Content warning for discussion of genocide, torture, mutilation, rape, and slavery

Hey, Hi, Hello, this is the History Wizard and welcome back for Day 16 of Have a Day w/ The History Wizard. Thank you to everyone who tuned in for Day 15 last week, and especially thank you to everyone who rated and/or reviewed the podcast. I hope you all learned something last week and I hope the same for this week. This week marks the 7th part of our mini series of currently ongoing genocides and humanitarian crises. Episode 2 was on Palestine, Episode 11 was on Congo, episode 12 was on Sudan, episode 13 was on Xinjiang, episode 14 was on Rakhine State, episode 15 was on Tigray, and today’s episode will focus on the current situation in Haiti.

Today’s trip to the Alchemist’s Table will look somewhat similar to last weeks. This drink is called Persephone’s Wedding. It starts with muddled mint before adding some lavender simple syrup and 2 oz of gin. Strain all that over ice and stir for about 30 seconds before topping with lemonade and garnishing with mint.

Starting in 1492 Haiti became one of the first European colonies following Columbus's first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean with the settlement at La Navidad. Haiti would remain under European control until their revolution that ended in 1804. We’re glossing pretty heavily over the Haitian Revolution in today’s episode because the Haitian Revolution and the subsequent Haitian Massacre will be a later episode on this podcast.

Now, just because Haiti was now an independent nation and no longer a French colony didn’t mean that the country was free of European influence or control. Spain, Germany, and Britain still had large amounts of economic and political sway in the island nation. This would especially be the case when US President Woodrow Wilson, that racist movie loving fuck, sent the Marines to occupy Port au-Prince. Germany was also heavily invested in the island nation, and while the US wasn’t in World War 1 yet, they had severe anxieties over an anti-American, and pro-German, president being installed so they took over the nation, overthrew Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, the then president of Haiti. The Marines declared martial law and severely censored the press. Within weeks, a new pro-U.S. Haitian president, Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave, was installed and a new constitution written that was favorable to the interests of the United States. The constitution (written by future US President Franklin D. Roosevelt) included a clause that allowed, for the first time, foreign ownership of land in Haiti, which was bitterly opposed by the Haitian legislature and citizenry.

The US would keep a firm grip on Haitian politics, even after their occupation ended in 1934. Haiti would now enter an even greater period of political instability (which is not to say that US occupation was a good thing, an end of colonial occupation often sees old ethnic tensions flare up and massive violence enacted to dismantle colonial power structures).

The president at the end of the occupation, Sténio Vincent was forced to step down under US pressure in 1941 and was replaced by Élie Lescot who served until 1946 when he was overthrown in a military coup d'etat and replaced by Dumarsais Estimé until 1950 when HE was overthrown in a military coup and replaced by the staunchly anti-communist Paul Magloire who was strongly supported by the US.

Now despite the massive amounts of political instability that we just discussed, it is about to get worse with the Duvalier dynasty. 

In 1956–57 Haiti underwent severe political turmoil; Magloire was forced to resign and leave the country in 1956 and he was followed by four short-lived presidencies. In the September 1957 election François Duvalier was elected President of Haiti. Known as 'Papa Doc' and initially popular, Duvalier remained President until his death in 1971. He advanced black interests in the public sector, where over time, people of color had predominated as the educated urban elite. Not trusting the army, despite his frequent purges of officers deemed disloyal, Duvalier created a private militia known as Tontons Macoutes ("Bogeymen"), which maintained order by terrorizing the populace and political opponents. In 1964 Duvalier proclaimed himself 'President for Life'; an uprising against his rule that year in Jérémie was violently suppressed, with the ringleaders publicly executed and hundreds of mixed-raced citizens in the town killed. The bulk of the educated and professional class began leaving the country, and corruption became widespread. Duvalier sought to create a personality cult, identifying himself with Baron Samedi, one of the loa (or lwa), or spirits, of Haitian Vodou. Despite the well-publicized abuses under his rule, Duvalier's firm anti-Communism earned him the support of the Americans, who furnished the country with aid.

This is something you will find about the United States. While they style themselves the land of the free and the home of the brave they’re more than willing to finance and support dictators as long as they 1. Oppose communism and 2. Give the US a free hand to control their economy. So it didn’t matter to the “Greatest Country on Earth” is Papa Doc was killing mixed race people and all of his political opponents. He was anti-communist and that was good enough.

