But will America or the United Nations intervening by sending in troops save Haiti from becoming an irredeemably failed state? The first American occupation of Haiti after the 1915 mob killing of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam made some infrastructure improvements (through forced labor), but it arguably left Haiti worse off. Successive interventions, including an extended peacekeeping mission by the UN, have likewise failed to improve the lot of the Haitian people and have contributed little in strengthening the state’s weak institutions. As Jovenel Moise himself admitted in an interview some years ago, the state has no effective presence in more than 30% of the country. Even so, the long-suffering Haitian people have endured the predations of the state as well as its impotence — Haiti has yet to administer its first dose of anti-COVID vaccines. Even Haitians who opposed Moise’s attempt to remain in power deplored his assassination but were also angered by the fact that the perpetrators were ¨blan¨ — i.e., foreigners. So, no! Intervention that offends Haitian sovereignty has never worked and it will not work now. Haiti is a graveyard of foreigners’ good but ill-fated intentions.
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