Haiti is once again in the midst of a crisis, but the most powerful people in the island nation are not addressing real concerns and improving the lives of Haitians. Instead, they are only focused on retaining their influence and authority, according to Robert Maguire, a retired professor of The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs who has spent a great deal of time in Haiti for more than four decades.
The oligarchy has caused great harm for decades, Maguire said, and shows no sign of changing.
“Well, my criticism would be that they have not contributed to the well-being of Haiti as they contribute to their own personal well-being of wealth and privilege and power. And they have pretty much been able to concentrate the wealth of the country in their hands. So this has not benefited the country at all. It benefits them, but not the country.”
Throughout much of recent history, ultra-national white families in Haiti, often with the complicity of the United States, have frequently selected individuals of African descent to serve as figureheads in dictatorships, representing their interests, according to a report from the website Black Agenda Report. There have been recurring instances suggesting that these same families, in coordination with influential figures in Washington, periodically decide to remove a Haitian puppet president of African descent when they no longer serve the interests of the family.
The top-tier oligarchs in Haiti, who are widely perceived as individuals who benefit from the nation’s resources without adequately contributing through taxes and customs duties, have drawn criticism for their actions.
Dr. Maguire served as a professor of International Development Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, where he also directed the Latin American & Hemispheric Studies Program, the Brazil Initiative and the Focus on Haiti Initiative. In 2000, he worked at the U.S. Department of State as special Haiti advisor.
Maguire said it’s important to understand the history of the oligarchy.
“That group kind of arose in two different ways. One was after the Haitian revolution, light-skinned Haitian businessmen, they became businessmen and they got control of the coastal commerce. So the oligarchy had its kind of roots in controlling Haitian trade and commerce,” he said. “And then a little more than 100 years ago, there was a migration from the Middle East, more or less when the Ottoman Empire was collapsing. You had Palestinians, Syrians, Turks, they go by any number of different descriptions. They came and they also set up businesses.”
Maguire said the oligarchy prefers to pull the strings from behind a curtain instead of serving in public office.
“They tend not to be actively engaged in politics, like running for office or as candidates, but they play a behind-the-scenes role,” he said. “There's an expression that one Haitian writer coined a few years ago. He called it in French, “the politique de doublure,” or politics by understudies. So the idea of being, essentially, is that the oligarchs find ways of pulling the strings of Haiti’s political leaders. So they create these relationships with them.
“And it was interesting that under Francois Duvalier, who had his personal militia called the Tonton Macoutes, and he had the army on his side,” Maguire said. “This was the one time in recent history that the oligarchs were really threatened by an independent politician. So they learned a lesson from that. And they have sponsored their own security mechanisms to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”
The oligarchs again felt threatened when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president and advocated for a populist wealth distribution philosophy, he said.
“And they were very, very frightened by that,” Maguire said. “And of course, Aristide was overthrown in a military-sponsored coup that was funded by the oligarchs.”
These actions sent a clear message to the people of Haiti, especially those who want change and reform, he said.
“Aristide wanted to level the playing field more, and they were threatened by that. So people who understand this system and want to level the playing field, they have to be extremely careful because these oligarchs exercise power without restraint,” Maguire said. “And so at this point, it might only be a combination of patience with goodwill and international actors who can really make a change of this system.”
According to data compiled by the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), the capital city of the country witnessed a distressing surge in gang violence during the month of April, resulting in the deaths of over 600 individuals. This alarming figure follows a preceding three-month period in which at least 846 people were killed in the country. BINUH further reported that the overall tally of victims affected by violence, encompassing fatalities, injuries and kidnappings, rose by 28% during the first quarter of 2023. A total of 1,634 such cases were reported during this period.
According to data obtained from the local Haitian human rights research group CARDH, vigilante groups in Haiti reportedly have been responsible for the deaths of at least 160 individuals suspected of being involved in gang activities. Reuters reports that over the past month, the vigilante movement known as “Bwa Kale” has taken matters into its own hands, aiming to combat the influence of gangs in Port-au-Prince.
