Recently, gangs have continued to use their infamous slash-and-burn campaign, setting fire to neighborhoods, police stations and even the agricultural center of Haiti; the Arbonite Valley. Kidnapping for ransom is the gangs most popular method of extortion, a record breaking 389 recorded from January through March of this year, a 72% leap in comparison to 2022. These gangs are not your ordinary gangs. They have been developed and financed by various politicians and “business mafia” in order to destabilize the country, allowing for very few wealthy and corrupt businessmen to take control of every aspect of the country. One especially powerful group, Ti Makak (little monkey), has been infesting the more wealthy and elite neighborhoods, whose citizens once thought were safe. As whole neighborhoods flee, they leave behind lucrative business interests for the gangs. President Joe Bidan, seeing the chaos in Haiti, is allowing Haitians (and Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans) to go to the United States with special authorization, but the catch is that they must have a valid passport, leaving many stranded and rioting at passport offices.
Haiti has always been a sort of struggling country. Poor economic management coupled with natural disasters mixed in with corrupt politicians has hit Haiti hard. Haiti used to be one of the wealthiest colonies in the Americas. Now, more than half of its population lives below the poverty line. In 1791, enslaved Haitians overthrew their French Masters, founding their own independent nation. 21 years after Haiti declared independence, a squadron of French warships,known as the king’s envoy, issued an ultimatum stating that Haiti must hand over a staggering sum in reparations to Haiti’s former masters or go to war again. This has led to the country spiraling into a ditch of debt that they cannot climb out of.
Haiti currently has a human rights score of 0.63. Haiti has a plethera of reasons as to why it recieved the score it did including a political crisis including the assasination of president Moise, violence is escalating via gangs and displacement of citizens are rising, human right defenders are being attacked, their criminal justice system is inhumane and cruel, lack of access to food and water, inequalities in the education system, alarming rates of violence against women and girls, and a lack of rights for people with disabilities.