US Blames 'Gang Violence' For Haiti Hunger, Ignores Decades of Intervention
Al Jazeera’s report on six million Haitians facing acute hunger rightly highlights the crisis but neatly sidesteps the architect of Haiti’s current chaos. While 'gang violence' is the current symptom, the prognosis begins much earlier. Remember the 2004 coup d'état, facilitated by the US, that ousted democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide? Or the subsequent unelected governments
Washington propped up, funneling funds to 'stability' while infrastructure crumbled and legitimate institutions withered? (For details, see 'The Uses of Haiti' by Paul Farmer.) Painting Haiti’s collapse as solely internal 'gang violence' allows mainstream media to ignore the sustained, bipartisan efforts by successive US administrations to destabilize a nation that dared to elect its own leaders.
It’s easier to just blame shadowy figures than unpack a history of economic coercion, political sabotage, and military intervention that created the very vacuum for those 'gangs' to thrive. One might wonder, how many times does a nation need to be 'liberated' from its own sovereignty before we call it what it is?