US imperialism simply requires Haiti to provide supplies of cheap agricultural products and clothing. The interests of the people of this Caribbean island count for absolutely nothing. After a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, in which 300,000 died and 1.5m were left homeless, a drawn-out class conflict has spiralled out of the control of the Haitian merchants and landowners.
In October 2010, a cholera outbreak started, introduced by UN peacekeepers. By 2016, it had infected nearly 800,000 people and killed over 9,000. Political instability and a violent election cycle saw ex-pop musician Michel Martelly winning the presidency in 2011. He was succeeded by the reformist Jovenel Moïse, who won in disputed elections in 2015, and convincingly in 2016. Moïse was assassinated in 2021 by Colombian mercenaries after preparing to charge other politicians with drug dealing. Further anti-ruling class protest followed.
The US-imposed substitute, Prime Minister Ariel Henri more than doubled the price of fuel, causing armed slum dwellers to block fuel from being unloaded in protest. Henri then left Haiti to arrange international military support. From February 2024 he was blocked from re-entering the country by well-armed groups organised around a local militia leader, ex-police officer Jimmy Chérezier. In March 2024, Chérizier told Sky News he would consider laying down arms if his growing organisation were included in talks to form a new government.
Already in December 2020 Chérezier had been labelled a political threat by the US, which banned all financial transactions with him. He was sanctioned financially by Britain from 2022. Chérizier’s group, the Revolutionary Forces of the G9 Family and Allies, formed an alliance called Viv Ansanm (‘Live Together’) in 2023. Viv Ansanm has launched coordinated attacks on critical infrastructure in Haiti, including prisons and government buildings. This group publicly declared it would transition from a rebel coalition to a political party on New Year’s Day 2025, on the 221st anniversary of Haiti’s independence, but it was blocked from registering as a political party. Chérezier had been demanding a part in negotiations over the future government.
The international press maintains a complete silence over the real nature of the class struggle on the island. It is caricatured as a state of anarchic gang warfare blocking good government. In March 2024, faced with Henri’s failures, the US supported a ‘Transitional Council’ (TPC) made up of seven members (all men) plus two non-voting observers, appointing prime minister Garry Conille. He was sacked after 6 months, in November 2024, and replaced by Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. On 22 January 2026 five of the council tried to dismiss Fils-Aimé. They also wanted to remove council coordinator Laurent Saint-Cyr, the police chief and the head of Haiti’s anti-corruption agency, who had previously investigated several council members over bribery allegations. The US has now revoked visas from half the Transitional Council members to protect Fils-Aimé as the Councils term finishes on 7 February with no establishment solution to the political instability.
The US was alarmed that pressure exerted by Chérezier and his allies was forcing the TPC to consider negotiations with groups from the slums and it has thus accused TPC members of having criminal relations with these gangs, claiming they all work with drug networks from Venezuela (where else!) through to Barbados. The US is now considering classifying all these armed groups as terrorist organisations in order completely to exclude any possibility that the organisations of the poor might access state power legally.
Ninety percent of the capital and the Artibonite valley, one of Haiti’s most important agricultural hubs, now lies in the hands of organised armed groups determined to oppose the local ruling class. In January 2025, Viv Ansanm launched multiple attacks in Kenscoff (West Department), south of Port-au-Prince, aiming to seize control of the area and secure access to the southeast part of the country.
An unashamed assassination policy
The deployment of Kenyan troops since spring 2024 has proved a complete failure in defeating the slum-dwelling opponents of the Haitian elites, so a new, larger ‘Gang Suppression Force’ was formed by Fils-Aimé in November 2025. Since March 2025 foreign mercenaries have been operating in Haiti. The controversial Blackwater founder and Donald Trump backer Eric Prince is using his new security firm, Vectus Global, to help the ‘authorities’ win territories back from heavily armed groups. Prince has said he had struck a 10-year deal with Haiti’s government, and Vectus will reportedly be given a role in Haiti’s tax collection.
Prince had shipped ‘a large cache of weapons’ to Haiti and was seeking to recruit Haitian American military veterans for a 150-strong mercenary force. It includes snipers, intelligence and communications specialists, helicopters and boats. According to the UN, more than 1,500 people were killed between April and July, mostly in Port-au-Prince, most killed during ‘security force’ operations, a third in drone strikes. These attacks have not achieved the mercenaries aims of crushing these local armed anti-ruling class organisations after months of attacks. The government and the police are desperate.
On 14 January in a joint action by the army, the ‘Gang Suppression Force’, and the ‘international’ drone operation led by Vectus Global, Chérizier’s home in the Delmas 6 neighbourhood was bombed. They killed some 40 people but not Chérezier who continues to lead a fightback to overthrow the current ruling group.
The US Congress’s forthcoming ‘Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act of 2025’, requires the president to impose sanctions on Haitian political and economic elites who have direct links to violent criminal gangs. It aims to prevent any agreement between Haiti’s establishment groups and Viv Ansanm. The TCP will be dissolved by 7 February and Fils-Aimé will be the only representative permitted by the US to deal with Haiti’s external and internal policies. The local bourgeoisie are alarmed and on 20 January the ‘Forum’ of discredited ex-prime ministers (created 2021) desperately repeated its previous appeal for an inclusive forum to plan the ‘construction of the nation’, but with no mention of the increasingly influential armed groups in the shantytowns.
