POLITICAL INSTABILITY AND VIOLENCE IN HAITI: OUR PARTNERS’ REFLECTIONS

• 25 March 2024

By Romina Acosta Bimbrera, Communications and Public Relations Advisor

A DIFFICULT CONTEXT

Haiti is the poorest country in the Caribbean. Its location makes it highly vulnerable to natural disasters. In recent years, the population has had to cope with several earthquakes and hurricanes.

Currently, the Haitian people are facing their most serious crisis since the fall of the Duvalier regime in 1986. Armed street gangs control almost 80 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince; some 4,700 prisoners are at large after gangs stormed two prisons ?; and a new transitional presidential council tasked with restoring order to the country is barely in place.

In less than a week, gang attacks have displaced more than 15,000 people . Urgent needs include access to food, healthcare, water and sanitation, and psychological support. More than 160,000 people are currently displaced in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.

According to the World Food Program, more than four out of ten Haitians suffer from severe food insecurity, and some 1.4 million people are on the brink of famine .

In four corners of the country―Jacmel, Cap-Ha?tien, Les Cayes and Port-au-Prince―four of our partners continue to work courageously in the service of Haitian women, men and children who are the innocent victims of the corrupt politicians who spawned the gangs, and of an international community that has supported such leaders for far too long.?

THE VOICE OF OUR PARTNERS

Development and Peace – Caritas Canada has been present in Haiti since the 1970s. We work shoulder to shoulder with local organizations to support projects by and for the Haitian people.

Our partners include :

• Fanm Deside, which supports women victims of gender-based violence and raises awareness of women’s situation the southeast
• IRATAM, which works mainly in the north to strengthen women farmers’ resilience and autonomy by supporting poultry, egg, fruit and vegetable production
• ITECA, which works to strengthen the peasantry and its organization from its office in Port-au-Prince
• La Rosée, a social economy enterprise of the Fondation ha?tienne pour le relèvement et le développement (Haitian Foundation for Recovery and Development) based in Croix-des-Bouquets, right in the middle of the conflict, which works to boost food security through guinea fowl production

With Haiti in a state of emergency, and with no election date in sight, we are keener than ever to amplify the voices of our partners to denounce the situation and to inform Canadians of their thoughts.

What they all have in common is the sense of danger their staff feel as they go about their work. With roadblocks and kidnappings being daily affairs, it has become very difficult, if not impossible, for them to continue their activities.

Late last month, heavily armed bandits stormed the Bon Repos police station and killed four policemen. The attack greatly traumatized staff at La Rosée, whose office is just 4 kilometres from the station in Croix-des-Bouquets, the area most controlled by street gangs.

The constant presence of street gangs means that our partners cannot travel, and their activities are delayed. Until last week, they used to fly to northern and southern Haiti, but the blockade in Port-au-Prince has disrupted this means of travel. This has also caused prices to soar, because the Dominican Republic is now the only source of fuel and generator supplies, IRATAM reports.??

The ITECA team, meanwhile, has had to adapt its schedules and workplaces to better manage resources in the face of widespread shortage. It is currently working to balance its emergency, development and peace-related work, to provide alternative supports to associations and communities.

Two members of the Groupe d’Action Francophone pour l’Environnement (Francophone Action Group for the Environment) team, another partner, are currently stranded in Hinche, in the Central Plateau. They said, “A helicopter ticket from Port-au-Prince to Santo-Domingo now costs US$12,000 to US$15,000 USD…. The streets of the metropolitan area are deserted, with people huddled in their homes, alert to the slightest sound or unusual movement. While everyone else is trying to flee Port-au-Prince, all we want is to return home to our loved ones.”

A CATASTROPHIC HUMANITARIAN SITUATION

The situation of women was always complicated in Haiti. However, Marie-Ange No?l, coordinator of Fanm Decide, laments that the current crisis “is accompanied by an alarming feminization of poverty in a country where women are the backbone of the family economy.? Women are raped, kidnapped and stripped of their assets. Today we are limited in what we can do, and the context is undermining the gains we had made in having our rights respected.”

A major consequence of the crisis is the severe increase of food insecurity, as supplies become increasingly scarce. Poultry feed is also affected by the shortage of grain, mainly due to the closure of the border with the Dominican Republic. Our partners are forced to be resilient and adaptive. Famn Deside has set up “a training program on human rights, women’s rights, gender, gender-based violence and gender equality…. It has had the positive effect of strengthening grassroots groups’ capacity to question the country’s governance on its obligation to guarantee and enforce human rights.”

HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE

Despite the gravity of circumstances, we asked our partners how they saw the near future and what their wishes were for longer term.

“Development and Peace’s support encourages us to hang in there,” said La Rosée, whose greatest hopes “are for stability and the revitalization of institutions in the not-too-distant future, in order to find a lasting solution to this crisis that is eating away at the country.”

ITECA counts on the resilience of the Haitian people and hopes “that any way out of the current total crisis will necessarily incorporate a genuine community recovery plan or program.”

“[International] pressure must be kept up so that the balance of power allows for a viable and beneficial alternative for the country,” IRATAM wishes.

For its part, Fanm Deside would like for “a national unity government to be set up with the specific aim of establishing peace and security, organizing elections and bringing about social peace.”

In solidarity with the populace and our partners, we will continue to support their work, which is essential to help the Haitian people realize their full potential and return to better days.