Resisting U.S. imperialism in Haiti: CARICOM’s role

Mario Joseph is the Managing Attorney for the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI). Brian Concannon is the Executive Director for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). Kristina Fried is the Staff Attorney for IJDH. IJDH is a U.S.-based solidarity organization that works closely with its sister organization, the Haiti-based BAI, to drive systemic change in Haiti by helping Haitian activists and grassroots groups enforce their internationally-recognized human rights.

People in the Caribbean and elsewhere worry about the problematic policies that may be unleashed with President Trump’s installation this month. But people in Haiti are more focused on the problematic policies unleashed by the 1801 installation of Thomas Jefferson, an enslaver who feared that Haiti’s ongoing revolution would inspire other Black freedom struggles. President Jefferson persistently interfered to keep Haiti from succeeding, and his successors, including recent Democratic and Republican party Presidents, have continued that practice.

In 1801, Haiti was on its way to making history as the Americas’ second independent country – and the world’s first free Black Republic – by defeating Napoleon Bonaparte’s French army. Both Jefferson and his predecessor, John Adams, believed that the Haitians could win that David-v.-Goliath struggle, and that their success could inspire independence movements throughout the Americas and even the world.

But while Adams found Haitian independence a welcome continuation of the U.S. struggle for freedom, Jefferson saw Haiti’s freedom as a threat. Haitians were Black, so their self-liberation challenged the system of enslavement and colonialism that had built the wealth of the powers-that-were. Jefferson feared that a prosperous, independent Haiti would inspire calls for Black freedom in Haiti’s Caribbean neighbors, and eventually on his own Virginia plantation. So he imposed an embargo on Haiti, urged governments colonizing Haiti’s Caribbean neighbors to join that embargo, and refused to recognize Haiti’s independence when it was declared in 1804.

Jefferson’s fears about the power of Haiti’s example were well-founded. Frederick Douglass, one of the 19th century’s leading advocates for Black rights in the United States, called Haiti “the greatest of all our modern teachers” in a speech to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Douglass explained that freedom for himself and other Black people throughout the world – including “the freedom that eight hundred thousand colored people enjoy in the British West Indies” – is due to Haiti’s example. He observed that “[w]ith peace firmly established within her borders … Haiti might easily lead all the other islands of the Caribbean Sea in the race of civilization.” 

The impact of Haiti’s independence – and its status as the first country to abolish enslavement – in the Caribbean cannot be overstated. Over a century after Douglass’ speech, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission Sir Hilary Beckles insisted that “Haiti’s leadership made the Caribbean the first civilization in modernity to criminalize and constitutionally uproot … [enslavement and native genocide] and to proceed with sustainability to build a nation upon the basis of universal freedom.” For those Caribbean nations still under the yoke of colonial powers, Haiti was – and is – a beacon of hope.

The United States did eventually recognize Haiti, in 1862, over a century after Haiti won its independence and just before the United States’ own Emancipation Proclamation. But, in Douglass’ account, the United States “never forgave Haiti for being Black.” Douglass had seen U.S. policy up close as the ambassador to Haiti, where he was pressured to join a heavy-handed, unsuccessful effort to establish a U.S. military base and wrest unfair advantages for U.S. corporations. He knew the United States had always kept Haiti down, to protect both domestic racial inequality and U.S. regional economic hegemony.

Haitians can recite a list of updates to Douglass’ account of U.S. interference, including the 1915-1934 Marine occupation; support for the Duvalier dictatorship (1957-1986), brutal to Haitians but compliant to the United States; and the overthrow and kidnapping of democratically elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 – on the bicentennial year of Haitian Independence – because he refused to implement the United States’ economic policy prescriptions and had the audacity to demand reparations for the slavery era.

CARICOM courageously stood up for Haiti’s democracy after Aristide’s kidnapping. It suspended Haiti from normal CARICOM activities, because the puppet government imposed by the United States to replace Aristide so obviously violated the democratic principles enshrined in the Community’s Charter. This principled approach – which the Organisation of American States with similar espoused principles refused to follow – ultimately helped Haitians reclaim their democracy in 2006. CARICOM has staunchly supported Haiti’s calls for reparations, with CARICOM’s Secretary-General noting the injustice of Haiti being “forced to pay for its freedom twice, first through the successful slave resistance … and the second time through the ignominy of being forced to borrow significant monies from French and American banks to pay reparations to former slaveowners for loss of property.”

But as Haiti’s crisis has continued to escalate over the past decade, CARICOM has missed opportunities to stand up in defense of Haiti’s sovereignty, democracy, and independence. The Community failed to apply its democratic principles to the U.S.-supported Partie Haitienne Tet Kale (PHTK), which for over a decade systematically dismantled Haiti’s democracy, generating the current acute crisis. The country has not had an election since 2016, a functioning Parliament since 2000, or any elected officials at all since 2022, with no consequences to its CARICOM privileges. CARICOM did initially reject the Multinational Support Mission – proposed by the PHTK to maintain its power and championed by the United States – on the grounds that Haitians opposed the Mission and that supporting it would be taking sides in internal conflicts. But after persuasion from Washington, the Community changed course and supported the mission.

After attacks by armed groups compelled the United States to withdraw its support for de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry and forced him from power in March 2024, CARICOM, with U.S. support, oversaw the flawed transitional process. It insisted on giving the PHTK and its allies three of the seven voting seats on the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC). Two of those three representatives – and a third not affiliated with the PHTK but also pushed onto the TPC by CARICOM – are embroiled in a corruption scandal that by the CARICOM Eminent Persons Group’s own admission has seriously undermined the TPC’s credibility. CARICOM’s efforts on behalf of these PHTK-affiliated actors enabled multiple power grabs that have hobbled Haiti’s return to democracy. Most recently, the three PHTK-affiliated representatives sent a letter to CARICOM, recommending a reconfiguration of the TPC that would consolidate their power and giving a voice to the Viv Ansanm coalition of armed groups that has been holding Haiti hostage since March.

Regardless of who is in the White House, the people of Haiti need CARICOM’s support to fight back against problematic U.S. policies. CARICOM has shown that it can help Haiti by standing up to U.S. pressure and backing Haitian efforts to rebuild Haiti’s democratic institutions and demand the reparations it is owed. It did so in 2004, and it can do so again. This solidarity could be the key to a successful, independent Haiti that can once again provide historic leadership to Black liberation, including opening the door to reparations for all.