U.S., France shaped Haiti's long history of political turmoil (Opinion)
AUG. 27, 2021 / 9:06 AM
By Jean Eddy Saint Paul, Brooklyn College
(UPI) -- The powerful earthquake that struck Haiti on Aug. 14 followed a long series of natural and human-caused disasters to rock the country. Unfortunately, if history offers any clues, earthquake relief efforts will be complicated by the nation's recent political unrest.
President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated less than six weeks earlier, on July 7. Many Haitians felt hatred for the controversial president who, while running for office, was bribed by the oligarchy that has run Haiti's economy since the 19th century. Moïse campaigned on a promise to feed the starving population. But he failed to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth. He soon became an unpopular president who increasingly ruled as an autocrat.
As a sociology professor who has written extensively on Haitian politics, I predicted Moïse's assassination.
Moïse is the latest of five Haitian presidents to be killed in office since the country's founding in 1804.
Power struggles and strong economic interests, both local and with other nations -- mainly the United States -- have motivated those assassinations. Throughout Haitian history, the United States has been actively engaged in undermining the legitimacy of Haitian leaders who refused to bow to American imperialism.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haiti's founding father, proclaimed the country's independence from France on Jan. 1, 1804, after a 12-year war. One of his first executive orders was intended to prevent the abuse of land ownership. It called for a fair distribution of land among racial groups in a country that had won independence because of strategic alliances among Blacks, biracial people and a few White soldiers.
Dessalines is often portrayed by mainstream media as a cannibal and assassin. That's because he was abhorred by White Europeans and Americans -- leaders of the global economic system who were intimidated by the Haitian Revolution. Additionally, the elites in Dessalines' circle disapproved of the power he had concentrated, and they assassinated him on Oct. 17, 1806. His death accelerated Haiti's political disintegration.
Monroe Doctrine
The 30 billion euros in today's currency that Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer agreed to pay France in 1825 as compensation for property losses during the war has destabilized the country. It has also allowed foreign powers to undermine Haiti's sovereignty.
In 1823, the United States passed the Monroe Doctrine, which says "that the American continents ... are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." The declaration, meant to keep Europe out of the continent, has justified U.S. interventions in the region.
Between 1889 and 1891, the United States unsuccessfully negotiated with Haiti to acquire the Môle St. Nicholas port, which would have given it a military foothold in the Caribbean.More than 20 years later, the murder of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam offered the
United States the perfect rationale to invade Haiti. On same day as Sam's assassination, July 28, 1915, Woodrow Wilson authorized the American warship USS Washington to invade Haiti. The United States occupied Haiti until 1934.
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