Who supports foreign invasion of Haiti, why?

For several months now, there has been incessant diplomatic activity to justify a U.S. invasion of Haiti albeit, this time, with black face.

As described in my letter published October 17, 2022, due to problematic racial undertones of the conflict at hand, decision-makers in the US, Canada and Europe would prefer that Rwandan President Paul Kagame shoulders responsibility for their outrageous Haiti invasion plot. On July 6, 2023, while posing for picture with Ariel Henry, the latest U.S.-installed puppet in Haiti, Kagame (special guest at the CARICOM 50th anniversary) effectively confirmed his willingness to send troops to Haiti.

Whenever that so-called “need” for foreign military presence in Haiti is evoked, it is predicated on urgency to subdue “Haitian gangs”. Seldom do journalists underscore that, oddly so, in her report dated September 25, 2020, Helen Lalime, then head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), heralded the federation of armed gangs throughout the country a net reducer of violence. Said “gangs” were indeed federated as G9, presumably to facilitate an elusive peaceful disarmament process, under BINUH’s guidance. Indeed, the overeager self-appointed “firemen for Haiti” are the very arsonists who have set the beleaguered country ablaze!

At the risk of being deemed a “conspirationist”, allow me to venture a logical conclusion: UN-federated paramilitary criminals (aka gangs) serve a convenient but deceptive pretext for foreign boots returning massively on Haitian soil.

UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has repeatedly called for it. So has US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken and former US Ambassador to Haiti, Pamela White. The latter notably called for former US puppet Jovenel Moise to be unceremoniously “put aside” – this, 4 months prior to Moise’s brazen assassination! (I strongly encourage the reader to verify this disturbing fact on his/her own).

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants it but appears somewhat cautious – he seems to seek guarantees that Canadian soldiers, if ever deployed to Haiti, would be well-hidden behind Caribbean and/or African shields – hence the constant overtures towards Kagame and CARICOM.

On the Haitian side, there exists on record a noteworthy list of overt beggars for foreign occupation, among these: “white warlords” or BAMBAM-dominated Association des industries d’Haiti (ADIH) and American Chamber of Commerce in Haiti (AmCham), former PHTK bandit Prime Ministers Laurent Lamothe and Claude Joseph, as well as foreign-appointed (illegal) leader Ariel Henry – of course.

Signs abound that cheerleaders for foreign boots in Haiti are not concerned with protecting the Haitian population. They seek military shield for the most ruthless criminals of Haitian society, including PHTK-allied paramilitary criminal Jimmy “Babekyou” Cherizier, drug dealers Michel Martelly, Marc-Antoine Acra as well as allied white warlords Gilbert Bigio, Reynold Deeb, Sherif Abdalah, André Apaid Jr. etc…

The US government’s link with Chérizier, is particularly disturbing. So much so, as was done for Emmanuel Toto Constant’s FRAPH in the 1990s, an insidious propaganda machine has been set in motion to invent instantaneous “revolutionary” persona for the PHTK-allied criminal. He who usually adorned a US flag has since put that aside in favour of the Haitian red and blue. For good measure, Mr. “Babekyou” has also been gifted a Che Guevara style beret by his benevolent foreign godfathers.

Is it mere coincidence that my recent letter addressed to CARICOM leaders was reproduced only to be bluntly falsified on a website, where precise changes were made – without my consent? Such brazen deletions and insertions can only be meant to induce the reader in error with regards to my actual analysis pertaining to Jimmy Cherizier. As can be seen in the original text (which was accurately published on Black Agenda Report), I categorically insist, alongside Solidarité Québec-Haiti colleagues, that genuine solidarity with the Haitian people must strive to “force the US and its allies to stop sending weapons of war to the illegal puppet regime (currently led by Ariel Henry, an impostor) which is linked to criminal paramilitaries (PHTK, G9 an fanmi e alye)“. Why did usurpers of my text delete that part of sentence while adding links to Kim Ives’ pro-Chérizier propaganda? Yes, G9 is the infamous UN-federated gang led by Chérizier!

The Haitian People stand alone against a wicked and deceitful alliance of foes: foreign powers, an illegal/criminal PHTK puppet regime, local white warlords and their US-armed paramilitaries.

This past June 28, 2023, a surreal discussion occurred at a conference organized by Université Quisqueya where Robert Muggah, a researcher who spoke on Day 1 of the conference, matter-of-factly identified Ariel Henry (the US-appointed “leader of Haiti”) as key sponsor of the brutal 400 Mawozo gang of kidnappers. Ariel Henry who was also present and, in fact, spoke to open the conference (see 59:00), uttered not a word to contradict Muggah; neither did other participants.

