In the past several weeks, I have watched dozens of sleek U.S. military planes descend over Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where I live. They were the first flights to land since gangs blockaded and halted commercial air traffic in March. U.S. news reports suggest that the aircraft contained civilian contractors and supplies to pave the way for the deployment of a Kenyan-led security mission to Haiti, which is expected to begin any day now.

But no one has informed Haitians who or what was on board. Even the members of Haiti’s new transitional government told me that they did not know precisely what the United States was flying into the country. Although the Haitian members of the presidential council have met with Kenyan and Haitian officials to discuss the force, they said they have not provided input to U.S. officials. Aides to newly installed Prime Minister Garry Conille confirmed that he has had no say on decisions related to the mission. It remains unclear what the force’s specific goals are or how it can contribute to rebuilding the Haitian state.

  • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkinEnglish
    66•11 months ago

    Looks like they’re getting ready for whatever play they intend to make against the gangs and are trying to keep exacts on the hush hush to avoid the gangs being able to make preparations.

    They’re called gangs in print but it’s worth remembering that these organizations have military training and equipment at their disposal far exceeding what you’d picture when someone says the word “gang”, at this point it’d be more accurate to consider them warlord bands.

    • @SilentStorms@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      57•11 months ago

      There’s something off to me about the media exclusively referring to them as gangs.

      I feel like if they were in another part of the world they’d be calling them paramilitaries or militant groups.

      • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkinEnglish
        31•11 months ago

        It’s because they want to remove the political goals some of these groups have from their public narrative.

        Which, you can debate how underhanded doing something like that is, or how good or bad based on what those narratives are.

        • @NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
          14•11 months ago

          You have any information about their political goals? I went looking not too long ago and I wasn’t really able to find much.

          • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkinEnglish
            15•11 months ago

            I don’t have sources but I’ve heard tell the biggest gang right now is led by a guy who guys by BBQ, and his stated goals are basically a combination of Liberation rhetoric and demanding the government submit to his authority as the legitimate transitional executive.

            • @chonglibloodsport@lemmy.worldEnglish
              14•11 months ago

              Yes. Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier. Former cop. Alleged to have perpetrated massacres against the public killing dozens of people and burning down hundreds of homes. As a leader of G9 he publicly threatened genocide unless the prime minister of Haiti stepped down.

              This is all information I got from Wikipedia. I don’t know the veracity of any of it. I don’t live in Haiti and don’t really follow the situation there. Whoever Jimmy is, he doesn’t have very good PR. That’s all I can say for sure about him!

      • @MehBlah@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13•11 months ago

        According the the Haitian guy who comes in from time to time where I work his family had to leave due to the gangs. Its what he calls them so I think that is what I should call them.

      • @wurzelgummidge@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6•11 months ago

        There’s something off to me about the media exclusively referring to them as gangs.

        It’s about fixing the narrative in the public mind. They do similar shit in almost every foreign news story, especially places, we are not supposed to like

  • @LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
    40•11 months ago

    I am very concerned about the situation in Haiti and the global public seems to have a very poor understanding of the situation. Media coverage of the crisis there has been very biased and superficial. This concerns me because the powers that be may not have Haitians’ best interests at heart and without public oversight these military solutions could end up creating further problems.

    If anyone here lives in Haiti I would be very interested to hear any knowledge they could share of what is really happening and how they think it can be solved.

    • @DolphinMath@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
      6•11 months ago

      Media coverage of the crisis there has been very biased and superficial.

      Can you be more specific? Is there any particular coverage that you find biased and superficial?

      I will admit that some outlets undoubtably cover this better than others, but that is the case in all conflicts.

      • @LibertyLizard@slrpnk.netEnglish
        2•11 months ago

        The whole framing of this conflict as a “gang” issue is very problematic in my view, since these warring factions are more of competing political actors seeking to control the country. While they may or may not be engaged in traditional criminal activity, their primary goals are political, not merely economic as with typical organized crime. Yet there has been essentially no attempt to explain who the various factions are and what their goals are. They are just described as gangs that are going on killing sprees for no reason (with an unspoken implication that Haitians are just violent savages). From my limited research on the topic, this is highly inaccurate.

        That said, I really am not too knowledgeable about the situation there which is why I was hoping someone from outside of the US media ecosystem could share some real knowledge.

      • ormrEnglish
        6•11 months ago

        Lol, sounds totally unbiased to me…

        After all, why wouldn’t you believe in unbiased reports from a channel named “neutrality studies”?

          • ormrEnglish
            3•11 months ago

            A lot of it is truthful information for sure. But sentences along the lines of “the west has never forgiven Haiti” are quite obviously biased and tell of a rather black-and-white view of the world. The west is not monolithic. Haiti is so far away from those countries that most of the west probably couldn’t care less about what’s happening in Haiti. Just like most South American countries couldn’t care less about what’s happening in Ukraine.

            With the former colonial powers of Haiti, especially France, that’s of course a different case and they contributed a lot to the sad state of affairs in Haiti.

            Or “if I were president of Haiti, first thing I would do is remove Haiti from Caracom”. Yeah… Okay why? Whatever the history was, why would someone think that less regional cooperation would improve anything for Haiti? Also what kind of undemocratic mindset is that? You could at least say “I would do a referendum.” Alright, she was probably joking… But she’s definitely far from unbiased or objective.

            In any case I think if you asked the average Haitian what they would like to see in their country it’s probably the same thing people need and crave everywhere: Peace, and a good economical perspective to improve their livelihood. And for that it doesn’t matter if you’re part of an empire or not. You can very much be free and be part of an empire.

            Ultimately you need stability to achieve peace and prosperity and the chances for that are often even higher when you’re part of an empire. Most people on earth would always prefer peace and stability over revolution if there’s any alternative to the latter.

            • @Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
              5•11 months ago

              Fair and Balanced was Fox News’ slogan for 20 years. They finally retired it because even they didn’t want to pretend it was true anymore. I was just making a joke to go with your opinion.

  • @cygnus@lemmy.caEnglish
    15•11 months ago

    a Kenyan-led security mission to Haiti

    This is very odd, but also very intriguing. The President met with Biden a month ago, so this tracks. I kinda hope this happens just to see how it plays out.

    Edit: this will also be a great test of who reads past the headline. There are going to be a lot of knee-jerk “Murica Bad” comments.

  • @MehBlah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13•11 months ago

    I’m just glad for once the US is letting some other country take the lead. Let the Haitians hate Kenya for trying to stabilize their country. I’m sure the US will be seen and the puppeteer pulling the strings though.