University of Virginia professor of government and foreign affairs Robert Fatton Jr., a Haitian native and an expert familiar with the situation in his homeland, has described the current situation as a severe crisis.
Fatton emphasized that gangs have targeted significant areas within the capital city of Port-au-Prince, leading to a rise in violence. Moreover, the government's legitimacy is questioned by a large majority of Haitians, resulting in a perceived lack of authoritative power. Consequently, the crisis has intensified and finding a solution to this predicament remains uncertain for the country.
Maguire said with such a long, tortured history, it’s difficult to say the current situation is among the worst ever in Haiti. But it is indeed a dangerous time, he said.
“I think things in Haiti right now have reached a stage of desperation in that, again, this word that always comes to my mind is impunity. So the impunity of those with weapons and ammunition and the impunity of those who fostered this,” Maguire said. “These gangs has made Haiti a very, very desperate situation right now. Haitian people are insecure. They’re frightened their opportunities are being cut. Their well-being is being affected by this on a daily basis. So, yes, I mean, I would largely agree with that tone. I’m not sure I would call it the worst in the history because Haiti’s had many crises. But it’s certainly up there. You know, if I had to rank them, it’s certainly going to be in the top three.”
Does the United States need to exert more influence? Does it have an obligation to step in and attempt to restore order?
“Well, I think U.S. involvement is possible, and it’s edging a little bit in that direction,” Maguire said. “We could look at what Canada has done, and the U.S. has kind of lagged behind Canada in this regard. But in recent times, current times, in response to Haiti’s violence and gang situation, Canada has identified a number of key Haitian oligarchs and sanctioned them because of their involvement, alleged involvement, in the importation of guns and ammunition that have fueled the violence with the gangs. The U.S. is less aggressive in that manner, but it’s my position that if the U.S. would aggressively enforce its own laws on the trafficking of arms and ammunition and on other ways that oligarchs skirt U.S. financial rules and regulations, that this could weaken their power.
“I mean, I think the bottom line here is that you have a small group of people in Haiti who act with impunity. They are above the law. And anything that erodes that has to be better for Haiti,” he said. “So if you can find ways of holding these people accountable for their actions, all the better. And one thing that the U.S. can do, is do that through sanctions and through the enforcement of its own laws.”
Saying that is easier than doing it, Maguire said.
“Now, that said, these oligarchs kind of befriended powerful American forces on the business side. And they work hard to have their views accepted within the U.S. political establishment,” he said. “They have supported lobbying groups in Washington for a long time. And those groups are not to lobby for Haiti. Those groups are to lobby for those who pay the bills, the oligarchs themselves.”
Maguire said the United States has been very prone to support investment regimes that benefit the elites of Haiti, including assistance and legislative initiatives targeting the textile sector and factories in Haiti.
“Those policies are enacted with the idea that they will create jobs in Haiti. But actually what they end up doing is further concentrating the wealth of the country in the small group of people,” he said. “I think the U.S. has been influence in its interventions in Haiti by protecting the well-being of oligarchs.”
Maguire said the stranglehold the elite has on Haiti needs to be broken. Only then will the country begin to heal and move forward.
“I think it would improve the country tremendously by opening up greater opportunities to Haitians who have been frozen out of possibilities,” he said. “I think that it would encourage Haitians in the diaspora who have been successful in Canada, U.S., Europe, elsewhere to return to Haiti and be able to invest in the country and succeed. I mean, there’s a strong tendency of diaspora who tend to be black Haitians, wanting to come back and invest in Haiti. But the oligarchs, again, they feel threatened by that, and they make life very difficult for Haitians coming back to try to invest in the country.”
Maguire said the oligarchs will not surrender power easily.
“That’s right. Yes. I mean, this has traditionally been their role in Haiti,” he said. “They don’t do much to improve the well-being in Haiti, except as it would improve their own well-being.”