Haiti And The West's Dirty Little Secret

This past week, Haiti was rocked by a devastating earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, killing an estimated 50,000 people. The world has responded with aid and enormous amounts of sympathy. America has taken the lead role in providing humanitarian assistance to survivors of the earthquake. Announcing his government’s decision to give $100 million in aid to the impoverished country, President Barack Obama has given Haiti the most generous amount of aid yet.

At face value, $100 million seems generous. But America has had a very long and disasterous history with Haiti that money may never be able to repair.

While some right-wing commentators like to blame the country’s corrupt leadership for Haiti’s impoverishment (or some pact with the devil), the truth is far more complicated and nefarious. One of America’s dirty little secrets over the last century has been its propping up of violent dictatorships in Latin America and the Caribbean; Haiti is just one example. America has not only backed almost every dictator on that island, but has also overseen its financial ruin as well.

After the slave revolt that overthrew the French in 1804, both Europe and the United States isolated Haiti. The French attempted to retake their former colony in 1825, sending twenty-thousand troops to do the job. The Haitian president at the time agreed to pay 90 million Francs to the French as reparations for lost profits from the slave trade in order to keep his country independent. A series of coups and foreign interventions would keep the country unstable for decades.

In 1915, American troops invaded and occupied Haiti at the behest of American and French banks to whom Haiti was deeply indebted to, an occupation that would last until 1934. “Through American manipulation, 40% of the national income was used to alleviate the debt repayment to both American and French banks. Despite the large sums due to overseas banks, this economic decision ignored the interests of the majority of the Haitian population and froze the economic growth the country needed.”

The American occupation eventually ended, but the country continued to decline under repressive leadership, culminating in the dictatorship of the Duvalier family, including Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”). They were backed economically and militarily by the United States until 1986, when massive protests forced the son into exile.

In 1990, Haitians elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a left-wing former priest, as president in a free and fair election. His modest efforts to reform the country’s economy, including balancing the budget and making mild agrarian and education reforms, proved too much for the country’s elite. He was almost immediately ousted by General Raoul Cédras in a coup, largely believed to be backed by the U.S. The Clinton administration sent troops to restore Aristide to power in 1994, but only after he agreed to accept structural adjustment reforms that did further damage to the country’s economy. According to the New Left Review,

"(T)he IMF cure for Haiti’s desperate poverty involved further reductions in wages that had already sunk to starvation levels, privatization of the state sector, reorientation of domestic production in favour of cash crops popular in North American supermarkets and the elimination of import tariffs… As a result of these and related economic ‘reforms’, agricultural production fell from around 50 per cent of GDP in the late 1970s to just 25 per cent in the late 1990s."

Our own government has had its dirty hands in Haiti too. In 2003, the Canadian government hosted the Ottawa Initiative, a conference intent on deciding the future of Haiti’s government that included officials from Canada, the U.S., France, and Latin America, but no Haitians. What transpired is a state secret, but information leaked to a Quebec journalist reveal that officials wanted Aristide removed and the Haitian military returned to power.

In 2004, Aristide was again forced into exile following a rebellion by an armed rebel group known as the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Haiti. Aristide eventually resigned the presidency, but claims he was kidnapped by U.S. forces and taken against his will to the Central African Republic. A UN peacekeeping force, made up largely of American, but also French and Canadian troops, was invited by the interim president to restore order following Aristide’s departure.

A dangerous pattern emerges when you look at Haiti’s two-hundred plus years of “independence.” Western powers, particularly France and the United States, have violated Haiti’s sovereignty repeatedly, kept it impoverished, and largely profited from its destitution. And efforts to bring attention to this history, or extract reparations have been met with fury.

On the bi-centennial of Haiti’s independence, for example, Aristide had the gall to demand France pay the country $21 billion in reparations payments (equivalent to about 90 million Francs Haiti was forced to pay France in 1825), a decision which may have led the French to hold off on supporting an interim peacekeeping force from intervening in Haiti in 2004 until Aristide resigned and left the country.

What’s also shocking is how Bill Clinton could be appointed UN Special Envoy to Haiti after his administration’s meddling in that country’s economy. Adding insult to injury, Obama decides to appoint Clinton (and George W. Bush) to lead his country’s humanitarian aid efforts. You have to wonder how Haitians feel about this, given how both presidents played a role in their country’s political and economic instability. But due to their present situation, I guess they’re in no position to complain.

Certainly the outpouring of support Haiti has received from the international community is commendable, but it’s important to remember why this disaster has hit Haiti so hard. Without the infrastructure to protect its people not only from natural disasters but simply to provide basic government services, the consequences of this earthquake are far more devastating. And if Haiti is to rebuild from this tragedy, real changes need to happen. $100 million is a good start, but there’s much more that needs to be done.

Do your part to support relief efforts in Haiti. Visit unicef.ca or redcross.ca to find out how you can help.