Haiti's Dilemma: Fighting Gangs with Terrorism Sanctions - Promising or an Overreach?
Overview
For the past six years, Haiti has had an alarming surge in violence, marked by frequent kidnappings, murders, and assault by gangs. Despite being sanctioned for backing the gangs and fueling human rights and drug trafficking violations, the political and economic elite continue ’business as usual.’ To break this cycle of impunity, it is critical to increase public awareness of the severity of these sanctions by explicitly classifying these allegations as acts of terrorism. Without this shift in perception, Haiti’s ongoing cycle of insecurity and political instability will likely persist, further increasing the gap to achieving a functioning democracy.
“Haiti Policy House acknowledges that the sanctioned are presumed innocent until proven otherwise in a court of law.”
Over the last two years, we witnessed dozens of sanctions imposed on Haiti’s political and economic elite for their involvement in supporting gangs in Haiti. Today, the sanctioned individuals are still walking freely in Haiti and abroad. For the crimes committed by the sponsored gangs, the sanctions, on their own, do not go far enough to elicit the reaction needed to resolve the matter. While the Haitian justice system might lack the capacity to prosecute the accused, the sanction-imposing authorities should prioritize strengthening public awareness of what those sanctions truly mean. If individuals are financing and providing weapons to gangs to inflict violence for political gain, then by definition, the funders and gang members are engaging in terrorist acts and should be classified as such.
The Security Council unanimously adopts resolution 2653 (2022) demanding an immediate cessation of violence in Haiti.
Photo:© UN Photo / Manuel Elías
Individual sanctions by the U.S. and other members of the international community are not new to Haiti. In the 1990s, dozens of former Haitian military officers and members of the private sector were sanctioned for their role in overthrowing the government. Today, some of the same elite networks are once again, sanctioned for fueling insecurity. As a result, the public perception of sanctions has been taken lightly.
Arrestation of any of the economic and political elites in Haiti is rare and they are perceived to be above the law or, as locally known, “Bandi Legal” meaning “legal criminals;” a term made popular, through a song, by former President Michel Martelly before running for office. On the same song, he shouted his Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe as a fellow “Bandi Legal,” and ironically today, they are both sanctioned by Canada for gross human rights violations and “engaging in acts that threaten the peace, security, and stability of Haiti”.
The question that society must now answer is, what can be done differently to increase the accountability of the sanctioned? The Haitian government, the United States government, and the international community can start by naming and classifying the financing, supporting, and providing weapons to gangs as acts of terrorism. This will propel political action, change public perception, strengthen sanctions, and unlock new tools that can counter acts of terror. Parallel to these actions is the need for the Haitians living abroad to leverage their role in civic engagement processes and pressure their elected officials to include such terms in legislatures such as the Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act of 2023.
Recently, the Ecuadorian government experienced a surge in gang violence that paralyzed the country. To change public perception and activate their military, the government, therefore, classified gangs as terrorists (See video below).
Defining Terrorism
Before proposing actions, we must first attempt to understand what terrorism is. Terrorism is defined as violence intended to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.”
The most high-profile form of terrorism to have occurred in Haiti’s recent history is the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. After the assassination, the U.S. brought charges against multiple individuals under the 18 U.S. Code § 2339A – “Providing material support to terrorists” for the furtherance of 18 U.S. Code § 956 (a1) – “Conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country.” Although the term “terrorist” is within the title of 18 U.S. Code § 2339A, and the crime was a clear act of terror to further political goals, the word was not used to describe the perpetrators [Download Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios and Rodolphe Jaar federal criminal complaints].
The assassination of the president has not been the only act of terror to define Haiti in recent years. While this crime was indeed shocking and therefore generated a quick global reaction, this act of terror pales in comparison to over 4,500 people killed from international gang financing and gun trafficking in 2023. Further reducing the severity of this reality is that most of the public sanctions issued thus far for heinous acts of terror, most notably the 2018 La Saline Massacre where gangs and political elites colluded to kill 71 people for political reasons, do not explicitly mention the word terror.
Moving Forward
By explicitly naming these interrelated crimes and activities as acts of terrorism, society (including Haitians and international actors) will be forced to face its existence and ultimately react to it in what could break the ‘business as usual’ cycle of sanctioned individuals. Quoting a journal article by Lisa Yun “Domestic Terrorism: The Ideology of Division and the Power of Naming” that speaks to the power of naming, “the act of naming is to bring something out of the closet. It also presents the opportunity to know, recognize, learn, and act. We cannot learn about something if it cannot be named.” In other words, only when the gross misconduct of the powerful and elite is classified as terrorism in Haiti, will we see a shift in public perception that can catalyze action both on foreign and domestic policies.
Haiti Policy House is not-for-profit institution focusing on Haitian public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan. Haiti Policy House does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).
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