As was often expressed at popular anti-PHTK demonstrations (before Babekyou and G9 gangs took effective control of the streets), the Haitian people seek to uproot “the system”. Its beneficiaries and guardians are doing everything in their power to safeguard it.

I posit that stubborn Haitian resistance to US hegemonic rule is what’s at stake in Haiti. Historians and political analysts have looked into this basic question from various angles. Some of them accurately anchor their analysis on actions of a US ruling class that considers Haiti part of its proverbial “backyard”. Indeed, it is not very difficult to document how major events occurring in Haiti have long been and are still systematically controlled by Washington, via ultra-national intermediaries. Major political decisions seem to be systematically oriented to benefit the economic interests of an unlawful, ruthless, US-allied minority (see White Warlords are Haiti’s real curse). Theirs are permanently at odds with the needs and desires of the Black Haitian majority.

Honest historians will also concur that, whether in the early 1900s, when US elites evoked their self-assigned “duty” to invade and “fix Haiti”, or in contemporary times, “white man’s burden” is the recurring theme. This fact transpires bluntly in a 1916 World’s Work article quoted in Rebecca Forgash’s thesis “Marine Violence and the Politics of Meaning During the US Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934“.

“We are simply going in there (Haiti) for ten years to help our black brother put his disorderly house in order and to make it our particular business to see that he prospers” (World’s Work 1916:596)

As I argue in other publications, a most stable feature of Haitian history is that white imperialist forces and their allies on the island always require forces of brutal repression to maintain the established “dis-order” – that is, keeping the black masses in check under socio-economic racial Apartheid.

Last year, founding director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s program on intrastate conflict, one Robert Rotberg claimed “The only way to save Haiti is to put it under UN control“. Merely weeks later, perhaps conscious of problematic optics associated with white men like Rotberg calling for yet another foreign invasion of Haiti, Haitian-born former Governor General of Canada, Michaelle Jean, issued her own set of statements on the topic. As most educated Haitians would, Jean carefully refrained from outright endorsement of the invasion project. Her chosen words left ample room for interpretation – and confusion. A January 2023 Toronto Star piece informs that “(Michaelle)Jean was among dozens of high-profile signatories to an open letter issued in French, with the title “Taken hostage, Haiti is dying.” The letter argues Haiti needs international help to avoid becoming a failed state…The signatories include Senegalese President Macky Sall, who currently chairs the African Union, former UN under-secretary-general Adama Dieng and the former heads of government of Timor-Leste, Chad, Mali, Nigeria and the Central African Republic“. Initiatives such as Jean’s strange letter only hide or camouflage a very disturbing and ugly truth: Haiti has effectively been attacked and caused to “fail” – a crime that was committed by foreign invaders. In other words, the very forces Jean and colleagues are begging to come “help Haiti – once again!”. Please consult Below Zero in Haiti, 20 Years into The Ottawa Initiative.

The sharp observer will detect similar “laloz” or purposeful confusion in slogans and posters brandied at recent “Souf pou Ayiti” (Relief for Haiti) marches organized by Mega-Church protestant pastor Gregory Toussaint. Much like the New-York Times, National Geographic, World’s Work etc… which shouldered their patriotic duty a century ago, the Miami Herald offered much exposure to this US and PHTK-friendly event. Oddly, notorious “gangs” we’ve been told “took over” large swaths of the Haitian capital were completely invisible (deactivated?), during that July 9, 2023 march in Port-au-Prince. Also noteworthy, a select set of US and PHTK-friendly presidential candidates have been campaigning – taking a leg up – for several years now, all over Haiti. Many are left wondering where and by whom is detained that proverbial remote control which seems to activate and/or deactivate US-armed paramilitary criminals in Haiti.

As we ponder the central question of this post “who currently supports foreign invasion of Haiti and why?“, allow me this brief Sankofa exercise. It might help highlight important similarities between the 1915-1934 period and the 2004-ongoing occupation of my Caribbean homeland.

Please consult this montage where I contrast, on one hand, the infamous 1921 letter drafted by so-called “Haitian business elite” families who openly begged for ongoing Yankee occupation with, on the other hand, Pan-African leader Marcus Garvey’s 1924 letter to the people of Haiti and James Weldon Johnson’s NAACP investigation which exposed and squarely condemned US crimes against Black Haitians.

