaster that revolve around the same problem.

The fact is that it seems like a land abandoned by fate, unknown to so many, and trampled by themselves. In addition, it also includes the historical interference of powers such as the United States and France, even not so far away in time. Let us remember that, in the 19th century, both countries refused to recognize the independence of that small Caribbean territory. Why? The answer is the same as ever: to protect their interests. And that is where it all started.

There are no doubts, the foreign occupation has been a major limiting factor for Haiti. Occupiers have led to Haiti’s lack of prosperity and have defined its path full of setbacks. Consequently, there are still vestiges of colonialism, slavery and discrimination. The outside factor is key in this process, and the ballast of its consequences is too heavy to shoulder.

It is not just now that the administrations are constantly collapsing. They are the vivid reflection of an overwhelmed and convulsive people who find it difficult to recover from the discontent generated by the economic depression. That is the cause of misfortune for any system. Logically, it starts from triggering a suffocating need so that little by little each aspect of a nation stops functioning, to the point of sullying, above all, human quality, since it gives rise to the worst in individuals. And you fall, like this, into an endless spiral, how can you grow like that?

Haiti is nothing but the result of circumstances. Despite being the first country in Latin America to earn its independence thanks to a revolution led by its own slaves, today it carries a set of misfortunes inherited two centuries ago and which translate into destruction, contempt and international isolation, in addition to dictatorial regimes that marked that land forever and left that nation in a true abyss of terror and underdevelopment.

That is why for a long time Haitians have lived helpless and subjugated, some trying to survive, others trying to escape, all pending the promises of both their countrymen and international bodies.

If we take a look at the press reports of yesteryear, for many years it seemed that it was at a dead end. Not only because it is a community that experiences the persistence of clashes between very territorial gangs, political corruption linked to organized crime, but even nature insists on wiping them off the map with the occurrence of earthquakes like the one in 2010, which was devastating, and ended with all the existing evil there and provoked more hunger and diseases, not to mention the half a million deaths and 1.5 million homeless people. Let's add up devastating diseases such as cholera and COVID-19.

It is located in a complex geographical area. Haiti is permanently hit by tropical storms and the people do not have prevention mechanisms nor infrastructures that hold. With every hurricane-like winds, the result is always the same: more calamity.

All this increases need, insecurity, and violence. Without ignoring that politics is chaos, and that is why we have heard of massive slaughtering, of unsolved crimes. Impunity is another watchword, since the powers are not strong at all and there seems to be no disposition to confront wrongdoings. An example of this is the recent situation, uncontrolled by the escape of thousands of inmates. But this is just one of many: coups d'état, political assassinations, repression, and more.

In conclusion, it is a collapsed and impoverished country, which does not overcome misery and lives in ruins, with unhealthiness, without core services in many of its areas, and with the permanent threat to life due to constant clashes; a worn-out society, forcibly displaced, marked by inequality and agony, a backward society in every way, marginalized, with a weak, indebted and unstable government; a nation that apparently will not be able to stay afloat or evade that destiny of hardship that seems to be written in stone, and that - although it may seem perverse - seems to suit the suspiciously idle elites.

Translated by Sergio A., Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff