Haiti on the Brink

The small hospital in Léogâne, Haiti, was down to a single day’s supply of oxygen. It had to decide who would get it. There were two choices: the adults recovering from strokes and other ailments, or the newborns clinging to life in the neonatal ward.

A political crisis had forced this awful dilemma. It’s just one drama amid countless others in a nation driven to the brink of collapse. Hospitals have cut services or closed entirely. Gas shortages are worsening by the day. Public transportation has ground to a halt. Businesses have shuttered. Most schools have been closed since early September, leaving millions of children idle. Widespread layoffs have worsened chronic poverty and hunger.

Haiti has long been the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. But a struggle between the country’s president and an opposition movement calling for his removal has complicated things. Many Haitians say the current crisis is worse than anything they’ve ever experienced.

“There is no hope in this country,” says Stamène Molière, 27, an unemployed secretary in the southern coastal town of Les Cayes. “There’s no life anymore.”

Political unrest has left at least 30 people dead, according to the United Nations. Fifteen of them were killed by police officers. Many Haitians with the means to flee have left or are planning to. Most who remain are simply trying to figure out where to get their next meals.

Many of the country’s problems stem from its turbulent past. Most Haitians are descended from enslaved Africans brought over by French colonizers. The enslaved people rebelled, overthrew the French colonial government, and in 1804, Haiti declared its independence.

But in exchange for France’s lost “property”—its plantations and the people it had enslaved—Haiti was forced to pay an enormous “independence debt” worth about $23 billion in today’s money. Haiti didn’t finish paying off the debt until 1947, and that had crippling consequences. Amid years of instability, a long string of tyrants seized power.

The other factor that has long destabilized Haiti is a history of foreign intervention. The U.S. has invaded the country several times, most recently in 1994, when American troops reinstalled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who’d been democratically elected and then ousted in a military coup.

Many of the country’s problems stem from its turbulent past. Most Haitians are descended from enslaved Africans brought over by French colonizers. The enslaved people rebelled and overthrew the French colonial government. In 1804, Haiti declared its independence.

But France considered its plantations and the people it had enslaved to be lost “property.” In exchange, the French government forced Haiti to pay an enormous “independence debt” worth about $23 billion in today’s money. Haiti didn’t finish paying off the debt until 1947. That had crippling consequences. Amid years of instability, a long string of tyrants seized power.

The other factor that has long destabilized Haiti is a history of foreign intervention. The U.S. has invaded the country several times. The most recent U.S. invasion was in 1994. That year, American troops reinstalled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He’d been democratically elected and then ousted in a military coup.

The current crisis is a culmination of more than a year of violent protests. Many Haitians are outraged over alleged corruption. The government of President Jovenal Moïse is accused of diverting billions of dollars meant for social development projects. The protests intensified in early September, at times turning violent and bringing much of the country to a standstill.

“At this point, the government needs to step down to resolve the crisis,” says Brian Concannon, executive director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. “The government hasn’t made any concessions, and now people just want the government out.”

So far, the U.S. has continued to back the Moïse government.

The current crisis is a culmination of more than a year of violent protests. Many Haitians are outraged over alleged corruption. The government of President Jovenal Moïse is accused of misusing billions of dollars meant for social development projects. The protests intensified in early September. At times, things turned violent, bringing much of the country to a standstill.

“At this point, the government needs to step down to resolve the crisis,” says Brian Concannon, executive director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. “The government hasn’t made any concessions, and now people just want the government out.”

So far, the U.S. has continued to back the Moïse government.

“The international community has been reluctant to press for the resignation of President Moïse because it introduces a lot of instability in terms of what would succeed him,” says Dan Erikson, a Haiti expert at Blue Star Strategies, an international affairs consulting company in Washington, D.C.

There’s also what some experts call “Haiti fatigue.” That’s the term used to describe the feeling that intervention is pointless and can’t break the cycle of political dysfunction and economic misery in the country.

The international community has remained on the sidelines. Meanwhile, the situation for Haitians is deteriorating. The crisis is particularly stark in Les Cayes, the most populous city in southern Haiti. They city endured a total blackout for two months and now has electricity just a few hours a day.

The city’s public hospital has been forced to shut down. Thieves have stolen the batteries from solar panels that provided electricity to the church school. And protesters took food that an Episcopal parish worker was delivering by truck on behalf of an international charity.

“There’s no one you can call,” says Archdeacon Abiade Lozama, 39.

Molière, the unemployed secretary, lives in one of Les Cayes’s poorest neighborhoods with her mother, Venise Jules, and three other relatives. Their house, made of mud and stone, has a corrugated metal roof that leaks when it rains. The bathroom is an outhouse with a hole in the ground. With no running water, the family has to fill buckets at a public tap several blocks away.

“It’s not only that we’re hungry for bread and water,” Molière says. “We’re hungry for the development of Haiti.”

The city’s public hospital has been forced to shut down. Thieves have stolen the batteries from solar panels that provided electricity to the church’s school. And protesters took food that an Episcopal parish worker was delivering by truck on behalf of an international charity.

“There’s no one you can call,” says Archdeacon Abiade Lozama, 39.

Molière, the unemployed secretary, lives in one of Les Cayes’s poorest neighborhoods. Her mother, Venise Jules, and three other relatives stay with her. Their house is made of mud and stone. Its crumbling metal roof leaks when it rains. The bathroom is an outhouse with a hole in the ground. With no running water, the family has to fill buckets at a public tap several blocks away.

“It’s not only that we’re hungry for bread and water,” Molière says. “We’re hungry for the development of Haiti.”

Kirk Semple covers the Caribbean for The Times. Additional reporting by Patricia Smith.

Kirk Semple covers the Caribbean for The Times. Additional reporting by Patricia Smith.