Today, Explained - What’s happening in Haiti

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse is the latest in a long line of setbacks for Haiti’s stability. AyiboPost’s Widlore Mérancourt explains from Port-au-Prince. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts. We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes about five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: vox.com/survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit connectsontario.ca. This morning, we reached out to Widlaw Marenkou. He's the editor-in-chief of a news organization called Ayibo Post in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Well, right now, I am not in hiding, but I'm not at my place because since Wednesday, I think as a precautionary measure, I should not be living at my place. It's a very difficult and murky situation, and there is a lot of unknown and we know that in Haiti, insecurity is a big issue and during a time where there is a vacuum in leadership,

anything can happen. Tonight, the nation of Haiti is reeling after the assassination of its president inside his home. Last Wednesday at 1 a.m. precisely, according to the Prime Minister of Haiti, a commando of foreign individuals, including Colombians and at least two Haitian Americans, entered the residence of the president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse. The attackers seen here approaching

the president's residence in trucks apparently pretended to be agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. During this time, early in the morning, the president was in his bed with his wife and two of his children was in the house as well. The commandos entered the house, killed the president and wooded his wife, and then the assailants left the place freely. It seems that this horrible act was carried out by well-trained professional skidders.

Right after this attack, police officers exchanged fire with the assailants. During the whole morning, folks in the area could listen to shots fired. But a lot of questions remained with regard to what happened precisely. For instance, one of the Haitian American could be here in the recording screaming this is a DEA operation this is a DEA operation there is a lot of details we don't know what we know is the relationship between Haiti and the US. What we know is the power. For instance, the DEA came, I think a couple of years back, to arrest an elected senator.

His name is Guy Philippe, who was implicated in drug trafficking. So he's in a prison cell in the US right now. We know since the attack that at least one of the assailants, of the alleged assailants, worked in the past for the DEA, but he was not actively working at the time. So he was not conducting any mission for the DEA. But this link to the DEA, you this link to the DEA raised more questions. Chief among them is how a group of allegedly 28 people could conduct such a horrific act. How did they enter the residence of the president? And we are not seeing any wounds from the security detail of the president.

What do we know at this point about who's behind this assassination? We have several narratives being put forward. One is the group of people who killed the president was guided by at least one guy. His name is Emmanuel Sanon. In a press conference Sunday, Haiti's chief of police announced the arrest of 63-year-old Haitian-American Christian Emmanuel Sanon for his alleged role in orchestrating last week's killing of the country's president, Jovenel Moïse. You know, he has deep ties to Florida. He presents himself as a doctor who has, like, different organizations in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic. Do you know every Haitian has a passport? Do you know why?

Because they get ready to leave the country. He failed for bankruptcy in 2013. And it's unclear how someone like that could organize such a plot where, you know, lots of people were skeptical. And most people are still skeptical that he was in fact the mastermind. But what we know is this gentleman, he had political ambitions. But I want to tell them something. There is a hope coming in.

Not that hope that meant that people been offered to them. I will bring hope to them. He wanted, actually, to be the leader of Haiti. And we spoke to people who were close to him. And apparently, he planned to run for election this year. But these same people who were helping him putting together an economic plan, they will tell you that they are shocked and they are very, very skeptical that he would sign up for an operation to actually kill the president. So there is this narrative in one side, but in the

other side, you have the second narrative, which is being put forward by civil society, by folks in the opposition, saying that actually the president was killed by someone or by his security people. So who's in power now? That's the million-dollar question. And I think this is the second storm that is coming to Haiti, quite frankly, because right after the attack, a man named Claude Joseph, who resigned two days before as prime minister, feeling to take the role and conduct the affairs of the government.

After Moïse was assassinated, Prime Minister Claude Joseph announced a 15-day state of siege. But a new prime minister appointed by Moïse, Ariel Henry, was supposed to have taken over that very day, and he says he's the rightful ruler. So right now, both men claimed the right to run the country.

