By Gabriela Cultelli on June 7, 2023
“But I also know of a silence
a silence of twenty-five thousand black corpses
of twenty-five thousand crossbeams of ebony wood”.
-Jacques Roumain
Again isolated news about Haiti, as if death mattered nothing. Once again the so-called “humanitarian crisis” without anyone’s help. The UN announces an aid of 9 million dollars like its a big deal, after all the years of invasion leaving the country in worse conditions.
US$ 9 million means about US$ 65 per month per inhabitant in a year… that is if the distribution were even, but besides being the poorest country in the region and one of the poorest in the world, the Gini index, that which marks the distribution of income, is 0.65, the highest in Latin America, a continent known as the most unequal in terms of income distribution. We remind the reader that the Gini index moves between 0 and 1, and the closer it is to 1, the worse the distribution, or in other words, the greater the concentration of income.
The UN itself assures that more than 42% of Haiti’s population is in need of humanitarian assistance and up to 40% of the country is experiencing a situation of severe food insecurity.
The U.S. washes its hands of the situation, despite the fact that the sale of weapons to the gangs that plague the neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, capital of the brotherly country, has been denounced from its coasts. Not enough, it repatriated more than 40,000 people by air and sea between January 2021 and September 2022 and does not seem to do much to stop the smuggling of weapons.
Since the middle of last year, the Haitian people have taken to the streets demonstrating against the government, against the rising cost of living, poverty, hunger and the absence of the State and public services, in protest against the growing violence. The galloping inflation, the increase in fuel prices due to the elimination of the subsidy provided by Prime Minister Ariel Henry were the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Haiti has a rising crime rate. More than 1,600 incidents were recorded in the first quarter of 2023, while in the same period of 2022 there were 692 (UN data). This means 1,400 people killed, 600 in the fourth month of the year alone, and another 400 victims of kidnappings.
After the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, Prime Minister Henry has “governed” without a constitutional mandate, without having received the approval of a non-existent parliament since January 2020, and elections have not yet been called. In addition, the judicial system is very affected.
Prensa Latina, published on May 20, the request of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to the international community due to the “tragic situation” Haiti is going through, which -he stressed- constitutes a threat to the security of the Caribbean region”.
This situation has been compounded by the lynching of alleged gang members, in response to civilians and the failure of the authorities to act. More than 100 alleged gang members were killed, burned and mutilated.
It is a spiral of violence and we cannot continue to ignore it.
Source: Mate Amargo translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English