February 29 marked the 20 year anniversary of the 2004 coup against the democratically elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti. Protesters at the Friday Peace Vigil on March 1 held a banner expressing solidarity with the people of Haiti. The country is currently under a state of emergency after the country’s gangs freed thousands of people from the country’s largest prisons and are reportedly uniting to bring down Haiti’s de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has yet to return to the country.
Jake Johnston, the author of the new book, Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti, commented on Democracy Now: “This is not a crisis entirely created in Haiti or by Haitians, right? We have to understand that this has been a long time coming, and it’s been a process stoked and perpetuated by the international community, and namely the United States. You know, we could go back to Haiti’s history, to its founding, first independent Black republic, successful slave revolt, the U.S. occupation. But we don’t need to go back that far into history to see this history of intervention: the 2004 coup d’état, the overturning of election results in 2010, and the United States’ insistence on moving forward with this current government against all odds and against the very clear expression from the Haitian people. And so, unless that begins to change, it’s extremely unlikely that the situation on the ground meaningfully improves.”
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