Last Thursday, Haiti commemorated Haitian Flag Day with a parade in Cap-Haitien. Photos from the event show a community coming together to celebrate the creation of Haiti’s flag during the Haitian Revolution.
Three days later, a 30-year-old man died by self-immolation on the stairs of the Monument des Héros de Vertières after placing his boots, hat, bag and shirt next to a Haitian flag beside him.
The monument, less than three miles away from Thursday’s celebration, depicts six heroes of the Battle of Vèrtières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution that clinched the nation’s independence from France in 1803.
Local reporter Gérard Maxineau said before the man died, he apologized for the nation’s “chaotic situation and insecurity.”
Garry Pierre-Pierre, founder and publisher of URL Media partner The Haitian Times, said the country’s current crisis began after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in the summer of 2021.
“The assassination left a void that descended into a constitutional chaos, where today, we don’t have one elected official serving at any capacity in Haiti,” he told URL Media in a Zoom interview earlier this week. “So it’s a democracy in name only. It’s not a functioning democracy right now.”
Pierre-Pierre said that if the past is any indication of the future, the crisis will continue until there’s foreign intervention to stabilize the country. But, he added, there’s currently “no appetite from the international community — the UN, the U.S., Canada, the European Union — nobody wants to deal with [Haiti].”
He said what needs to happen first is that Haitians living in Haiti, specifically leaders, need to take things into their own hands in a way that moves the country forward. “There’s a movement called Bwa Kale, which [involves civilians] basically arming themselves with machetes, sticks, whatever makeshift weapons, to fight against the gangs.”
He added, “It has had some effect of reducing kidnapping, assault, and all of that so far, but the police have to take hold of this because vigilantism is not an answer to anything, it’s going to create its own set of problems that, you know, that will have to be addressed sooner or later.”
But for police to reinstate some level of order, Pierre-Pierre said there has to be international intervention allowing them to secure the resources they need.
“They cannot order arms, unless it gets permission from the U.S. Embassy or Washington, but the gangs outgun the police,” he said. “The gangs are better equipped than the police, and I think at this point, it’s time to take the shackles off the police and give them the resources they need to stabilize the country.”
If this is the first time you’re hearing about the situation in Haiti, you’re not alone.
“The coverage is very pedestrian,” he said. “And from time to time, The New York Times will weigh in with a mega story — like they did last year on the ransom where they tracked the history of Haiti and how France and the United States colluded to pillage Haiti’s resources — but you know, that’s a story that took them four years to complete, and the historical perspective is great, but on a day-to-day or even month-to-month basis, outside of the Miami Herald and The Haitian Times, you don’t have much coverage.”
Pierre-Pierre, who has been watching and covering Haiti for three decades, said he has never seen the country in such a dire state.
“The Haitian communities across the U.S., you know, we were not built to solve Haiti’s problems, we were built to really help our relatives who were left in Haiti with remittances and stuff.”
He said right now the best thing for Haitian Americans to do is petition their elected officials to understand the situation, and how their actions at the federal level can support the nation as it finds a path to stability.
“As Americans of Haitian ancestry, this is what we can bring to the table and make sure that Washington’s policy is in line with U.S. and Haitian interests, because we are uniquely positioned to play that role and we should.”
