What the US calls ‘criminal gangs’ are low-income neighborhoods

Call for social change.

The US is testing the Global Fragility Act here, but Haiti is resisting.

With this interview we try to take a look at Haiti, the world’s first independent black republic, which is in deep political and social crisis. The Caribbean nation, repeatedly hit by natural disasters and suffering from political storms caused by the colonization of its political class, sees political unrest as one of its greatest challenges.

In this interview, we delve into the current reality of Haiti and explore the causes of the crisis, its current manifestations and the uncertain future prospects for this country, which seems trapped in an endless cycle of suffering.

Kim Ives commented on the issue for us. In addition to being a leader who is committed to the interests of the Haitian people, Ives is a prominent journalist and film director who has given presentations on the situation in Haiti in various international forums, including the United Nations Security Council, with a narrative, often alone, in which he claims the organizations of the people as legitimate, while international powers see only criminal gangs.

It is a unique and sincere approach that allows us to avoid the criminalizing maelstrom of the mainstream Western and Atlantic press, so that Kim Ives identifies the solution precisely where the problem is pointed out. The so-called armed gangs are not responsible for the violence and chaos in Haiti, but rather offer the possibility of overcoming such a situation.

How did the Kenyan police come to land in Haiti? What are the real objectives of this maneuver?

Kenya is simply a proxy power serving Washington’s geopolitical interests in Haiti. The country of 12 million people is in the midst of a social revolution. Neighborhood committees of Haiti’s lumpenproletariat—what the US portrays as criminal gangs—are now armed and demanding “system change,” the transfer of ownership of Haitian means of production and state infrastructure and assets to the people.

The US wants to crush this movement and its ultimate goal is to implement the Global Fragility Act (GFA), a bipartisan program introduced in 2019 under President Trump, of which Haiti is the “test case.” If successful in Haiti, it will be applied to Libya, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and other countries in Africa.

The GFA is a bilateral agreement under which U.S. troops would be sent to Haiti “to prevent political fragility” and the country would be connected to a lifeline of U.S. “humanitarian aid” – essentially surplus U.S. agricultural production of corn, wheat, rice, vegetable oil and other commodities provided by USAID. (This program is essentially a government subsidy of U.S. corporate agriculture, or “Big Ag.”)

Washington wants to prevent Haiti from falling into China’s sphere of influence by signing its Belt and Road Initiative, or worse, into the sphere of influence of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other “pink” anti-imperialist countries.

The Kenyans’ aim is to counter the Viv Ansanm (coexistence) alliance of armed neighbourhood committees, which was responsible for ousting former US puppet Prime Minister Ariel Henry on 29 February, and create the climate for US-backed elections that would bring to power a head of state who would sign a GFA agreement. Washington does not want the 2024 takeover of Haiti to resemble that of 1915, when US Marines occupied the country and installed a puppet president who then invited them back. The hypocrisy and theatrics of that invasion are obvious.

Pierre Espérance and Marie Yolène Gilles have been prolific propagandists of what they have defined as a dramatic situation of human rights violations by targeting what they call criminal gangs. In their demonstrations, widely disseminated by pro-American and pro-Caricom platforms, it seems that in Haiti there is no politics other than their denunciations and no other actors than the criminals.

The use of “human rights” as a central weapon in the arsenal of US hegemony dates back to around 1977 when it was rolled out under the administration of President Jimmy Carter. It was enhanced in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan’s creation of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which lavishly backs the “soft power” of its human rights groups to brand, intimidate, threaten and blackmail anyone or any group that does not bow to or integrate with the US agenda.

The NED is openly doing the political work that the CIA used to do covertly. Espérance’s RNDDH and Gilles’ FJKL are the two strongmen who control most of Haiti’s traditional political formations through their intimidation. RNDDH (National Human Rights Defense Network) is notably the main architect of the smear campaign against Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier and the G9 anti-crime alliance he initiated, ironically branding him a criminal.

The disarmament actions of the elite of Caricom or the United States to destroy every trace of the nation state are clearly a maneuver of national chaos. Is this operation through the Kenyan intervention an infringement of the policy of reconstruction of the state, or is it the same?

The destabilization and weakening of the Haitian state is the tried and true Anglo-American tactic of “divide and rule” used to take over North America and much of the Third World. Haitians must be portrayed as incapable of self-government and self-determination, so the deployment of Kenya is a continuation of the policy to this end. As a byproduct, the US orchestrates the killing and oppression of Haitians by Kenyans, undermining solidarity between the two nations who face many of the same burdens (crushing debt, corrupt ruling elite, etc.) that were created and maintained by neo-colonial rule.

There are people like Jimmy Cherizier who have been directly and individually sanctioned by international organizations, they are treated as criminals and deprived of their political power… are they simple bandits or is there within these organizations a popular resistance against chaos and occupation?

Jimmy Cherizier is the architect of a project to bring development and stop crime in poor neighborhoods, but has evolved into a revolutionary movement to bring about “system change.” He is the most sanctioned, reviled and targeted leader of all the armed groups in Haiti.

Since the G9’s creation in 2020, the US and Haitian oligarchy have attempted to weaken or eliminate it by financing and arming criminal gangs that were part of a rival alliance called the G-Pep. After failed revolutionary attempts in 2021 and 2022, Cherizier succeeded in late 2023 and early 2024 in convincing the G-Pep armed groups to join a larger alliance called the Viv Ansanm, which succeeded in ousting Ariel Henry in February 2024. Cherizier does not fully control what is essentially a neighborhood alliance, but he does have the moral authority and increasingly the political respect of the other armed groups, and power has become the main obstacle to Washington’s neo-colonial designs in Haiti. Therefore, it is essentially an anti-occupation, anti-imperialist force, despite some Viv Ansanm member groups still engaging in criminal activities.

Does the Haitian popular movement have a strong political identity that can take on tasks for national reconstruction?

No, the coups of 1991 and 2004 and subsequent foreign military occupations have decapitated or co-opted many of the leaders of the Haitian popular movement. Nevertheless, the leadership of bodies such as Haiti Freedom is a descendant of the democratic-nationalist popular movements of the period 1986-2011. He sees the potential of Cherizier’s movement and has tried to guide and lead it. Hopefully he can help in forming and recruiting cadres for national reconstruction.

What is the situation in the country since the Kenyan occupation?

The 400 Kenyan troops deployed so far have had little effect on the situation. They remain largely in their US-built compound. It appears that their salaries are now not being paid. There is growing skepticism about their mission among the Haitian population.

Finally, is it possible for Haiti to find the path to sovereignty and independence set in motion at the beginning of Our America?

Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America and Cherizier is very aware of the historical role his movement plays. Whether the movement will be successful is impossible to predict, but there are many factors working in its favor, mainly: 1) the absence of any elected government in Haiti; 2) the excessive expansion of American and European imperialism with the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine; 3) the meteoric rise of a new multipolar world, heralded by the growing BRICS coalition; and 4) the ideological awakening of the Haitian people, after 40 years of coups and occupations, to the true and toxic nature of the American, Canadian and French neo-colonial “partners”.