On 7 July, the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. His hand-picked prime minister, Claude Joseph, was temporarily installed in his place. One of Joseph’s first actions as interim president was to call upon the US to send soldiers to ‘maintain stability in the country. On 19 July, Joseph stepped down following pressure from the United Nations and the Organisation of American States (OAS), to be replaced by Ariel Henry who called for ‘unity’ and promised new elections, with public support from the United States. While the circumstances surrounding the death of Moïse, apparently at the hands of a group of Colombian mercenaries, remains murky, there is no doubt that behind the scenes the hand of US imperialism is at work to control the future of Haitian politics, as it has done for more than a century.
At the time of Moïse’s assassination, the country was in turmoil. In the weeks preceding it, massive demonstrations had once again taken place across the country calling for him to resign. Since 2020, Moise – who was brought to power with the backing of the United States – had been ruling by decree after blocking parliamentary elections from taking place (see: FRFI 276 June/July 2020). After he refused to step down when his term ended in February, opposition leaders and sections of the working class led huge protests, marches and road blocks that were met with tear gas and rubber bullets by the Haitian police and military. Over the last year, with parliament suspended and the judiciary in disarray, gangs of organised criminals have had free rein, maintaining an atmosphere of terror with kidnappings and murders rarely out of the news. It is clear that Moïse, once the darling of Haiti’s comprador bourgeoisie and its imperialist backers, was becoming a liability, his rule mired by economic and political corruption and a failure to control mass popular uprisings despite the unleashing of police brutality against progressive activists and protests. Sections of the Haitian middle class were troubled by the rising instability. Meanwhile, within the US House of Representatives, 68 politicians put forward a motion claiming that Moïse lacked ‘the credibility and legitimacy to oversee a constitutional referendum… or to administer elections that are free and fair’.
Camera footage shows a group of gunmen entering Moïse’s home at around 1am on 7 July and leaving moments later. The assailants have been identified as former members of the Colombian army, with two US citizens of Haitian descent accompanying them. Some had previously received military training in the US. The ‘private security’ group, CTU, which the mercenaries are alleged to have worked for is run by Antonio Intriago, a Venezuelan exile and supporter of the reactionary Juan Guaido who is based in Florida. One of those arrested, Gilbert Dragon, was involved in the coup d’état in 2004 engineered by the United States that forced the progressive leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power. Mercenary forces were already being used by Moïse’s government to control protests and police neighbourhoods, making them commonplace in the country.
Léon Charles, the Haitian chief of police, is leading the investigation into the murder. During the 2004 coup, he was involved in the killings of Haitian citizens – leading to his temporary exile from Haiti in 2006. He continued to work in the interests of imperialism for the next decade, taking up a role with the reactionary OAS; he also had a role in the US embassy. In 2020 he returned to his old post at the head of the police.
Haiti has been a virtual colony of the United States since 1915 when US troops were sent in to occupy the island. US marines were used to crush resistance, killing more than 20,000 people. From the 1950s through to the 1980s, the US government supported the brutal dictatorships of Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier, who tortured and killed thousands of Haitians. When the progressive mass movement Lavalas succeeded in toppling the Duvalier dictatorship and electing the socialist Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president of Haiti, the US supported coups to overthrow him, in 1991 and 2004. For the next 17 years, Haiti was occupied by a United Nations mission at the behest of the US, France, and Canada, which gave way to the pro-imperialist presidents Martelly and Moïse in a series of rigged elections. Haiti remains a profitable base for many US companies, and the US is Haiti’s largest trading partner, but this ‘special relationship’ has been built on the suffering of the Haitian working class. The country is one of the poorest in the world, and among the most unequal in the region.
So while Moïse’s funeral on 23 July was attended by high-ranking officials in the Haitian police force and US diplomats, working class protesters attacked the event, throwing rocks at the cars of UN delegates, calling for an end to their meddling in the country. Eventually the US delegation was forced to leave the ceremony to jeers from the crowd of demonstrators.
Jacob Dexter