Now there WAS a coup attempt against Duvalier in the first year of his reign (the first of many) led by some of the military officials he had fired. Those men thought that they could come riding back in and that the people, fed up of Papa Doc’s growing autocratic tendencies, would rally to them and they would quickly restore the old social order. But Haiti had gone through 4 presidents the year before Papa Doc came into office and while he wasn’t the best loved president, he was considered competent (having previous served as Minister of Health) and he was bringing order and stability to the country. So the coup attempters.. There’s got to be a better way of saying that, were all killed and their bodies dragged through the streets of Port au-Prince, as if each citizen was a little Achilles dragging Hector around the walls of Troy.

Papa Doc, despite the multiple coup attempts, did reign as president for life. He was still President when he died in 1971 and was immediately replaced by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed Baby Doc. Baby Doc assumed the “presidency” at the age of 19, making him the youngest president in world history.

Jean-Claude tried to reign back some of the harsher policies of his father, but was still deposed in a popular uprising in 1986 and forced to step down and flee the country.

Haiti would then fall under the rule of its military for a brief time and then had a series of bad elections and even more coups. There was a coup in June of 1988, another in September of 1988, and a third one in September of 1991. The US would send troops in under Operation Uphold Democracy to try and bring some stability to Haiti. Though, as is always the case when the US tries to bring free market reforms and “democracy” to a country they did a shitty job of it. 

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been elected president in 1990 and had been deposed in the 1991 coup returned to finish out his term, lost in 1995, but was reelected again in the year 2000. He would then be deposed AGAIN in 2004 in another coup d’etat. 

One of Aristide’s worst decisions while in office was when he outlawed pro-Duvalier militias like the Macoute, but he also ordered the disbandment of the Haitian Army. So the Army disbanded, but never disarmed and just would up forming or joining various militia groups. From 1994 to 2004, a de facto anti-Arisitide insurgency took place in Port-au-Prince, as ex-soldiers attacked the government. In response to the chaos, youth set up self-defense groups, called chimères, which were supported by the police and the government to shore up its position. Receiving de facto state support from Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party, the youth gangs took control of entire communes and became increasingly independent-minded. U.S. diplomat Daniel Lewis Foote argued, "Aristide started [the gangs] on purpose in the early 1980s, as a voice, as a way to get some power [for ordinary Hatians], [...] and they morphed over the years."

Now, the precise nature of the events of the 2004 coup are disputed; some, including Aristide and his bodyguard, Franz Gabriel, stated that he was the victim of a "new coup d'état or modern kidnapping" by U.S. forces. These charges were denied by the US government. As political violence and crime continued to grow, a United Nations Stabilisation Mission (MINUSTAH) was brought in to maintain order. However, MINUSTAH proved controversial, since their periodically heavy-handed approach to maintaining law and order and several instances of abuses, including the alleged sexual abuse of civilians, provoked resentment and distrust among ordinary Haitians.

So now Haiti has no standing army, armed militias and gangs fighting on and off in the streets, an UN peacekeeping mission sexually abusing civilians and they’re about to be hit with a Magnitude 7 earthquake.

On 12 January 2010, at 4:53 pm local time, Haiti was struck by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake. This was the country's most severe earthquake in over 200 years. The earthquake was reported to have left between 160,000 and 300,000 people dead and up to 1.6 million homeless, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. It is also one of the deadliest earthquakes ever recorded. The situation was exacerbated by a subsequent massive cholera outbreak that was triggered when cholera-infected waste from a United Nations peacekeeping station contaminated the country's main river, the Artibonite. In 2017, it was reported that roughly 10,000 Haitians had died and nearly a million had been made ill. After years of denial, the United Nations apologized in 2016, but as of 2017, they have refused to acknowledge fault, thus avoiding financial responsibility.

And now, we’re at the Haitian Gang War. The Vox journalist Ellen Ioanes summarized the beginnings of the situation quite well: "Haiti has faced serious and compounding crises, including a devastating 2010 earthquake, floods, cholera outbreaks, hurricanes, and corrupt, dictatorial, and incompetent leaders". Gangs stepped into the power vacuum, seizing political power through co-operative politicians and economic control through protection rackets, kidnappings and murders.

As of 2022 researchers form the NGO Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime have estimated that there are some 200 gangs in Haiti and that most of them are set up somewhere in Port au-Prince. Sexual violence from members of these gangs is a common crime being committed nearly daily against people from rival gang territories. Rape only became a crime in Haiti in 2005 and abortion is still illegal, so rape victims are legally required to keep those children. Though as we know, making abortion illegal doesn’t stop abortions, it just stops safe ones.

