The disastrous consequences of the Bumper Amendment on Haiti’s cooperation model with the United States led the NGO Oxfam to unsuccessfully request a relaxation of the Bumper Amendment in favor of Haiti.
Antidemocratic Governments Made in America
The United States supported the Duvalier dictatorship—one of the most brutal in history—which held power in Haiti for 29 years. After the fall of the Duvaliers in 1986, they established and supported a succession of corrupt and backward anarcho-populist regimes. It was with this in mind that they brought Michel Martelly to power, a singer who advocated indecency, to further humiliate Haitian society. The American establishment would never accept a Myley Cirus or a Snoop Dogg sitting in the White House to preside over the destiny of millions of Americans. Yet, it is their counterpart that the United States chose to install as President of the Republic of Haiti.
This policy of humiliation has today weakened Haiti to a level beyond imagination. Haiti has never been so poor in its history, and US interference in its politics is intensifying alongside this decline.
There are virtually no viable institutions in Haiti, and the state is nothing but a fiction. The completely dismantled education system is unable to provide the skills needed to overcome this tragedy, while more than 80% of Haitian graduates live abroad.
Young people—the statistical majority—are desperate. Without guidance, they are caught up in depravity, corruption, and prostitution. For them, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. And this will continue for a long time. Engulfed in acculturation and tied to the excesses of a deleterious global economic order (consumerism, acculturation, media distraction, etc.), they prove incapable of grasping the root of the problem in order to grasp the real issues.
A country emptied of its substance
You have to experience poverty up close to truly understand its dehumanizing mechanisms. Poverty has this cynical aspect, forcing its victims to acclaim their tormentors as liberators. This perhaps explains the frenzy among Haitians to flee their country, bound for the United States, to enjoy their piece of the American dream.
Today, everything suggests that the United States consulate in Haiti is one of the most successful businesses, as Haitians flock to its counters for the famous sesame that will allow them to set foot in the great land of opportunity.
Every weekday, hundreds of them line up in front of the United States embassy, each paying $160 for an appointment, only to be overwhelmingly denied visas. Some of the wealthiest who obtain it often leave, never to return to a country where every second of life is one more reason to go abroad.
The United States loves this game, since a large part of the Haitian diaspora that supports the country’s economy through remittances currently resides in the country.
This constitutes a powerful political lever at its disposal to force certain “recalcitrant” leaders to adopt any measures that satisfy its ambitions. Thus, in the slightest display of sovereignty by certain Haitians, the main threat from the United States Embassy consists of revoking a visa or blocking a residence permit on American soil.
Today, only the Haitian who has not yet been born is unaware that the United States Embassy is “THE POWER” in Haiti. Wikileaks cables reveal that the US ambassador exerted enormous pressure on Haitian President René Préval in 2009 to prevent the minimum wage from being adjusted. While an American worker in the United States earned $58 per day, the US refused to allow a Haitian worker’s wage to increase from 21 to 61 cents per hour.
As soon as it comes to indexing these impostures, the media, civil society organizations, and politicians keep a low profile, since the US dollar ensures their operation.
Given all this, what euphemism can be used to express that the most powerful nation in the world is undermining stability and democracy in Haiti, without being accused of anti-Americanism?
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