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by 
Brief by Abhinav Santhosh Nambeesan
Research & Publications Division
Haiti has been in a state of crisis for six years, and after a few years of essential anarchy, an international force is ready to intervene to restore law and order in this crisis-ridden nation.
The crisis in Haiti began in 2018 when the country saw mass protests against the government triggered by a major corruption scandal.¹ President Jovenel Moise’s government was alleged to have embezzled money saved from an oil deal with Venezuela known as PetroCaribe. These millions of dollars were supposed to have been utilised for social programmes. The allegations resulted in violent protests breaking out across the country as people demanded the resignation of President Moise. Haiti’s government had been struggling financially for years at this point, and the government struggled to keep up its bureaucracy and police; as the law and order broke down, gangs emerged to fill the power vacuum. The departure of the peacekeeping UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti in 2017 further led to the breakdown of stability in the country. Protests escalated even more in 2021 as there was a dispute about when Moise’s term was to end, as elections for the presidency and legislature were continuously postponed. Even today, there have been no elections in Haiti since 2016.
On 7th July 2021, President Moise’s home was attacked by alleged mercenaries who assassinated him², leading to a vacancy in the post of President. This was the beginning of the power vacuum and loss of the government’s legitimacy in the people’s eyes due to the lack of clarity regarding who was the Prime Minister. Ariel Henry had been designated by Moise as the PM, but he had not been sworn in, because most of the seats in the legislature were vacant, as no elections had been held to succeed them. Henry still remained as PM, but because he had not been voted on by any elected official and no elections had taken place, the government remained illegitimate in the eyes of most of the population.
The extreme instability in the absence of a government resulted in gang violence soaring to the extreme³; as various gang leaders emerged to take control of territory, thousands of people fled the country to escape the violence. In 2023, the terms of all the remaining elected officials expired. Haiti was left with no elected officials at and Ariel Henry’s term as a Prime Minister began without a mandate and therefore no legitimacy. He had pledged to hold elections sometime in 2023, but as that was not happening, mass protests broke out against him as well.
Gang violence worsened in 2023, as reports of murders, kidnappings and sexual violence shot up and gangs took control of large parts of the country including the capital, Port-au-Prince. With the country essentially in anarchy, talks began in the United Nations for a military intervention to bring this chronic instability to an end, tackle the gangs, hold elections, and install a government with legitimacy. On 2nd October 2023, the UN Security Council voted to approve a multinational coalition to intervene in Haiti⁴, led primarily by Kenya, who would supply a bulk of the troops. Nonetheless, as deployment of these troops stalled, the country continued to suffer from protests, gang violence, and a sharp rise in sexual violence in particular.
In 2024, the crisis deteriorated further as a former opposition leader Guy Philippe returned to Haiti from a US prison, and began leading mass protests against Henry, demanding his resignation and for elections to be held. In the meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Kenya said that the country cannot constitutionally deploy police abroad with the arrangement at the time,⁵ which stalled the deployment until the two countries signed a formal treaty about it. PM Henry travelled to Kenya in late February to negotiate the Kenyan deployment, and while he was away, there was a massive rise in violence by the gangs, who attacked government infrastructure and called on Henry to resign, threatening ‘civil war.’⁶ With the airports of the country shut down, Henry was unable to return and stayed in the Dominican Republic.
At this time, the US participated in a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) following which Ariel Henry announced⁷ that he was resigning. He handed over power to a “transitional presidential council” created by CARICOM, which would hold elections to instate a legitimate government.
Since the appointment of the transitional council, Haiti continued to experience gang violence within a disastrous political environment, as the opposition leader Guy Philippe refuses to join the council and also opposes the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Haiti. Though countries have donated aid to the country, the various roadblocks and gang attacks have resulted in little supplies reaching the people themselves.
Finally, on June 26th, the UN-backed peacekeeping mission of Kenyan troops arrived in Haiti⁸ and the country is set to face a time of conflict between these peacekeepers and the various gangs.
India’s involvement and looking towards the future
While India lacks any deep involvement with Haiti, the two nations aren’t entirely disconnected. While India has never had an embassy in Haiti, mostly due to the security situation in Port-au-Prince, it has maintained bilateral relations for almost thirty years since 1996. Today, relations are managed through the Indian embassy in the Dominican Republic, which neighbours Haiti. Even before bilateral relations were established though, India has been involved in Haitian matters.
1993 had witnessed a military coup that overthrew Haiti’s President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, resulting in significant political unrest. In response, the UN authorised an intervention in the country called the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) to assist in peacekeeping. Despite not being part of the Security Council at the time, India assisted in the mission by sending more than a hundred CRPF troops to aid the Haitian police in keeping law and order in 1995, and the next year bilateral relations were established⁹. In 2008, during the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) that was formed in the aftermath of another coup d’etat in 2004, India once again provided forces from the BSF, CISF and Assam Rifles to aid the UN mission. For this contribution and their good performance, the forces were lauded by the UN.
Bilateral relations between India and Haiti have been relatively healthy, though they have not been very strong, which can be attributed to the political and governmental instability in Haiti. In various natural disasters that hit Haiti, India has stepped up and contributed aid. In 2008, when four different hurricanes hit Haiti, India donated more than Rs. 1 crore to the country to aid in disaster relief, and in 2016, it donated $250,000 in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Trade between India and Haiti is minimal; India mostly exports goods like chemicals, pharmaceuticals and plastics, and Haitian exports to India have been quite low.
There are many Haitian people of Indian descent— not just descendants of immigrants from India but from other Caribbean countries where Indians were brought over as indentured servants. Apart from them, there were many Indian nationals living in Haiti as well who were endangered when the situation with gang warfare grew severe. The External Affairs Ministry recognised the danger the situation posed to its citizens, and so in March 2024, the Indian government launched ‘Operation Indravati¹⁰,’ an effort to bring Indian nationals to safety, by transporting them to the Dominican Republic. The operation was largely a success, and around 90 Indian nationals were evacuated and brought to safety.
The question of whether Haiti can recover from these years of anarchy is up in the air as the United Nations intervention has just begun. Though not having indicated that it will participate, India has historically contributed to helping Haiti out in bringing order, and it is not out of the question that it will do so again in the future. Whether the centuries of conflict, authoritarianism and chaos in that country will finally be able to be brought to an end is not known, as previous such interventions have either not improved the situation or even deteriorated the situation, but the people of Haiti are sure to be hopeful that the future can be bright.
References
“Haiti anti-corruption protest turns violent.” Al Jazeera, 2018
“Kenya court says police cannot deploy to Haiti mission.” Reuters, 2024
“Outcome declaration of CARICOM, International Partners and Haitian Stakeholders.” caricom.com, 2024
“India-Haiti Bilateral Brief.” Embassy of India, Santo Domingo
“Operation ‘Indravati’ begins to evacuate Indians from Haiti to Dominican Republic: Jaishankar.” The Hindu, 2024
Interesting piece. There are no light ways to acknowledge the depth of the atrocities facing Haiti. Thoughts and prayers.
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