One of the most powerful gangs in Haiti at this time is, technically, an alliance of gangs, called the G9 alliance is lead by a former police officer named Jimmy Chérizier, nicknamed Barbecue. G9 is based in the capital's communes of Delmas, Pétion-Ville and parts of Carrefour. The G9 alliance includes many former soldiers and policemen in its ranks and was long connected to the PHTK party (which is a Center-Right political party) until distancing itself after Ariel Henry became president. The G9 now portrays itself as a revolutionary organization, and has begun to create a nation-wide alliance network dubbed "G20".

Since the coalition was founded, it has been responsible for multiple massacres against civilians and clashes with other rival gangs. From 2020 to 2021, the G9 was responsible for a dozen massacres, in which at least 200 people were killed. The G9 was believed to have had close ties to the government of Moïse, which was accused of large-scale corruption. The coalition members frequently evaded prosecution after the massacres and the clashes. Chérizier stood out in that regard because despite the arrest warrants against him, he continued to move freely and to maintain an active presence on social media with no effective attempts by Haitian government forces to arrest him. The G9 also began attacking neighborhoods in which civilians protested against the president and started clashes against rival gangs with the support of the police.

Now, in 2021 Jovenel Moïse, the 43rd president of Haiti was assassinated and then Ariel Henry (who some suspect to be involved in the assassination) served as acting Prime Minister of the country until he stepped down this past April.

Henry’s removal from power was long sought by the G9 gang alliance. Cherizier had this to say on the issue in March 2024 "If Ariel Henry doesn't resign, if the international community continues to support him, we'll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide" 

"Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us. It's out of the question for a small group of rich people living in big hotels to decide the fate of people living in working-class neighborhoods," he added.

Now, while there are over 200 gangs in Haiti at the moment most of them have allied themselves with the G9 alliance, or with the gang alliance that popped up to oppose the G9, known as G-Pep. But also, as of late 2022 an anti-gang bwa kale vigilante movement emerged to attack and kill any gang members. The vigilantes often burned captured gang members alive. Of course, the gangs responded with counter attacks against both the vigilantes and anyone who expressed support of the vigilanties.

By mid-2023, the gang war between G9 and G-Pep continued unabated, and the resistance by anti-gang vigilantes also grew in scope. Thousands of people were displaced by the clashes. The severity of the ongoing gang war in Haiti has led to the United Nations Security Council authorizing a one-year deployment of an international force led by Kenya to help the Haitian government deal with the crisis. Chérizier declared that G9 would resist if an international intervention force committed "human rights abuses" and claimed that it would "be a fight of the Haitian people to save the dignity of our country."

Despite the horrors he is committing against his own people Cherizier really and truly believes that he is fighting on behalf of a free Haiti. There isn’t a genocide in Haiti, as of yet, but there is a massive civil war between militias and gangs with human rights abuses on all sides of this conflict.

On 18 June 2024, the International Organization for Migration reported that more than 580,000 people have been displaced by the increased violence in Haiti since March of 2024. The report also warned that since most of the people displaced have been from communities already struggling with poor social conditions, there may be more tension and violence in the coming days.

An international policing force, known as Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti was authorized under UN Resolution 2699 on October 2, 2023 to assist the Haitian National Police in stopping this gang war. Nations who will be taking place in this mission include Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad, Guyana, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Kenya, Suriname, and the Bahamas. The first deployment of 400 troops from Kenya has officially put boots on the ground as of June 25, 2024. 

This ongoing gang war will not be resolved anytime soon and it can, and will, get worse before it gets better. Haiti has never had a chance to build a stable society or government. A long and ongoing history of foreign interference, ceaseless coups and natural disasters mean that Haiti has always been on the back foot.

We also have to take into account Haiti’s natural resources, because that’s the only reason any imperial power would ever care about Haiti. According to WorldAtlas.com, recent findings suggest that Haiti might have some of the largest oil reserves in the world, potentially larger than those of Venezuela. The country is estimated to be sitting on about 159 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 142 million barrels of oil, with undiscovered reserves possibly holding up to 941 million barrels of crude oil and about 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

According the the State Department the US doesn’t currently have plans to send troops to Haiti. I’m sure that will change.

That’s it for this week folks. No new reviews, so let’s get right into the outro.

Have a Day! w/ The History Wizard is brought to you by me, The History Wizard. If you want to see/hear more of me you can find me on Tiktok @thehistorywizard or on Instagram @the_history_wizard. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Have a Day! On your pod catcher of choice. The more you do, the more people will be able to listen and learn along with you. Thank you  for sticking around until the end and, as always, Have a Day, and Free Haiti.