But adding to that, you have the Senate, which has 10 elected officials. And this is very important. These 10 elected officials are the only elected officials in Haiti right now. You should have hundreds, but because the last president, the past president was killed, did not organize elections on time. So you just have these 10 senators as people who were elected in Haiti. So they get together and they selected one of them, the president of the Senate right now, his name is Alain Béal, to be the next

president of Haiti. You can see the complicated situation that arised and there is no clear answer. How is this going to be resolved in the coming days and weeks? Do you have any idea? One constitutional lawyer I talked to is telling me that the best way to resolve this is to make sure that, you know, different political actors get together, including the Senate, including civil society, including, you know, different stakeholders who would have a say in this matter to have a basic common ground agreement. So they can choose who should run the country. But at the same time, the international community is stepping in to, you know, to have a say in this matter.

For instance, the head of the UN in Haiti go in public to say that the actual prime minister, Claude Joseph, should be running the country all the way until the next election? Prime Minister Joseph is the prime minister of Haiti. And he is such, per Article 149 of the current constitution, the 1987 constitution. But the problem is, first of all, he resigned. Second of all, he's a very disputed figure. And it's very hard to know how you will have people come together

and participate in the election with Claude Joseph as prime minister. And in the meantime, Haitian officials last week asked the United States to send troops to the island to help keep the peace. Doesn't seem like President Biden was terribly into the idea. What's the latest on that request? Well, what we do know is effectively the Haitian government asked the UN and the US to send troops to protect they say the issue is in review and they don't rule out sending, you know, troops in Haiti. What we know is most people in Haiti, or lots of people in Haiti actually are skeptical regarding sending troops in Haiti. Remember, the last UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti was mirrored by several scandals, including they bring cholera in Haiti right after the earthquake.

Thousands of people died and about a million people were infected by this disease. And they were also implicated in sexual abuses so people are very skeptical that the solution here would be to send troops and you can see also the US and the international community not very aggressive in pushing this idea forward because they know how things can quickly go wrong. The people of Haiti deserve peace and security

and Haiti's political leaders need to come together for the good of their country. Over the weekend, I dispatched a high-level expert delegation to assess the situation and to determine where the United States can offer our support. And in the meantime, what's the feeling in Port-au-Prince? I mean, you mentioned that you're basically in hiding. How does the nation's capital feel right now? Right after the assassination,

you did not see a lot of people in the street. The government declared a state of siege. The airport was closed at that time. But right after, you know, a couple of days after, things are starting to get back to normal. You have the sensation that, you know, folks are trying to live a normal life despite the circumstances. But at the same time, there is a worry.

And this is in the state that we are in. More with Whitlaw in a minute on Today Explained comes from Ramp. Ramp is the corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Ramp says they give finance teams unprecedented control and insight into company spend. Thank you. You can go to ramp.com slash explained, ramp.com slash explained, R-A-M-P.com slash explained. Cards issued by Sutton Bank, member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. Bet MGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas.

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Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Woodlor, I know you're not a historian, but help us understand how Haiti's history with the international community has been complicated since the early days of Haiti. I mean, they had to pay France like $21 billion

right around the country's founding, right? Haiti started as a, you know, its revolution in the 18th century. And in 1804, we took our independence from French. It was bloody. During the 19th century, France asked Haiti to pay to basically stay independent. So I've seen reports this year talking about how France owned Haiti billions actually of dollars. One economist estimated that France should pay back Haiti 28 billions of dollars in US dollars today. And it's the cost of this retribution that France asked from Haiti at the time.

In the 20th century, actually in 1915, the U.S. invaded Haiti, and it was a context similar like this one we are in right now. A president was killed, his name is Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, and the US came, invaded the country and took over. United States Marines land in Haiti to battle Haitian bandits threatening destruction of American properties and native bandits quickly head for the hills. They, of course, they left in 1924, but since that time, the U.S. still was a very powerful, you know, element in the country.

When we had the dictatorship of Duvalier, it was a very brutal dictatorship, the US supported the regime all the way from 1957 to 1986 when his son, baby Duvalier, left power. Thousands of Haitians made a pilgrimage today to Gonaïve, a city north of Port-au-Prince where three students were shot to death last November. They were remembered as martyrs at a mass celebrating the fall of Duvalier.

