Haiti’s Window of Opportunity

In late July, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield visited Haiti and sounded an upbeat note. “I do have a sense of hope,” she said at a press conference, citing the “many people here on the ground” who were “working every day to create a better future for the Haitian people.” She was referring, in part, to the roughly 400 Kenyan police officers who have arrived in Port-au-Prince as part of an international peacekeeping force that is eventually projected to number 2,500. The hope is that this UN Security Council–approved mission—formally referred to as the Multinational Security Support mission (MSS)—will allow Haiti to assert control over the country’s gangs, which have established de facto control over much of the capital’s neighborhoods and plunged the country into a dramatic humanitarian crisis. “[T]his mission has opened a door to progress,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

Haiti could certainly use more progress. Since even before President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021, the country has been suffering from intense violence. In the past three years, around 12,000 people have been killed, and some 600,000 have been displaced across the country. Gangs have established control or influence over around 80 percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and have been spreading their presence to other regions.

Thomas-Greenfield is right that, even amid all the chaos, there are reasons to be hopeful. The international police reinforcements have started to deploy. There is also change within Haiti’s government. After almost three years of deep political instability under the leadership of acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry—seen by many Haitians as the prolongation of a corrupt system—Haiti now has a cross-party transitional presidential council, a new prime minister, and a full cabinet. These steps toward more inclusive political leadership, combined with the first deployments of the MSS, have created a path toward stability.

Originally published in Foreign Affairs.