A consultation of that 1921 letter quickly reveals familiar names of foreign-rooted families…Bigio, Boulos, Saieh…Zuraik. Back then, US-selected white looking puppet “president of Haiti”, Louis Borno, openly and frequently praised Yankee occupation forces. A century later, their descendants are as desperate to see US troops land once again on Haiti. This is a logical observation. Haiti’s predatory class, including infamous white warlords, have always relied on foreign troops to save them from long-feared, systematically repressed (popular) justice, “Dechoukay” or “Bwa Kale”.

Thus, as phoney as the benevolent motives proclaimed by 1915 Yankees were, 2023 diplomats who talk about “saving Haiti from unruly Haitians” are simply spewing recycled, cynical, ridiculous, antiquated, racist rhetoric.

James Weldon Johnson rightly observed in his 1920 article published in the Nation, that invaders always arrive under false pretence. Here is what forked-tongued, smiling Yankees once wrote in their official documents: “should the necessity occur, the United States will lend an efficient aid for the preservation of Haitian independence and the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty“. To this, NAACP’s James Weldon Johnson countered: “It is the extreme of irony that this clause which the Haitians had a right to interpret as a guarantee to them against foreign invasion should first of all be invoked against the Haitian people themselves, and offer the only peg on which any pretence to a right of military domination can be hung“.

Goal of US invasion of Haiti: shield criminal white warlords from feared just retribution @ hands of black masses, a well-documented feature in 2 centuries of history. https://t.co/EdLspZ2dOL (please see on your own!) @SolQuebecHaiti @haitianhistory @EDanticat @Ayibopost @TainoL pic.twitter.com/QJDo5mjlgO

— Jafrikayiti (@jafrikayiti) July 2, 2023

In 2023, so-called “Black world leaders” are lining up to help their white masters justify another invasion of Haiti – the territory Marcus Garvey aptly recognized as “Holy Land” for our global Black Nation. What a bloody shame! What a disgrace! Dessalines, Queen Nanny the Maroon, Harriet Tubman and John Brown must be rolling angrily in their graves. No doubt, Napoleon, Hitler and Trujillo must find this horrible Minstrel Show very amusing!

On December 5, 2022, with plenty fanfare, Canada announced sanctions against white billionaire Gilbert Bigio, fellow “businessmen” Sherif Abdallah and Reynold Deeb over links to gangs. Unfortunately, the objective facts indicate such sanctions announcements are mere smokescreen. 

We insist on this self-evident fact: appropriate punishment for individuals who engage in criminal kidnapping gangs consist in arrest, prosecution, severe jail sentences and permanent dispossession of all ill-gotten assets. Simply imagine their victims were blond hair, blue eyed Americans, Canadians or Europeans!

Time to return to Haitians what belongs to Haitians! End the hypocrisy, now!

As I told CBC News (although my comments were not aired) in response to the PHTK regime’s purchase of armoured vehicles from Canadian manufacturers, the risk is very high that these Canadian death machines end up in the hands of the very people—gang warlords—that Prime minister Justin Trudeau claims to have hit with sanctions. The Miami Herald published an article on December 5, same date as the Canadian announcement, stating: “In anticipation of sanctions, some members of the private sector, including Reuven Bigio, who chairs his billionaire father’s GB Group conglomerate, have been meeting in Miami and Haiti under the auspices of a new entity called the Macaya Group. There have been discussions about coming up with a 10-year investment plan for the country and weighing in on the ongoing political paralysis. Recently, members of the group met with former British diplomat Jonathan Powell, who traveled to Port-au-Prince and met with members of the political class, including Martelly”.

Essentially, the Haitian people (particularly Black Haitians – we, the 99%) have no reliable ally on the world scene! John Brown, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro have all gone to the other side. True, China and Russia have recently blocked US shenanigans at the UN Security council. However, in the past, they have also approved problematic UN troop deployments, like cholera-infested MINUSTAH whose long-overdue reparations are still elusive.

Tangible and sustainable solutions to the so-called “Haitian” crisis have always existed and they still exist as you read these closing paragraphs. Solidarité Québec-Haiti reiterates that genuine Haitian solutions aren’t merely different from but are diametrically opposed to the racist imperial agenda espoused by the US and associated Core Group cabal.

We posit that people of goodwill who truly wish to “help Haiti” must always use the following litmus test to measure the worthiness of each proposed solidarity action. Is it rooted in these three non-negotiable core principles: Justice, Dignity and Reparations? If yes, we welcome your help. If not, please go away and refrain from doing further harm!

#BlackNationhoodMatters