Consider This from NPR - Haiti's Unraveling: How A Mysterious Assassination Fanned Violent Unrest

Episode Date: July 22, 2021

It's still unclear who is responsible for planning and funding the assassination of Haiti's president Jovenel Moïse earlier this month. But violence and unrest in the country has been ramping up for months. The United Nations says that over the last six weeks nearly 15,000 people have been forced from their homes in Port-au-Prince. NPR's Jason Beaubien reported the story of one family who fled in early June. Moïse's death left a power vacuum that's been filled by Interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon. NPR International Correspondent Carrie Kahn has been tracking his attempt to rebuild the Haitian government. And Jean Eddy Saint Paul, a professor at Brooklyn College, explains why the turmoil in Haiti has been decades in the making. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Marie-Bernie Bonnet is 73 years old and has spent most of her life in the Marthe-Saint neighborhood of Port-au-Prince in Haiti. But in early June, the violence there just became too much. I was at my daughter's house and we heard shots. And we walked out to a church to pray. Then we were forced to leave the shrine. Bonet told NPR that gang members were looting, shooting, and taking whatever they wanted as they went street by street throughout her entire neighborhood. And local police officers were nowhere to be found.

From the beginning, people have been dying. People have been shot. Nobody says, no, this can't continue. And now the situation is getting worse. That was the last night Bonet spent at her own house. She and six members of her family left. They're now staying with a friend in one bedroom on the other side of town. Bonet's son,

Junior Millien, wanted to go back to Martesan to get more of their belongings. So when we tried to get back, there was a lot of shooting and they say they shoot on people. If you come in your house to take your thing, they will shoot on you. The United Nations says that over the last six weeks, nearly 15,000 people have been forced from their homes in Port-au-Prince. This surge of violence in the country comes on the heels of the assassination of Haiti's president, Jovenel Moïse. Critics of the former president say he allowed these gangs to take over some of the most destitute areas of the capital. Those gangs have impunity, official impunity. No trial for any gang. Samuel Menestan is a criminal defense attorney. He says Moise allowed the judicial system to

basically collapse. Judges weren't appointed to fill empty seats, which meant courts started shutting down. And prosecutors just stopped bringing charges. And every day you have people killed, you have people raped, you have every day kidnapped, every day. And they do nothing to stop this bad situation. Nothing. Consider this. As the violence in Haiti continues, police are still piecing together who killed the former president. And while the country's path forward remains uncertain, its current political turmoil has long been in the making.

From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Thursday, July 22nd. This message comes from NPR sponsor, Sotva, the comfort company. Sotva luxury mattresses are sold online and priced at about 50% less than mattress stores. Visit s-double-a-t-v-a-dot-com-slash-npr-today and save an additional $200. The following message comes from NPR sponsor, WeWork. Escape work-from-home distractions with WeWork Access memberships. Find convenient workspaces by the day or month, starting at just $29 a day, plus applicable taxes. Sign up at WeWork.com slash NPR. Investigations into police use of force and misconduct were secret in California until now.

We've sifted through hours of interrogation tape to find out who does the system of police accountability really serve and who does it protect? Listen now to every episode of the new podcast on our watch from NPR and KQED. It's Consider This from NPR and KQED. It's Consider This from NPR. We still don't know who exactly is responsible for planning and funding the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, but Haitian officials have been making arrests. There's already been nearly two dozen arrests in the case, among them Haitian Americans, more than a dozen Colombians, including retired military officers. That's NPR international correspondent Carrie Khan.

There's two U.S.-based security firms involved and a Haitian doctor who was a pastor in South Florida who reportedly had these grand plans to return home to Haiti and become a leader in Haitian politics. Regardless of who killed Moise, his death set off a political power struggle for control over Haiti's government. Immediately following the assassination, the interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, declared himself in charge and said that the country would be under a temporary state of siege. When the president died, we were supposed to have someone who take charge right after. And I was the one in charge. Joseph spoke to NPR's Lulu Garcia Navarro last week about the confusion over who would take Moise's place. Right now, governing Haiti is an incredible challenge.

