Haiti is currently under a state of emergency. While de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry traveled outside the country, armed gangs stormed the country’s largest prison and sieged the airport. They freed about 3,700 inmates and at least 12 people have been killed. It is unclear if Henry will be able to be able to return. 

Today’s guest Jake Johnston says that the current state in Haiti is related to the US’s role in hollowing out the Haiti government and the steadfast backing of Ariel Henry for the last 30 months.  Jake joins host Esty Dinur once again to talk about the inevitably of the armed uprising and how we got here.

Jake Johnston is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. Jake Johnston has a B.A. in Economics from Boston University and an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University. At CEPR his research has focused predominantly on economic policy in Latin America, the International Monetary Fund and US foreign policy. He is the lead author for CEPR’s Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch blog and his articles and op-eds have been published in outlets such as The New York Times, The Nation, The Intercept, Le Monde Diplomatique, Boston Review, and Al Jazeera. His book, Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti, is now available from St. Martin’s Press

Photo by Patrice S Dorsainville on Unsplash

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