Shading tree, Creole maiden for company. A gentle breeze, a warm caress if you please. Work, laughter, and play; yes, we’ll always be this way, Haiti Cherie, now I’ve returned to your soil so dear. — Haiti Cherie, by Jamaican Harry Belafonte

Haiti Cherie — a beautiful and melodic song vocalised by Harry Belafonte — provides an ominous contrast to what is currently happening in that country. On Wednesday morning I woke and checked my breaking news stream and it was frightening: “Jovenel Moïse, president of Haiti, was killed in an attack on his private residence on the outskirts of the capital, Port-au-Prince.”

I forwarded the link of the newsfeed to a couple of my friends and the first response I received captured the moment. It simply said, incredulously: “In 2021?”

Yes, in 2021.

Two fairly recent events should dispel any sense of surprise, disbelief, or rage. In 2018 Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and columnist with The Washington Post, went into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was murdered, body dismembered, and destroyed. When this incident occurred I was startled, my initial response was, “Oh, @#$%!” But then my cynicism — which has come from previous experience — kicked in, and I thought, “Nutten nah cum outta dis. Nothing really has.”

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after an investigation, concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s had authorised the killing. However, US President Donald Trump’s response to the killing was, “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event. Maybe he did, and maybe he didn’t!” He continued, “[I]n any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

I miss Trump’s candour versus the hypocrisy or diplomacy of “outraged; this is a heinous crime and we are monitoring developments”. USA foreign policy didn’t really change under Trump, he just removed the varnish.

More recently, in May, the Belarussian Government hijacked a Ryanair flight, forced it to perform an emergency landing in Minsk, and arrested an Opposition blogger critical of President Alexander Lukashenko. Response: “Reprehensible act of State terrorism” and demand for new sanctions.

My response: Cynicism, “Nutten nah cum outta dis.” Nothing has.

But, getting back to Haiti…

Haiti is generally viewed with derision, as a poor backwater where voodoo is ubiquitous, a country that the 45th president of the United States — Donald Trump — classified as a sh****le country. Haiti’s historical significance, however, should not be lost on us.

The Haitian Revolution was a truly unique event in world history. Against all odds, and against the French colonial powers, a band of black enslaved people, overthrew the white plantations owners. They are the only country to achieve independence by a successful slave revolt. The first republic in Latin America and the Caribbean to gain Independence, and the second republic in the western hemisphere.

This victory came at a huge cost. During the revolt the French adopted a scorched-earth policy that devastated the economy. The symbolism of the victory was profound. This development represented an existential threat to the international world order at the time. Black people didn’t have the capacity to lead and, worse, this would encourage or inspire other enslaved people to revolt. Action needed to be taken, an example needed to be set. Haiti was isolated, and this begun the country’s persistent poverty.

Haiti’s Independence was not recognised by France, nor by the USA, which isolated the country and created an embargo. Under severe pressure, and with the fledging country’s back against a wall, the Haitian Government made an accord with the devil.

In order to be recognised as a sovereign nation and to gain entrance into global trade, the French Government demanded compensation and reparation in exchange. Notice this word “reparations”, which means the action of making amends for a wrong one has done by providing payment or other assistance to those who have been wronged. Just to make sure we all understand that this means in the context of Haiti, the enslaves were wrong to relieve themselves of the yoke of French enslavement. Fighting for your freedom was against the law.

How did the French calculate the debt — the compensation? According to Leslie Alexander, the French Government sent a team of accountants into Haiti in order to place a value on all lands and physical assets, including the 500,000 citizens who were formerly enslaved, and declared the value at 150 million gold francs, which in contemporary terms would equate to well over $20 billion. Payments began immediately. So, even though Haiti won the battle against enslavement, freedom had a separate cost — a burden from which the country has never fully recovered.

Alexander explained how suffocating the Haitian debt was: Although the official debt was reduced over time, from 1825 to 1922 France forced Haiti to pay an annual fee for its national sovereignty. The debt was so punitive that, for instance, 51 per cent of Haiti’s revenues from coffee went to service the exterior debt, 47 per cent went to pay internal debts associated with building the nation’s infrastructure, with only two per cent available for all other expenses. By 1915, after close to 100 years, Haiti still “owed” France 121 million francs, of the 150 francs.

The USA interest in Haiti dates back to the Haitian Revolution, which started in 1797 and continued to 1804. For geopolitical reasons (Germany had developed significant investments in Haiti and World War 1 was in full swing), in 1915 the USA invaded Haiti, controlled and generally ran the country until 1934. Since that time there has been a trend of intervention. From 1957 to 1986 the US Government supported the atrocities of “Papa Doc” and “Baby Doc” Duvalier regime to prevent Haiti from becoming a communist country. In 1991 US troops were sent into Haiti following a coup to remove Jean-Bertrand Aristide. When Aristide was finally deposed, in 2004, he was transported into exile on a US military plane.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency has a long history of helping the Government to develop and strengthen its counter-narcotics law enforcement programme. The US also has economic interest in Haiti, according to CNN, many of the clothes sold in Walmart, J C Penny, Gap, Old Navy, and other stores are manufactured in Haiti. Suffice it to say that US interest in Haiti is not trivial.

In 2020, before the pandemic, the US Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs gave an assessment of Haiti’s economic conditions: “Unemployment is high and rising; inflation has reached 20 per cent; the currency has depreciated 30 per cent in the last two years; fuel shortages are recurring; foreign reserves are dangerously low; local and international businesses are shuttering and laying off workers; about two-thirds of the population live in poverty, and one-third face crisis or emergency-level food insecurity”.

Since the pandemic, the situation has become a lot worse. The leaders of Haiti have contributed to the countries positioned as the poorest in the hemisphere. There have also been natural disasters, like earthquakes and storm,s that has added to the misery. The narrative which suggests that Haiti cannot govern itself is totally false, simplistic, and does not take into consideration the role of the French and the continued role of the USA.

So at 1:00 am on Wednesday, July 7, armed mercenaries overpowered Haitian President Jovenel Moise security detail during a half-hour gun battle; riddled his body with 12 bullets; and injured his wife, Martine, who is now in a critical condition in a Florida hospital.

It was reported by The New York Times that after the incident there were unverified videos circulating on WhatsApp of a formation of SUV’s arriving on the street with armed men emerging in military formation. One announced in Creole and English over a loudspeaker, “This is a DEA operation.” The reference is to United States Drug Enforcement Administration. The mercenaries completed the operation and retreated.

Make no mistake this was a brazen overthrow of a Government; a coup. There are parallels with interventions in Chile in 1973, Grenada in 1983, Panama in 1989, Venezuela in 2002, among others. If the US is not involved it would suggest a major wreaking of its power. Some nondescript people will be killed and arrested. Forgive me, but my cynicism has kicked in again, “Nutten nah cum outta dis.”

Governments in the Caribbean and Latin America needs to understand that there is a new paradigm.

We all wish that Belafonte’s song: “Shading tree, Creole maiden for company. A gentle breeze, a warm caress if you please. Haiti Cherie, peace and prosperity will be the long-term outcome of all this bangarang.

Professor Paul Golding is former dean of the College of Business and Management at the University of Technology, Jamaica. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or pgolding@utech.edu.jm.