New Prime Minister takes over in Haiti; crisis provides a glimpse at what a train wreck US policy in Haiti has been

Ryan Grim and Emily Jashinsky on Rising provide an update on developments in Haiti with Intercept report Ryan Devereaux in Colombians Involved In Assassination Of Haitian President Given U.S. Training, Acting PM Steps Down The Hill 07/21/2021:

Devereaux recently did an article on the mercenary involvement in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, At Least Seven Colombians in Haiti Assassination Received U.S. Training The Intercept 07/17/2021:

The acting Prime Minister of Haiti, Claude Joseph, has stepped down in favor of Ariel Henry, as Jacqueline Charles reports for the Miami Herald, Ariel Henry takes charge of Haiti as country continues investigation into president’s killing 07/20/2021:

As the latest person to take the helm of Haiti’s government, Henry faces a litany of challenges. The economy is in shambles, a political and constitutional crisis is deepening and gang violence remains a constant concern.

While the international community, which backed his nomination after initially supporting his predecessor, is pressing for elections, a divided opposition is pushing for a transition and seems unwilling to give him or the new government a chance.

“We have to reestablish trust,” Henry said. “We have to reestablish the authority of the state in all four corners of the country.”

Civic and political leaders, some of whom Henry once collaborated with, criticized his nomination because it was not the product of a political accord with the opposition but of Moïse’s own choosing. The criticism continued when the names of his cabinet members were released late Monday, and it was revealed that several ministers are holdovers from the previous government.

Kim Ives of the left-leaning Haïti Liberté reports (Washington Chooses Ariel Henry for PM as More Details about Moïse Murder Emerge 07/21/2021):

The United States, seconded by other “Core Group” nations like France, Canada, Germany, Spain, and Brazil, pushed out Haiti’s Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph in favor of Dr. Ariel Henry, 71, who was installed as the new Prime Minister on Tue., Jul. 20.

Joseph had assumed the role of leading the Haitian state in the aftermath of de facto President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination on Wed., Jul. 7 because Henry, who had been named to the PM post on Jul. 5, could not be found, apparently evading a security detail which had come to fetch him to take over as Haiti’s leader, a reliable source explained to Haïti Liberté. Henry, a neurologist and former minister, had been scheduled to be sworn-in later on the fateful day. But since Henry made himself scarce (perhaps frightened by the Moïse’s grisly murder), Joseph seized power and refused to relinquish it when Henry re-emerged a few days later, arguing that he was the rightful occupant of the PM offices.

Tom Phillips reports for the Guardian (Haiti minister says ‘big fish’ behind president’s killing still at large 07/20/2021):

The “big fishes” who masterminded the assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, remain at large, a senior government minister has admitted, as the Caribbean country unveiled a new prime minister in a bid to defuse a burgeoning struggle for power.

Police have named two Haitian citizens as key suspects in the murder: a Florida-based pastor called Christian Emmanuel Sanon and the former intelligence officer Joseph Felix Badio. On Friday Colombia’s police chief, Gen Jorge Luis Vargas, claimed Badio might have given the order for two retired Colombian soldiers to assassinate Moïse in the early hours of 7 July for reasons that remain obscure. Sanon was arrested in Haiti last week, and Badio’s whereabouts are unknown.

But speaking to the Guardian, Haiti’s elections minister, Mathias Pierre, said he doubted Sanon and Badio were the main architects of a brazen crime some fear could plunge the Caribbean country into a new chapter of volatility.

The Argentine newspaper Página/12 gives some background on Henry (Quién es Ariel Henry, el nuevo presidente de Haití Página/12 20.07.2021):

Henry tiene 71 años, se formó como médico en universidades de Francia y Haití y tiene experiencia en la administración pública: formó parte del Gobierno de Michel Martelly, el antecesor de Moise, durante 14 meses marcados por la inestabilidad política.

Entre enero y septiembre de 2015 [Henry] se desempeñó como Ministro de Interior y después estuvo al frente de la cartera de Asuntos Sociales y Trabajo hasta marzo de 2016.

Diez años antes, en 2004, tras la forzada dimisión del expresidente Jean Bertrand Aristide, Henry conformó junto con otras seis personalidades, el llamado Consejo de Sabios, órgano encargado de proponer a la presidencia provisional de Haití un nuevo primer ministro.

Fue miembro del Partido Social Demócrata, luego del Partido Nacionalista Progresista Revolucionario Haitiano, fundado por su mentor Serge Gilles. El médico también se unió a la estructura Fusión de los Socialdemócratas Haitianos e integró hasta 2014 la Unión Patriótica, creada por el expresidente René Preval (1996-2001 y 2006-2011).

[Henry is 71 years old, trained as a doctor at universities in France and Haiti and has experience in public administration: he was part of the government of Michel Martelly, Moise's predecessor, for 14 months marked by political instability.

Between January and September 2015 Henry served as Minister of the Interior and then headed the Portfolio of Social Affairs and Labour until March 2016.

Ten years earlier, in 2004, after the forced resignation of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide, Henry formed, along with six other personalities, the so-called Council of Wise Men, the body charged with proposing a new prime minister to Haiti's interim presidency.

He was a member of the Social Democratic Party, then the Haitian Revolutionary Progressive Nationalist Party, founded by his mentor Serge Gilles. The doctor also joined the Fusion structure of the Haitian Social Democrats and until 2014 was a member of the Patriotic Union, created by former President René Preval (1996-2001 and 2006-2011).] (my translation; emphasis in original)

And Peter Beaumont provides a description of the recent increase of political violence in Haiti, which he describes as "the western hemisphere’s most impoverished nation, a country that since 2018 has been convulsed by protests and violence, where guns – and those prepared to use them – are the currency in an escalating crisis." (Guns, gangs and foreign meddling: how life in Haiti went from bad to worse Guardian 07/19/2021)

Beaumont also makes this very important point about the dysfuntional relationship between Haiti and its supposed foreign benefactors:

It has become routine to see one of the world’s most corrupt and ill-governed states lurch from catastrophe to catastrophe, amid coups, failed governments and natural disasters. But this current crisis brings a particular question to the fore – how, despite being the recipient of $13bn (£9.5bn) in international aid since the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 220,000 people, has the situation for Haitians, by most indicators, continued to worsen?

The very modest gains in poverty reduction in Haiti, according to the World Bank, has gone into reverse, with 60% of the country living in poverty and the richest 20% of the population holding more than 64% of its income.

Haiti is unusual among failed and fragile nations. It is not only an “aid state”, hugely dependent on external development assistance and remittances from Haitians living abroad, but one where aid and foreign intervention, far from helping, has helped undermine an almost nonexistent administration. [my emphasis]

Please excuse the double "neos," but Beaumont's account is a good brief description of how the toxic combination of neoliberalism (cutthroat "free-market" economics) and neocolonialism (indirect but very real foreign domination) have had such disastrous effects on Haiti.

My impression is that the American public, to the extent that they hear much at all in the media about US policy in Latin America, they probably imagine it's more-or-less benevolent. And the MAGA crowd thinks it's terribly weak and overindulgent because refugees.

The fact is that US policy in Latin America has generally ranged from bad to not-quite-as-bad. And the crisis in Haiti has provided a moment where that fact has imposed itself for a moment into the mainstream news.