And, you know, these are things, if you go until today, with the intervention of the U.S. in 1994 to bring back Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was elected democratically in the country, but had to leave, had to flee, because he was the victim of a coup d'etat. The message of the United States to the Haitian dictators is clear. Your time is up. Leave now or we will force you from power. And, you know, thousands of Haitians died, actually, during this period, and you can see massive corruption.

And lots of people will tell you that Haiti is in the poor shape that it is in right now because of, you know, this bloody dictatorship. In 2010, there's this cataclysmic earthquake in Haiti. How does the country recover from that earthquake? I don't know if we recovered from that. There was a lot of hopes regarding how that event would be a foundational date for Haiti, about how we would use these events to put Haiti on the path for economic success.

And you had massive aid coming from the foreign entities. Like you call Haiti the nation of NGO. It's because you have a lot of NGOs in this country. entities like you call Haiti the nation of NGO. It's because you have a loss of NGOs in this country. But years after that, you have little to show in terms of construction, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of how people are in better shape now than they were then. You have, for instance, this year 4.4 million people in urgent and critical need of food according to the UN and you have

thousands of people fleeing the home because of the violence of gangs. But all the way until last January I was conducting reporting showing that you still have camps, some camps, that are left years after the earthquake. So I think the country is not in a better shape, and some people would argue that we are in a worse shape

since when we had the earthquake. And it's in this climate that Jovenel Moise comes to power? He became president in 2017 with lots of promises. I'm working hard to be close with the parliament because no way a president can work without deputies, without senators. But years after, his own government was embattled in several scandals. He personally was embattled in corruption cases. You have reports, including from the judicial system, that says that his own companies were committing embezzlement. And in a scandal in Haiti that we call Petro-Caribe,

where billions of dollars from a fund that was set up with the Venezuelan government from a program that we call PetroCaribe and the president was implicated in these things and because of this scandal he suffered of several mass protests I mean since in his election actually and this protest was still ongoing this year. And people were asking him to be removed from power. But overall, the country was in bad shape when he came in president. And he left the country in a more dire situation, actually, than when he came. What's the path forward for Haiti?

I mean, the country's often described as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. We have reason to believe that foreign aid, international intervention, self-rule, all of these things can be problematic. So what's the solution here? You've got this power vacuum. You've got an assassinated president. You've got people in the country asking for the United States to step in. We have historical precedent that suggests that's not always the best idea. What do you think the best path forward is? I don't know if I have any solution myself. I think, I don't know what the path forward is, but what I do know is most people I talk to ask that the international community at least once sit down and listen to civil society,

listen to grassroots organizations, listen to the stakeholders that are Haitian and who have their say in what is going on and see if a common ground can emerge and a consensus can emerge so they can decide together what the future of Haiti should be. You run a Haitian news website. You've been covering everything we've talked about today.

What gives you hope? Oh boy, what gives me hope? It's the most difficult question that you ask me. But what gives me hope is the Haitian people. I know my people. I know my colleagues at Eibu Post. I know how incredibly talented they are. And I know how most Haitians believe in Haiti.

You will hear about how some people are leaving the country. During our history, every time you have political turmoil, you have a wave of people who leave the country. During the dictatorship, for instance, a lot of people and actually very professional, very educated people left to Canada, to Congo, to the US. During the earthquake, some people left. And during the last crisis as well, you have some people who leave. But you have also a core of people who believe in this country, who love this country, and who think that we can make it work. And I believe in these people, actually. I believe that if they get together and have their say in what's going on, we will be able to find a Haitian solution to the crisis.

What is the solution? I don't know, but I am very positive that something good, something great, something functional can come out of a Haitian reunion. And yeah, this is what gives me hope. Widlaw Marenkou is the editor-in-chief of the Ayibo Post in Haiti. It's Widlaw. Widlaw. Widlaw. You can find his work at ayibopost.com. That's A-Y-I-B-O-P-O-S-T dot com.

If your Francais is rusty, there's a link at the top that says in English. I'm Sean Ramos for him. This is Today Explained in English. you