Ask the Expert: The Assassination of Haiti’s President – CSUSM NewsCenter

Q:Did you considerMoseto be a dictator?

AGS:After Feb. 7, yes, many Haitians called him a dictator. The other thing I didn't mention is he was trying to get rid of the constitution. He was planning a referendum in which the constitution would be overturned and there would be a new constitution that removed any possibility of criminally prosecuting officials for wrongdoing in office. This is the kind of thing that many Haitians were appalledby, andmade them say we need to get him out. There also was debate in the U.S. government over Mose. Whereas the Bidenadministration continued the Trumpadministrations support for Mose after taking office on Jan. 20, the House Foreign Affairs Committeehad been holding hearings and pushing the Biden Administration to stop supporting Mose. They stressed his harmful effects on Haitians and the need for them to be able to choose their next government without our meddling. This possibly led people in the PHTK to feel threatened and then to sacrifice Mose so that they could continue to rule. But if they get their wish, and foreign troops come whose task will be essentially to suppress the population in the name of keeping order,that's going to be very troubling.

Q: Do you feel like the U.S.and international community could have done more to preventthe assassinationfrom happening?

AGS:Absolutely. Haitians have been crying out for us to stop supporting Mose. If you look at the signs that people had in the streets in February, they asked us and the UN to stop supporting a president who had become a dictator and was trying to cancel their constitution. That, again, supports the idea that this is manufactured chaos to keep the PHTK in power, as opposed to drug traffickers being responsible, which is the narrative that was getting pushed at first.

Q: Earlier, you mentioned the U.S. policy objectives in Haiti. How would you describethose?

AGS:We like to talk about wanting to spread democracy, but unfortunately our record in Haiti has not supported that. Id say our real policy objectives are two things. One is the promotion of U.S. business interests. While the rest of us are not always paying attention, we are often interfering with what Haitians want, like a minimum wage (which is especially needed for Haitians working in sweatshops owned by foreign companies). When Haitian leaders have tried to do that, American companies have complained that it will increase the cost of doing business in Haiti. And the State Department has then pressured to have those laws withdrawn or they've had presidents removed, by which I mean not assassinated, but the U.S. Embassy sends a limo and says your time is up to Haitian leaders. The amount the minimum wage was going to be raised by is embarrassing by our standards (for instance, we fought against raising the minimum wage to $0.61anhour a few years ago). But American businesses did not want to pay even a little more, because to them the advantage of this country nearby is that labor is cheap, and it's so much less expensive to ship products from Haitian sweatshops to the U.S. than from China.

The second U.S. policy objective, I'm sad to say, is often keeping things stable there so people don't try to come here. Therehasbeen particularly strong anti-immigrant sentiment about Haiti, even more so than, say, from Cuba. Many have said it's because of a kind of demonization of Black Haitian immigrants.In reality, HaitianAmericans are wonderful, integral, brilliant parts of our country. Look just at the COVID epidemic; so many Haitians have been on the front lines as nurses, nursing home aids, doctors or scientists. But there are people who think, Too many Haitians are coming. We saw this in 2016 in San Diego, where you had Haitians arriving here after their post-earthquake refuge in Brazil turned hostile (they were invited to work constructing buildings for the 2016 Olympics, but once the construction was finished and there was a recession in Brazil, they were scapegoated and often violently chased from the country). There wasa wealth of organizations here in San Diegowilling to welcome Haitian refugees and help them resettle. But there were also voices who said, No, there are too many of them coming.

Q:Would you say that Haiti is still suffering today from the effects of the 2010 earthquake?

AGS:Yes, definitely. And not just the earthquake itself but the way the international community, which claimed it was going to help Haiti,actually madethings worse (in the manmade disaster that followed the earthquake). One of the people I write about is a Haitian filmmaker namedRaoul Peck, who was Oscar-nominated for hisfilm on James Baldwin. He also made an earlier film called Fatal Assistanceaboutthe international response to the earthquake and how it made things worse. For instance, land was confiscated from Haitians, supposedly to give them jobs. But this meant that farmers were kicked off their land and being able to feed themselves, to give the land to South Korean garment manufacturers, which then didn't pay them livable wages. There are lots of stories like that, with money that was supposedly raised and not actually used to help Haitians. In general, the international community directed the reconstruction of Haiti more than the Haitian government did and they did not listen to Haitians about what they needed. They often imposed policies that benefited foreigners and made things worse for Haitians.

Q:Why do you think stable democracy has been so elusive for Haiti for so long?

AGS:Foreign interventions are one big reason. Whenever there has been a ruler who wants to do things that foreigners don't like, there has been a risk that foreigners will invade and effect regime change. Many people dont know that the U.S.occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. The U.S. problem with Haiti really goes back much longer, 200 years ago, when Haitians were the first people in the New World to free themselves from slavery and they had a revolution. There weredefinitely Americanswho thought that was good; they saw the Haitian Revolution asbeinglike the American Revolution and thought it was good for Haitians that they managed to free themselves from the French and to rule themselves. But keep in mind, when Haiti became independent in 1804, we had Thomas Jefferson, who was a slaveholder, as president. And Jefferson and other whites did not look at the Haitian Revolution favorably; they essentially said, Look at those horrible savages who just killed their masters. We better punish them and keep them isolatedor enslaved people here will have the same idea. We've had this long history of demonizing and trying to isolate Haitians, and then seeking to invade them when they try to enact policies that we don't like. One example is the Duvalier dictatorship, which was so destructive in Haiti. The U.S. meddled in the electionby whichDuvalier first came to power because they did not like his opponent. And then, despite all the evil things that he did, we helped keep him in power for one big reason he wasn't a Communist. There was this worry that Haiti might fall just like Cuba if we didnt keep him in power. So yes, we've had a long history of meddling. That's something that people often fail to see when they say, Oh, look at that country, it's so troubled! Why cant they fix themselves? I'm not saying Haitians would be without problems if they were left alone. But many problems happen because Haitians are not in fact permitted by the international community to make decisions for themselves.

Q:What do you see as the path forward for Haiti in the wake of this tragedy?

AGS:I would like to see the international community give support, and I'll stress the word support, to Haitian civil society and to the opposition parties to have a transition from this government, which so many Haitians see as illegitimate. What I don't want to see is people saying, We need to go in there and send troops, which is what Claude Joseph has been trying to do. Increasingly, his effort to get foreign troops to arrive to create order has seemed to be an attempt to make sure the PHTK retains power. And that would destroy real democracy and dash the hopes of Haitians.

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Ask the Expert: The Assassination of Haiti's President - CSUSM NewsCenter