How did Haiti’s Gangs Become so Powerful? | Flashback with Palki Sharma

The year was 2018, most of Haiti was protesting against their government, the anger was against this man, Jenel Moiz, he was then president of the country on November 13, the attention was focused on the capital, Porto, right next door of parliament, there is a famous poor neighborhood called. the last saline around 4:00 in the afternoon a police truck arrived, the locals didn't know why maybe the police were trying to end the gang wars, if so it was good news for them , but what happened next was horrifying, the men went on a shootout, knocked on doors, dragged people out and shot them all in broad daylight and soon the

gangs

came together in 2 24 hours, about 21 Civilians had been killed, not gang members, not criminals, ordinary civilians, were killed in the following days, that number increased. up to 71 around 7 women were raped and 400 houses were destroyed it is still not clear why this happened some say the police were actually

gangs

with fake uniforms others say the police join the gangs the question is why is it possible deter the protest in laali but Either way, one thing is clear: the Los Angeles salt massacre was not something isolated last year. 5,000 Haitians died in street violence.

Gangs have invaded the capital and the government is nowhere to be seen, but how did things get so bad? Why are Haiana gangs so

powerful

? It's time for a

flashback

. Hollywood may tell you otherwise, but gangs aren't flashy, fashionable, or professional; They are born from one thing and that is chaos. a lot of power is as simple as that you can guess which camp Haiti belongs to its history is riddled with chaos some of this can be attributed to Western colonizers but the rest is homegrown let's start with the 15th century in 1492 Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean He found resources and riches there, so like any good European, he claimed it for his king, the king of Spain, so the Caribbean became a Spanish colony about 200 years later, it was divided, the western half, including Haiti was handed over to France, the French brought African slaves.

In Haiti they plundered the land for sugar, rum and coffee. France continued to get richer. Haiti continued to

become

poorer, so in 1791 the slaves decided to fight back. They were led by this man, a former Tar Luur slave. Haitians fought hard for freedom in 18003. They defeated Napoleon. Army, it was the first successful slave revolt in history and they did it alone. The United States, the neighboring country, did not help in the war between 18001 and 18009. The United States cut off aid to Haiti. Thomas Jefferson was president then and he himself was a slave owner, so Jefferson thought: What if the Haitian revolt inspired American slaves, so he said no?

Help: The United States would only recognize Haitian statehood in 1862. France did so much earlier, in 1825, but they also imposed harsh treatment on Haiti. Colonizers would normally be expected to pay reparations, but France did. On the contrary, they asked Haitians to pay reparations and the rates were so high that it was impossible to pay, so what did Haiti do? They took loans from French banks to pay the money. Loans from French banks to pay the French. It is often now called double debt. the point of the story is very simple Haiti never had a chance its economy was crippled first by colonialism and then by double debt guess how long it took Haiti to pay off these loans 122 years the last payment was made in 1947 so the beginning It was bad enough now that we come to the 20th century, another invader set his sights on Haiti, the United States of America from 1911 to 1915, Haiti was in a state of flux, seven presidents were assassinated or removed from office, so the Neighboring America was scared, what would happen if a European power invaded?

Haiti again, perhaps Germany or France, would be a major setback for the US, so Washington decided to act first in 1915. President Woodro Wilson sent us soldiers to Haiti and thus began the American occupation that would last until 1943, even after the US abandoned its influence. Politicians bagged in Haiti. One of those leaders was Franu Dualer, also known as Papa Doc, as his name suggests. He was a doctor. They called him Papa do after the Americans left. He entered politics in 1950. He went underground after a military coup that he would then govern for 6 years. in 1957 elections were held Papa do ran a very popular campaign and was elected president of Haiti this was a very important moment in the country's history under Papa Doc the gang culture arose mainly thanks to a group The Too Makut basically the bogy men you see Dad dog didn't trust the army, so he reduced the number of soldiers in Haiti.

Instead, he formed his own civilian armed group. The Makut Fool was something like his own personal security. We're talking about a large group here. The Tonto Makut had about 25,000 fighters and their work was quite simple. Target Papa Do's enemies. Crush all dissidents and spread fear among the general public. And they did it quite well. The Makut went on a killing spree in Haiti, according to some accounts killing 60,000 people in 1964. Papa Do declared himself president for life in In 1971 he died, so his son Jean Claude Dalier became president, also known as Baby Dock. . The United States supported both men and gave them aid worth $900 million, so $900 million in the 1970s is worth a lot more than it is worth today and you know what happened with this.

Money most of it was siphoned off Dualists got rich off aid money while Haiti's economy collapsed less than a dozen families had all the wealth and supported whoever was in power there was a glimmer of hope in 1986 that was when the baby doctor was forced to leave the country The Tonto Makut were also disbanded, but a crucial mistake was made: they were not disarmed, their weapons were not taken away, so 25,000 fighters lost in the streets and then, in 1990, they were held elections, the first free elections in the history of Hai, were won by this The man Jean Berron emerged, he was a former priest and Leti his leader, but his government got off to a bad start in 1991, the military overthrew him, so the United States decided to intervene once again, they sent soldiers to reverse the coup and in 1994 it emerged.

Now he was very suspicious of the military, so he decided not to have any more army, that's right under the net. Haiti disbanded its army. Instead, civilian armed groups were created. These fighters would be loyal to Aristy. They would control the streets of Haiti for him. It worked for a couple of years. years, but the oligarchs of Hades did not like Ares's leftist politics, so they organized protests against him in 2004, he was forced to flee the country, so now there were multiple armed groups with nothing to do, without orders to follow, with no missions to carry out and no leader to report that all they had were weapons, you can guess what happened next, a complete fall into anarchy, local gangs evolved into criminal syndicates, they sold drugs, They traded weapons and terrorized people, why didn't subsequent governments do anything about it to fight the gangs? military and

haiti

does not have one in 2017 zenel moiz reestablished the army but guess how many soldiers he had only 500 the police is a different story although

haiti

has around 15,000 police but their weapons are pretty useless some of them carry the same rifles that were used by American soldiers in 1915, meanwhile, the gangs are high-tech, using automatic weapons smuggled from the US, so the Haitian governments were helpless, in fact, some leaders were dependent on the gangs they used.

The gangs to impose his rule was a dangerous and reckless activity. Politics adds to that natural disasters Haiti was hit by an earthquake in 2010 around 300,000 people died in 2016 a hurricane devastated Haiti around 850 people died these disasters have paralyzed state infrastructure, allowed these gangs to gather more power and now look Unstoppable around 200 gangs operate in Haiti around half of them are based in the capital the G9 Alliance is one of them it is led by a former police officer called Jimmy Sherida Also known as barbecue the G9 has many former soldiers and police officers another gang is the GEP apparently linked to Hai's opposition party the GPEP is the rival of the G9 another gang is 400 Mao said to be the largest group in Haiti its leader is currently in a US prison. this year he pleaded guilty to smuggling firearms now to the US he has interest in stabilizing Haiti they are not ready to send soldiers but they are ready to fund a multinational mission and where will the soldiers come from Kenya is offering 1,000 soldiers Benin has offered 2,000 but the plan has not yet received final approval If it is clarified, there is no guarantee of success after all the gangs are based in Haiti, they will have some Home Advantage.

Furthermore, foreign intervention has been the root cause of Hai's problems. Can it be resolved with further intervention? These are questions that the global community must ask itself and could take up. Years, if not decades, for Haiti to solve this problem now.