Haiti Collapsing & Bukele’s Tweet

Haiti has now collapsed. After being on the brink of becoming a failed state for years, it seems the moment has come. Gangs have launched massive attacks all over the country, and Haiti now finds itself with its Prime Minister unable to return to the country, the EU & US evacuating its staff, and with a dysfunctional collapsed general hospital in Port-au-Prince – the capital, now under almost complete control by the gangs.

Already before this, only around half of the Haitian population had access to water and electricity. If society and the economy (ever interlinked) were already weak, these new and extreme clashes are just aggravating the chaos and humanitarian crisis.

To make matters worse, Jimmy Chérizier, head of FRG9 (group of gangs) and one of the main gang leaders, who aims to take complete control of the country, recently warned that the conflict could turn into a civil war which would end in a genocide. It is a prospect that terrifies everyone. To say that the situation is dire would be an understatement.

In the middle of this chaos, President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has claimed that he could solve it, implying that he is offering to do so. In a tweet yesterday, he said: “We can fix it. But we’ll need a UNSC resolution, the consent of the host country, and all the mission expenses to be covered”.

President Bukele is well-known for many things, among them, his approach towards gang violence in El Salvador, a country once considered the “homicide capital” of the world. Since Bukele’s presidency, it is undeniable that crime rates have dropped steeply. However, it is true that this was done by means of a government crackdown of dimensions rarely witnessed before. Thanks to the state of emergency declared (and extended 24 times as of now), Bukele’s government was able to arrest people on suspicion. More than 76,000 people have been detained, over 1% of the country’s population, many of them with no apparent due process. To add to this, the conditions in the prisons are enough to shock anybody, with Amnesty International describing them as violating “fundamental rights such as the right to life; prohibition against torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment”. Despite all of this, Bukele seems to have very high approval ratings (apparently between 80 and 90%), with people supporting his methods under the argument that he has brought security, rule of law, and stability to the nation.

Whether we agree or disagree with his methods, it is true that Bukele’s government brought back a kind of order to El Salvador.

After this bit of context, let’s try to answer the question: can a military intervention by El Salvador in Haiti be justified? Of course, as per international law, states cannot simply send troops into another state’s sovereign territory. However, and although it is a much debated issue, there are some conditions which are generally accepted under which military interventions in another state can be justified. President Bukele names a few of them: a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution and consent of the host country.

Under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, military intervention can be authorized by the UNSC. This would occur if the UNSC determines that there is a threat to international peace and security and authorizes military action to address it. Foreign intervention can also be considered legitimate if the government of the country in crisis formally requests it or expresses consent, because of internal conflicts or threats.

Another possible justification for intervention is not mentioned, but is implied in the tweet and is clearly visible in the case of Haiti – humanitarian need. Although it is by no means unanimous, according to some scholars, foreign military interventions can be justified to prevent or stop mass human rights abuses, genocide, or crimes against humanity (prohibited by jus cogens).

So it would seem that, given the above conditions and as Bukele rightly mentioned in his tweet, there would be grounds for El Salvador to intervene in Haiti – if authorised by the UNSC (although it would be ironic for a government accused of human rights abuses to intervene in another country to protect these same rights).

The next question is: Could Bukele actually provide the solution for bringing back order to Haiti? It is an interesting issue to consider. Among other reasons, it would be extremely challenging given that Haiti has twice the population of El Salvador and that it would be logistically difficult to intervene anyway. It is also perfectly likely, considering Bukele’s trajectory, that his tweet was just written to become viral and attract attention, rather than a serious proposition. These considerations apart, however, it is important to ask whether Bukele’s approach would work to solve the problems in Haiti and bring back order. It would seem so, since gangs also controlled large parts of El Salvador and the country was similarly in chaotic internal armed conflict. President Bukele’s methods may well work in Haiti.

Do the ends justify the means? That is an ancient dilemma, one that many thinkers, writers, and rulers have answered in different ways; and still has no clear answer – it is a very subjective question. I do not personally support all the extreme measures Bukele implemented in his country, as I believe they have gone too far. However, I still find an internal conflict within myself on the question of Haiti. As Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician, said: “Desperate times call for desperate measures”. The situation in Haiti is desperate, and only desperate means can provide a real solution to it. I do not think that these desperate measures should come from a military intervention led by President Bukele, but I am not clear on what exactly should be done either. What I do know is that if there are no extreme actions taken soon by somebody, more and more Haitians will suffer the conflict and the country can easily become a quasi-anarchic system led by different gangs in conflict with each other, a shameful prospect for many of us.

*small detail to take into account: the government the gangs are fighting against was not democratic, with Economist Intelligence Unit rating Haiti an "authoritarian regime".