Parts of the country remain controlled by gangs. COVID-19 has disrupted the economy. And President Biden has said he will not be sending troops to help stabilize things. I think we are at a turning point. We need the international community, our friends, to understand that the situation is not what it should be. So some help they can deem necessary with the Haitian counterparts. I think that will be very important. The other part Joseph says is important?

Elections, despite the fact that they have cost the country tens of millions of dollars. In the 2016 election, less than 20 percent of the Haitian population actually voted. Elections are held in many countries where you see more violence. Elections are held because we think that elections are also a means to resolve different conflicts because you do not have all those institutions functioning now. So I think it's important. And that's why support to secure the country also is important. Over the weekend, Joseph stepped down

and ceded power to Ariel Henry. He's slated to take over as Haiti's president on July 27th. He's 71 years old. He's a neurosurgeon. He has held posts in past governments. And Piers Carey-Kahn again. Moise had designated him as prime minister right before he was killed. And it just seems that Joseph, who was in the job at the time of the assassination, appears to have agreed to the handoff now under pressure from international diplomats. That international endorsement toward Henri already has some in Haiti's just incredibly polarized political atmosphere right now, saying that Henri has been imposed on Haiti by foreign powers.

As usual, too much foreign interference in the country's politics. So that's going to be tough for Henri to work past that already perceived imposition of his. Now, in order to understand how the country even got to this point, it helps to go all the way back to the Haitian Revolution. After more than 100 years of colonization, in 1825, the king of France, Charles X, said he would recognize Haitian independence, but that Haitians would have to pay for that freedom, as in hand over 150 million francs. The fact that France coerced Haitian people to pay for that revolution, it was a way, symbolically, that the empire put its foot on the neck of Haiti. Jean-Eddie St. Paul teaches at Brooklyn College and is the founder of CUNY's Haitian Studies Institute. And that actually started the process of foreign debt,

international debt of Haiti, that has a negative impact for the development of the country. He spoke to NPR's Lulu Garcia Navarro about the history that led to Haiti's current turmoil. Let's look at politics and how Haiti has then been governed. You know, I've been there many times, and there's a huge divide between the elites and the population. Since the very beginning, Haiti has had a dysfunctional elite because the language of all Haitians is Creole. 100% of the population speak Haitian Creole. But guess what, Lulu?

Since 1804 until 1987, the language of Haitian people was not recognized legally as an official language. So the elite who took power in Haiti, they used a language that was the language of the former master, the French.

And the elite also, in order to give the impression that they are a civilized person, they embrace Christianity while rejecting the popular religion of Haitian people, the Haitian Vodou. So I think since 1804, we have had that disconnection between the elite and the masses. And the United States has also been heavily involved in Haiti over the years. The U.S. occupied Haiti for 19 years, between 1915 and 1934. So during that occupation, one of the first moves that the U.S. did, they went directly to the National Bank of Haiti, and they took the gold reserve of

Haiti, and they transferred that gold reserve to improve Wall Street here in New York. This is one fact. Another fact, from 1805, the first constitution of Haiti, no foreigner could own land in Haiti. So the second move that the U.S. did during the occupation, they changed the constitution and they introduced a clause that allowed foreigners to own land in Haiti. Then we also had 20, almost 29 years of dictatorship, a dynastic dictatorship of the Duvalier, the U.S. unconditionally supported that dictatorship by providing the regime, the regime of the Duvalier, the economic and military assistance in order to torture the Haitian population. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was the first president democratically

elected in 1990. And then Jean-Bertrand Aristide was removed, peacekeeping forces were put in, there was the devastating earthquake of 2010, so much turmoil. And right now, you have friends and family there. What are they telling you about the situation right now? So my family, physically, they are okay, but emotionally, you know, everyone in Haiti is, you know, suffering trauma, and also Haitian people in the diaspora, we are in a traumatic situation because of everything that is happening in Haiti. Jean-Eddie Saint-Paul teaches at Brooklyn College and is the founder of CUNY's Haitian Studies Institute. The state funeral for assassinated Haitian president

Jovenel Moise will be held on Friday. Already there have been violent demonstrations near his hometown of Cap-Haitien. Witnesses say one man was shot dead. Protesters, some of them heavily armed, reportedly blocked roads with barricades and threatened to shut down the country until whoever killed the Haitian president is brought to justice. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang.