In the past several weeks, I have watched dozens of sleek U.S. military planes descend over Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where I live. They were the first flights to land since gangs blockaded and halted commercial air traffic in March. U.S. news reports suggest that the aircraft contained civilian contractors and supplies to pave the way for the deployment of a Kenyan-led security mission to Haiti, which is expected to begin any day now.
But no one has informed Haitians who or what was on board. Even the members of Haiti’s new transitional government told me that they did not know precisely what the United States was flying into the country. Although the Haitian members of the presidential council have met with Kenyan and Haitian officials to discuss the force, they said they have not provided input to U.S. officials. Aides to newly installed Prime Minister Garry Conille confirmed that he has had no say on decisions related to the mission. It remains unclear what the force’s specific goals are or how it can contribute to rebuilding the Haitian state.
A couple of years ago I had a conversation with a Haitian native on this very topic. While I deleted my reddit account and no longer have access to that conversation, the gist was…
Americans don’t seem to understand that every time they swoop in to ‘save’ Haiti, what they are really doing is enforcing the same colonial ideals that landed Haiti in the mess to start with.
There’s no politician in play down there that isn’t on the take. His opinion was just to leave it alone and let the gangs sort it out. Either they’ll pull together a government or the last gang standing will.
His statement had a lot more anger and quite a few expletives… They’re just sick of all of us, y’all.
You might find the article reassures you on this point if you decide to read it!
Is there reason to think this is anything more than a fig leaf? The US is obviously heavily involved in directing this effort, even if Kenya is doing the dirty work.
What would convince you?
I mean you read the article right? It’s all about how the US has created this multinational coalition but that it’s really calling the shots. It almost seems like your excerpt was deliberately chosen to omit all of the other information that supports what I’m saying.
So, I guess there would have to be a large accumulation of information that the US was not directing these efforts, despite members of congress and others having already confirmed that fact.
Kenya as far as I know has no experience in operations of this type — do you think it’s reasonable to expect them to do this alone? It makes sense that the US are helping to get this up and running. I expect a fuller handoff when whatever they’re doing is in place.
I’m not making a statement about Kenya, I’m saying I don’t trust the US’s intentions in this case based on their historical actions in Haiti. But no, I don’t think it would be good for Kenya to be involved unilaterally either. I would prefer to see a non-military solution.
Me too, but that would only really work if Haiti had a functional government to maintain order. Unfortunately that ship has sailed.
First, I don’t accept that it can’t work, there are still holders of power in Haitian society, and if you get them to negotiate and agree to a peace then it will happen.
But even more importantly, having order imposed by force by hostile foreign governments is no more guaranteed to improve the lives of Haitians, and it could make things much, much worse. A real solution for Haiti needs to come from and be supported by the people. We’ve had a series of US imposed foreign puppets for about a century, and the current situation is the direct result of this failed policy. This medicine is already killing the patient, applying more won’t help.
Can you make 2+2=5?
Not saying it isn’t a fig leaf, but does.kenya really have the ability to project peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts on another continent? It stands to reason they’d need a partner with the infra and equipment to actually make the mission happen. The US is literally best in the business on this topic, and is nearby.
That can be true, before and exclusive of US political meddling. (Which is for sure possible, I’m not discounting that, I’m just not addressing it here)
No of course not. But I don’t see how that’s relevant. Kenya is just a puppet here, they don’t matter at all other than as a tool for the US. Kenya has no interest in this issue beyond what the US directs. The two countries didn’t even have any diplomatic contact before this scheme was concocted.
To my understanding, Kenyans will be physically there. Kenya has interests. Thats pretty disrespectful of their commitment to suggest they " have no interest in this beyond what the US directs"
I’m just describing the situation as it exists. Whether it’s respectful to the Kenyan government or not is not my concern.
But I am curious what possible interest you think Kenya could have in this matter given that it is a regional power from the other side of the world that had almost no relationship with Haiti before last year. Besides, apparently, an interest in whatever the US is offering in exchange for this adventure.
Have you asked?* (Read their publicized messaging on this topic)
I just did but you didn’t answer. But I guess we can skip that step. I am mainly curious if you are naive enough to accept the statements of these authoritarian leaders unquestionably. Do you really believe Kenya is doing all this just because they believe it’s the right thing to do? I suppose Putin really just wants to protect Ukrainians from Nazis and western imperialism, and Bush just wanted to bring democracy to Iraq too?