Haitians wary as Kenyan police arrive on latest US-backed mission
Haitians wary as Kenyan police arrive on latest US-backed mission
First contingent of multinational team lands in operation to end chaos in gang-controlled country
Hundreds of Kenyan police officers have arrived in Haiti as part of a US-backed security intervention aiming to rescue the Caribbean country from a criminal insurrection that toppled the prime minister and brought death and chaos to the streets.
About 400 members of the Kenya-led multinational police operation stepped off a Kenyan Airways plane at Port-au-Prince’s international airport on Tuesday. The US president, Joe Biden, hailed their arrival as the start of “an effort that will bring much-needed relief to Haitians”.
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Some backstory: The Haitans succesfully ousted American puppet Ariel Henri. But we're not about to let these people have their independence. Time to install another puppet regime!
2022-10-31: Haiti’s Elites Keep Calling for the U.S. Marines
Now, another yell is coming from Port-au-Prince. In October, the government of Ariel Henry, Haiti’s de facto prime minister and president, called for a foreign military intervention—“the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop the street gangs that are terrorizing the population and cutting off access to Haiti’s ports, most crucially the one that receives and stores Haiti’s imports of oil and gas. He did not specify which nation would oversee this armed force. But anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Haitian history—or access to a map—knew the only country he could be referring to.
In Haiti—which has its own obvious problems with narcotrafficking—the U.S.-supported rot runs even deeper, to the democratic vacuum that a century of U.S. invasions, occupations, and interference has left in its wake. Sending an armed force to do battle with one Haitian gang and its sponsors may briefly win the de facto government (or Chérizier’s other rivals) access to the fuel port, but it will do nothing to make Haiti a safer or more stable place for its people to live in the medium or long term.
I haven’t seen any alternative to this action other than allowing the warlords that are mustering power to run rampant. The most notable of them is a guy known as Barbecue for setting people on fire. I’ve looked into them and I haven’t found a set of political aims from any of these groups; they don’t strike me as revolutionaries
Our newspapers which were very content with Ariel Henry's coup are now very worried about "gangs".
American intervention was very much opposed. The Kenyan Army Gang isn't going to fix this.
Because of Haiti's close proximity it's in America's interest to make sure only American puppet regimes get and stay in power.
Probably won’t fix things, I agree. I just don’t see any good options. I feel terrible for Haiti, they’ve deserved better for as long as they have been a state.
The previous UN intervention force was disastrous. From the article:
Many Haitians resent relentless foreign meddling in their affairs, particularly after the 2004-2017 UN stabilisation force, Minustah, was accused of human rights violations, sexual abuse and causing a devastating cholera outbreak.
“The last UN mission ended disastrously,” said Isaïe Delson, 33, a barber forced to abandon his business in downtown Port-au-Prince by this year’s bloodshed. “Will [the Kenyan force] create more injustices?”.
It's unlikely that angry revolutionaries will be the best option in the short term but since we keep kicking Haiti when they're down they cannot build up their country while it remains under puppet regimes.