Written by Michael Thervil
Photo by REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol
First there was the Haitian revolt which started in 1791 and ended in 1804, the year when Haitians rebelled against their enslavers from Britain and France. That turned out to be a win for who are now known as Haitians, thank God for Toussaint Louverture. Then Napoleon Bonaparte tried to have a crack at it – and got pushed back into the mountains and he ultimately lost. Napoleon bon apart got the message and never showed his face in Haiti again. Then America occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934 but lost their grip on Haiti because they sought to control Haiti economically and the people of Haiti fought back and won.
Fast forward to contemporary times, there was the military intervention in 1991 when the United States attempted to put an end to the coup d'état after Haitians overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. America lost because they failed to undermine and stop the Haitian rebellion. Fast forward to 2004-2017, the United Nations were kicked out of Haiti due to sexual assault claims and being the initiator of the cholera outbreak that happened in Haiti. Fast forward to today, and you’ll be quick to find that Kenyan police and military were called in to put a stop to Haitian gangs in 2024 and their failure was predicted before they got on the plane to go to Haiti. Indeed, Kenyan forces lost, and that leads us to what is happening right now with the Guatemala joining in the intervention in Haiti, who thinks it's their turn to take a crack at fighting Haitian gangs.
Truthfully, this is painstakingly funny because Guatemala can't even get a grip on fighting its own gangs that run rampant within its own country. The most notorious Guatemalan gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) and 18th Street Gang (Barrio 18) who do this day remain undefeated in Guatemala. Currently, it was reported that MS13 and Barrio 18, pose the greatest risk to civilian safety in Guatemala. If Guatemala, a country that is twice, if not three times the size of Haiti can’t check its own gang problem what makes it think it can handle the gangs in Haiti?
It was reported for the year of 2024 Guatemala had 196 homicides per month for a grand total of 2,352 for the year. Although Haiti is smaller in land mass, the murder rate is double that. Currently Guatemala is sending a mere 150 soldiers to augment the 2,500 police and military personnel who are already in Haiti from other countries such as Belize, El Salvador, and Jamaica (who also has one of the highest murder rates in CARICOM) to combat gang violence in Haiti. Of that 2,500 police and military personnel 400 are from Kenya.
Our prediction here at VEDA Communications is that it doesn’t matter how many “peacekeeping missions” the United Nations executes in Haiti – the outcome will be the same. and in this case, not only Guatemala gets a run for its money; but it will be yet another statistic that failed to control a population of people that don’t want to be externally controlled.
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