The ongoing violent protests that have plunged a crisis-wrecked Haiti into a deeper state of chaos and lawlessness are being “financed by economic actors who stand to lose money,” a top aide in the Biden administration on Latin America and the Caribbean said Monday.
Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere and a special assistant to President Joe Biden, said there are individuals in the Caribbean country opposed to the reduction in $400 million in fuel subsidies. The reductions were announced as part of an announced Haitian government hike in the price of gas, diesel and propane at the pump.
“These are people that often don’t even live in Haiti, who have mansions in different parts of the world, and are paying for people to go into the streets,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez’s public comments came during an appearance Monday at the Washington, D.C.-based United States Institute of Peace. He was asked about Haiti by institute director for the Latin America program, Keith Mines, who also broached several other thorny issues facing the Biden administration in the region.
During the conversation Gonzalez said there is no quick fix for Haiti, and right now the Biden administration is more focused on helping bring about credibility through dialogue so that aid can reach the population with the help of a strengthened Haitian police.
“There really is not an easy fix in Haiti. I also think that just leaving it up to Haitians to resolve their problems, I think ignores the really, really concerning and deteriorating situation inside the country,” he said, acknowledging that in the past the U.S. focused on elections as an outcome, but now is focusing more on promoting Haitian dialogue.
“The reality right now is, how can you have elections in Haiti? I mean, it’s not our call but... right now if you have an election maybe 5% of the people will vote. As in the past, you’ve had leaders come in with 10% of the vote. Is that legitimacy?”
Gonzalez acknowledged that a lot of the assistance from the U.S. is not getting to communities in Haiti because gangs are controlling roads and communities.
“The gang element is one that is evolving and increasingly concerning. Whereas gangs used to be a national phenomenon, as they’ve grown, they have concentrated in urban areas and they control mobility corridors,” he said.
The gangs, Gonzalez noted, are as big as they have ever been and right now, he believes, “the violence rivals the Duvalier period and there’s just no easy answer to this.”
“I don’t think anybody, including Haitians, wants to get to the point of having a return of a United Nations peacekeeping force," Gonzalez said. “So the question, short of that, is what is something we can do?
“There is not going to be any approach that is going to lead to a short-term solution or help for Haiti.”
The fuel price hike ignited widespread civil unrest throughout the country and has led to the looting of aid warehouses, schools and the burning of businesses and private homes owned by members of the government and the private sector. Gonzalez’s comments are the first admission by a U.S. official about what the administration believes is helping to fan the protests, which are being viewed as going beyond a popular revolt by people facing higher costs of living, starvation and overall frustrations with their government.
Interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced the price hike nine days ago. The prices, published days later, will double the cost of fuel in some cases. Though pitched as part of a package of reforms, they have not been well received and have drummed up calls for Henry’s resignation.
In an address to the nation Sunday night, Henry gave no signs of stepping down or backing off the increase, from which the savings, he said, will be poured into social programs. He pointed the finger at unnamed individuals saying that they are opposed to his government’s efforts stamp out a lucrative black market on fuel and to recoup $600 million in losses from contraband and tax evaders at the seaports, and to crack down on the illegal importation of weapons and ammunition that eventually end up in the hands of deadly gangs.
Gonzalez did not say who the powerful moneyed “actors” are. However, he said it was not the first time that such individuals had used their money to oppose the Haitian government’s efforts to remove the subsidies, which the U.S. and monetary institutions have long contended are unsustainable.
In July 2018, an announced hike in fuel prices by the first government of President Jovenel Moise led to violent protests, the cancellations of international flights and a months-long lockdown of Haiti.
“They did the same thing with Moise and they mobilize whenever their economic interests or preferential arrangements with governments are” threatened, Gonzalez said, adding that it’s happening “at a time when people are literally starving to death.”
During the discussion Gonzalez did not give any indication on what the Biden administration is doing about the individuals behind the violent protests. The lack of U.S. sanctions against corrupt individuals in Haiti has been criticized by both Haitians and others in the international community.
In response to the unrest and ongoing political paralysis in Haiti, Gonzalez said the U.S. has refrained from putting “its finger on the scale” and instead focus on promoting a broader dialogue among Haiti’s political actors and the interim government led by Henry.
Haiti keeps him up at night, he said, “thinking about just the horrible humanitarian crisis taking place in the country.”
“I don’t agree with the assessment we’ve tried every thing and nothing has worked,” Gonzalez said. “Frankly I feel like there’s a lack of ambition and a new thinking on Haiti.”
