Will the US Intervene in Haiti (again)?

With gang violence taking over the streets of Haiti, their acting President has called on foreign assistance to quell the unrest, with the US looking like the only real candidate to intervene. But given their history with the country, is this a good idea?

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[tmacNCA]

This right here is why I love this channel. Something that concerns my country but something that the 24 hour news cycle doesn’t talk about

[jonathonppful]

You missed the best part of the 2004 coup. After he was extradited, the Haitian President was flown to Central Africa and left in the middle of nowhere.

[arkheavyindutries]

Please do cover more events like these. Even for international audiences, these kind of things are not covered by conventional media.

[awesomedude]

Thank you for covering this! This is why your American audience needs you, I've never heard of this before.

[nelhuiliztli]

In the recent Guacamaya Leak, it’s been revealed that the Mexican military has been aiding and providing the Haitian military in secret. From training to equipments, don’t know how long they’ve been doing it.

[kevincronk]

Wow this is the first time in like a year that a TLDR US video was actuallying recommended to me quickly and not days or weeks after release

[KatharineOsborne]

I worked on a documentary about street children in Haiti years and years ago as a writer/researcher, and (not to take away from the voices on actual Haitians and the diaspora, please listen to them primarily), I learned that successive interventions led to increased dependency of foreign aid-the way foreign aid has been delivered helped break down existing markets by reducing demand, so there was less resiliency when the next disaster arrived. And by market I mean fairly rudimentary, relatively ad hoc places to trade food and basic items. I do think foreign aid should be provided, but in a way that nurtures the development of small businesses (ie a range of capital from interest-free micro loans for someone to set up a market stall or buy seeds to farm food for instance, to loans for larger scale development, ie building a small factory or putting up solar panels and energy storage). Like you can’t just bring in trucks and hand out food for a couple of months and expect that to solve long standing systemic problems.

Another major issue is environmental degradation, especially deforestation (largely trees are gone from Haiti because they’ve been used for fuel) which has caused coastal erosion which in turn has caused degradation in marine life (a source of food), but also makes the effects of storms worse.

Also there are two other factors that have plagued Haiti; it is really badly placed geographically and unusually prone to hurricanes as well as earthquakes. It’s hard to progress when everything is knocked down every few years. The second aspect is Haiti’s unique history. It was the only state in history founded in a slave revolt, the side effect of which led to an immediate brain drain of systemic thinking, with engineering, and medical knowledge in particular (slaves did not typically have educations). This led to hundreds of years of trying to play catch up, with successive brain drains of the educated looking for better lives elsewhere. There’s also been a lot of corruption in politics over the years which also pushed out anyone who had the means of leaving.

I think there’s an attitude in the global community that Haiti has always been a mess and therefore always well be (or more racist things), but it’s not true. No one deserves to suffer, and Haiti deserves our help. But that help should be guided by what’s needed long term and by Haitians themselves (including the diaspora). The sad thing is that Haiti is quite a small country population-wise and geographically, and stabilising it should not be considered an insurmountable task or a money pit. Helping Haiti in a meaningful long term way is perfectly doable.

[suzumes]

No no, internal political nonsense needs an internal solution. Humanitarian aid? Sure, full scale intervention that's a hard pass for me that I'd hold against a politician in November.

[emilianohermosilla]

Monroe doctrine sitting in the background: whistling...

[jeffmorris]

Great video! This is exactly the kind of content this channel needs.

[mjw]

American viewer of your international channel who normally doesnt watch the Us channel. This is the kind of videos i like about the US. Typically i don’t learn too much from the mainstream politics videos simply because i experience it myself daily. These videos i like because it isn’t what everyone is talking about and aware of but is very important in geopolitics.

[natenae]

Yes, The instability in Haiti is putting a lot of pressure on my country (the Bahamas). Every year we have hundreds of Haitian migrant who come to the Bahamas illegally and our defense force and immigration can’t cope.

We forced to deport these people and No, unfortunately my country hasn’t found any other way of dealing with the problem. As these migrants have no housing, jobs, or means to provide income.

They are crowding our hospitals and schools, which our government struggles to expand because they can’t bring in the needed income to compensate. Neither can the government afford expanding hospital and housing at the necessary rate.

Haiti has 10 million people compared to the Bahamas 400 thousands.
So hopefully the US can work with the rest of the Caribbean to stabilize Haiti.

If they are willing to I would be fully behind it.

[calitaliarepublic]

The correct word is not "help", it is "invade".

[scottlillard]

This is exactly the sort of coverage the US channel should have. Our domestic networks don't even touch stories like this. They're too focused on even more midterms predictions.

[Leaveinlimbo]

That plug in at the end was comically mistimed 😂

[cfv]

We in Latin America know all too well what this US interventions look like, and what they leave behind. They should keep it to themselves.

[scvboy]

The average Haitian doesn't want America's "help". I think they've had enough of their "help".

[burningphoenix]

Given the rumors about Iran, we might be a bit too busy to help soon.

[WriteInAaronBushnell]

Wow, I never realized I had such a blind spot for US imperialism in the Caribbean in the 21st century. Subscribing!

[theMoporter]

Props to TLDR - I was bracing myself for a sanitisation of the US' history and actions and you proved me wrong. I would consider this to be an objective summary of the situation, letting the situation speak for itself.