MIAMI, CMC – A Haitian-born oncologist here has expressed strong opposition to the empowerment of criminals in the French-speaking Caribbean country.
In an Op-Ed column in the New York Times on Saturday, Dr. Jean-Philippe Austin, co-founder and president of the Haitian American Foundation for Democracy, said fear is what he remembers most about his childhood growing up under a dictatorship in Haiti.
“We could never speak against the president-for-life, François Duvalier. My classmates, the children of regime officials, were dropped off at school by big men with guns,” he writes. “One night, men came to take our neighbor’s father, and no one ever saw him again. Sometimes, we would walk by the National Palace and avert our eyes, afraid to even look onto the grounds.
Dr. Austin – who is also chairman of the Florida Democratic National Committee and executive board member of the Haitian-Americans for Progress (HAP) – says it is “agonizing to watch yet another generation of Haitians living with terror.”
He says that since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, the country’s network of gangs, “some sponsored by government officials, have gained territory, arms, and audacity.”
He notes that earlier this month, the gangs formed a confederation and effectively launched a war on the state, blocking Ariel Henry, the unelected and unpopular acting prime minister, from flying back into the country.
“They overran the capital, orchestrated multiple jailbreaks, burned government buildings and police stations, and attacked the central bank,” Dr. Austin writes. “I am safe in Miami, but my relatives and friends in Port-au-Prince (the Haitian capital) have told me they are not. One recently had his car shot up; another fled his home after the neighborhood was taken over by gangs; another saw gang members shoot into his convenience store and threaten his employees; another had his house burned to the ground. Most people there are terrified they will run out of food and water.”
Dr. Austin lamented that some individuals imposing this chaos and destruction are jockeying for power as Haiti’s next government takes shape.
“Haitians deserve better,” he writes. “Haitians have always deserved security and a say over the fate of their country. They deserve to be led by people who represent the population and strive to keep them safe — not the criminals who have caused their fear and misery, year after year.”
Dr. Austin hopes for a representative council to re-establish security, rebuild institutions, and inspire Haitians’ confidence to vote for a new government in elections later next year.
He notes that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has brokered negotiations that have created a transitional presidential council, including both democracy advocates and members of several political parties. That council will select a new interim prime minister.
“As these negotiations have taken place, the violent leaders controlling the streets of Port-au-Prince are vying for legitimacy.” Dr. Austin writes. “Both Jimmy Chérizier, known as Barbecue, whose gangs have reportedly massacred and raped civilians, and Guy Philippe, who recently served time in US prison for money laundering related to drug trafficking, are casting themselves as freedom fighters and legitimate political leaders.
He adds, “They have said they will reject any internationally organized agreement, raising questions about how the CARICOM-brokered council will be able to regain control of the country.”
He says that while some observers of Haiti want criminal leaders involved in the next phase of its governance, claiming that they could help restore order, “that is both a dangerous misconception and a ludicrous idea.”
“It is these men who are currently fomenting violence in a bid to gain power,” he writes, pointing to a United Nations report that more than 1,500 Haitians have died in gang violence since the start of the year.
“After a bully knocks everyone down, you don’t give him what he wants and expect him to stop,” he adds. “He will always want more and use violence to get it.
“Haitians deserve governance by the talented, capable people of integrity and technical skill who have been reluctant, and often afraid, to participate in public life, which a criminally connected political class has taken over,” he adds. “The transition government information must not include criminals, their deputies or any political party with ties to drug trafficking, arms dealing or gangs.”
Dr. Austin says he has watched state violence destroy lives, disclosing that when he was a child in Haiti, his father’s twin brothers, Roger and Rodrigue Austin, were involved in a plot to overthrow President Duvalier.
“Roger helped hide other conspirators in cane fields near where my father worked for the Haitian American Sugar Company,” he writes. “Soldiers eventually burned the fields, killed some of the men, and imprisoned my uncles. They never came home.
Dr. Austin says his grandfather was briefly imprisoned as well, that Duvalier believed in “collective punishment,” and that his grandfather died soon after his release.
He says his father went into hiding, and, eventually, his parents and siblings, and he fled to the United States.
Dr. Austin writes that the gangs holding Haiti hostage today are, in some ways, the direct heirs of the Duvalier era.
“Mr. Duvalier governed by violent enforcers: the feared Tonton Macoutes, who imposed state power with machetes,” he writes. “After the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, other leaders followed, employing neighborhood gangs to safeguard their power.
“Politicians’ use of gangs has gone even further in the past dozen or so years, as a series of manipulated elections allowed Haitian leaders with little popular support to gain office,” he adds. “Instead of winning people over with good policy, empathy, and transparency, leaders relied on gangs to intimidate the electorate.”
He noted the United States has had a defining role in Haitian politics for generations, stating that Washington supported the “savage Duvalier regime, valuing its stability and its opposition to communism during the Cold War.”
Recently, for more than a decade, he claims the United States has “supported Haitian leaders as they dismantled democratic institutions and instrumentalized gangs, and even as the country devolved into gang warfare.”
Dr. Austin says the United States is “taking a back role in the ongoing negotiations for the transition government, ceding the position of deal maker to CARICOM.”
“That is a mistake,” he declares. “Despite Washington’s less than helpful interventions in the past, Haitians need more forceful US involvement to ensure that gang leaders and those connected with them receive a strong message that, this time, the United States will not tacitly support their participation in running the country.
“The US government should not work with gang affiliates and should guard against the engagement of any of their associates with power in this transition,” he urges
In addition, Dr. Austin says Washington should take “specific actions,” such as immediately releasing funds so that an international force led by Kenya can be deployed to help restore order and provide security.
“The government’s installation will need international security support—or there will be no installation,” he says, adding that Washington also has a longer-term role to play.
“It should help ensure, over time, that the new transition government is both functional and remains unbeholden to gangs,” Dr. Austin further writes. “Haiti needs to rebuild its police force and establish effective vetting and other processes that will ensure its independence from corrupt politicians and gangs.”
He also says the judiciary must be rebuilt “so that courts work and prosecutors and judges cannot be bought off.”
Dr. Austin says that while the United States and the international community have sponsored elections in Haiti in the past, they “have not meaningfully invested in building these critical institutions and developing citizens’ participation in the system.
“Only strong institutions and government agencies can support security and stability — and eventually, democracy,” he says. “The new transitional government offers a chance — now it is up to Haitians in every sector of society, the Haitian Diaspora, the United States, and the international community to support it.
“Without that, the gangs will keep winning and will extinguish Haitians’ chance to live in a democratic country without fear,” Dr. Austin adds.
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