Haiti's Future Is Being Planned on Two Tracks: Traditional Political Power and Gang Power
Haiti's Future Is Being Planned on Two Tracks: Traditional Political Power and Gang Power
''It’s a no-win situation,'' said AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth to the Associated Press regarding the political instability of the country in the Caribbean sea.
Haiti’s future is being planned on two tracks — one involving traditional political power, the other focused on the power of gangs.
After an intense session of international diplomacy in Jamaica, a group of Caribbean nations and the United States announced Tuesday that Haiti’s best hope for calming violence rests with a council of influential figures who would elected an interim leader and could steer the country toward fresh presidential elections.
As they spoke to the media, a heavily armed gang leader held an impromptu news conference in Port-au-Prince and rejected any solution led and supported by the international community. “Haitian people will choose who will govern them,” Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier said Monday. [...]
Specifically, outside actors have undermined civil society and failed to punish bad elements, he said, making the work of constructing a functional society infinitely more difficult. But Haiti’s domestic instability may have gone so far that only an armed force from overseas can impose order, said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society.
People must be ready to welcome that force. “It’s a no-win situation,” he said.
