By Danny Shaw\Counter Punch
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
On May 28th, the New York Times announced: “A Desperate Haiti Turns to Erik Prince, Trump Ally, in Fight Against Gangs.” The article revealed that the mercenary for hire, Prince, with a long track record of illegal interventions and egregious human rights violations in Iraq, Afghanistan and across the globe, has already been secretly working in Port-au-Prince alongside other private security contractors.
While the colonial overseers are quick to point out how corrupt their underling Haitian government is, they turn a blind eye to their own incestous billionaire cabinet. Prince has made hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial contributions to Trump’s campaigns and is the brother of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s first Secretary of Education.
As has been widely documented, Blackwater had a long track record of aiding U.S. imperial missions. They were a close collaborator with Zionism and are invested in colonial projects in Africa. Blackwater trained Colombian soldiers for the princes of the United Arab Emirates to use as they pleased. Prince is active in the narco-democracy of Ecuador where the richest family in the country just stole the elections.
Deploying mercenaries to carry out U.S. foreign policy objectives is nothing new for both the Democratic and Republic governments of the United States of Imperialism, but the idea is gaining more traction and Haiti is a perfect testing ground. Beyond a tiny, fractured, timid solidarity movement, who cares about this “shithole country,” long misrepresented by the racist, shrewd U.S. mainstream media, as a hopeless case of Black people unable to govern themselves? Only last month, the Trump administration tested the waters promising to send Haiti’s gang leaders to Nayib Bukele’s maximum security dungeon, known by its initials, CECOT.
As imperialism prepares its next round of machinations against the inheritors of the 1804 revolution, it is vital for anti-imperialists to have a clear view of the balance of class forces in Haiti today.
Who are the two “sides” dueling for power? Viv Ansanm (VA) is a sophisticated confederation of paramilitary gangs in Port-au-Prince. The underfunded, kleptocratic Haitian National Police (PNH), backed by the U.S. ‘s MSS mission and now Erik Prince’s mercenaries are on the other side. The unarmed, besieged and traumatized masses are trapped in the middle. Understanding where their class interests lie will help clarify who “the good and bad guys” are in Haiti. READ MORE…
