The assassination of Haiti’s Moise, shocking, but not surprising – Part 1

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In the early hours of Wednesday 7 July 2021, a group of armed men broke into the residence of Haitian President Jovenel Moise and shot him dead while critically injuring his wife Martine in the incident. Moise’s assassination struck a new low in Haitian political affairs and provides a new marker for the depths of the Caribbean nation’s political situation. The attack may have come as a surprise to watchers of the political situation in the Caribbean but for those in tune with the island nation’s politics, the firing of these shots on Wednesday was merely a continuation of the country’s long political crisis.

Haiti’s political instability has been ‘long in the tooth,’ dating back to the 1790s slave rebellion which ignited the historic French Revolution and its establishment in 1804 of the first free Black Republic. The Haitian Revolution created the second independent country in the Americas after the United States became independent in 1783. United States’ political leaders, many of them slave owners, reacted to the emergence of Haiti as a state born out of a slave revolt with suspicion, at times providing aid to put down the revolt, and, later in the revolution, providing support to Toussaint L’Ouverture’s forces. Due to these shifts in policy and domestic concerns, the United States would not officially recognize Haitian independence until 1862.

In 1915, the United States Marine Corps invaded Haiti, and remained in the country for almost 20 years. Nominally there to keep peace within the country (there had been six presidents and untold violence during the prior five years), the military played an important role in re-shaping the country’s government and in forming their national army, which is infamous today for its undemocratic coups and violations of human rights.

The military occupation also provided an opportunity for the United States to strengthen its economic ties with the country. Since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States attempted to revitalize mercantilism in the Caribbean, with a large focus on Haiti. This trade had devastating effects on Haiti, and provided a model within the Caribbean region of how foreign trade can foster socioeconomic decline.

The US departure from Haiti’s shores in the late 1930s gave way to neo-colonialism and America’s support of political puppets under the pretext of supporting democracy on the island, all the time its primary interest being the exploitation of the island nation’s human and capital resources.

By the 1950s, the Americans had taken a complete hands-off approach and in the first direct elections held in Haiti’s history, called in October of 1950, Colonel Paul Magloire was elected. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel hit the island, devastating the nation’s infrastructure and economy. Hurricane relief was inadequately distributed, and cash infusion aid misspent. Magloire jailed many of his opponents and shut down newspapers, refusing to step down after his term ended. A general strike eventually shut down Port-au-Prince’s economy causing Magloire to flee, leaving the government in a state of chaos. 

The vacuum provided for the rise of the Duvalier dynasty with the election in 1957 of Francois Duvalier who ran under the guise of caring for the nation’s poor. Duvalier’s regime was built around mountains of corrupt practices and massive misappropriation of state funds. His grip on the country was maintained by a level of repression which saw the murder of more than 30,000 Haitians during his tenure. In 1967, Francois Duvalier declared himself “President for Life” and laid the foundation of Duvalierism in the country, deepening the country’s social, economic, and political challenges all the time while having the tacit support of the USA.

In 1971, Francois died, and the country’s rule passed to his son Jean-Claude but the corruption continued as did the family’s amassing of great wealth at the expense of the beleaguered Haitian economy. As the country buckled from one crisis to the next, its military in 1987 essayed a coup and sent the Duvaliers into exile in France. The die had, however, been long cast. A provisional government would shakily preside over a period which gave rise to Jean-Bertrand Aristide who became the first democratically elected president in 1990. Aristide would be deposed in a coup in less than a year, then returned to power in 1994 with the help of thousands of American troops. Aristide was re-elected in 2000 but forced out again after another armed uprising and sent into an exile orchestrated by international actors, including the American and French governments.

Richard Hugh Blackford is a Jamaican creative artist residing in the United States.