Letters from Tomis

Lecture

A lecture based on Haiti 2004-2014: 10 Years of the UN’s Military Dictatorship.

https://marxist.com/haiti-2004-2014-10-years-of-the-uns-military-dictatorship.htm

I. Introduction: The Marxist Lens on Haiti’s Occupation

Caio Dezorzi’s 2015 article presents the United Nations’ MINUSTAH mission in Haiti (2004–2014) not as peacekeeping, but as an imperialist intervention orchestrated by the United States with Brazilian military leadership. Drawing on a Marxist tradition, he argues that Haiti’s sovereignty has been continuously violated since its revolutionary founding in 1804 and that the modern occupation continues the legacy of punishing Haiti for the audacity of being the first Black republic born from a successful slave revolt. Through this lens, UN troops served as enforcers for international capital, suppressing popular resistance and maintaining a comprador elite aligned with foreign interests.

II. Summary of Core Themes (2004–2014)

A. Aristide’s Ouster and the Role of MINUSTAH

The article describes the 2004 overthrow of democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as a coup, orchestrated by U.S. marines and legitimated by the UN’s formation of MINUSTAH. Brazilian troops were used as a proxy force to suppress Lavalas-affiliated protests and to defend elite interests against the urban poor.

B. Neocolonial Exploitation and Class Repression

Dezorzi documents the economic destruction and repression facilitated by foreign troops, especially in neighborhoods like Cité Soleil. UN incursions—heavily militarized and indiscriminate—targeted Lavalas strongholds. The article connects these acts to a broader policy of repressing any movement that threatened Haiti’s subordination within the global capitalist system.

C. Haiti as a Training Ground for Repression

Brazil, seeking a seat on the UN Security Council, used Haiti as a laboratory for military pacification, drawing parallels between Haiti’s favelas and Brazil’s urban poor. MINUSTAH troops, Dezorzi contends, honed tactics of urban warfare and counterinsurgency that would later be deployed domestically.

D. Disaster Capitalism and the 2010 Earthquake

The article highlights the cynical response to the 2010 earthquake: the militarization of humanitarian aid, the bottlenecking of food and medicine, and the exploitation of the disaster by NGOs and imperialist powers. Cholera introduced by UN peacekeepers further compounded the crisis, killing over 10,000 Haitians.

III. Developments in Haiti (2015–2025): The Crisis Deepens

Since MINUSTAH’s official withdrawal in 2017, the fundamental contradictions exposed in Dezorzi’s critique have not only persisted but intensified. Haiti has entered a new phase of de facto state collapse, marked by the erosion of state sovereignty, the entrenchment of gang rule, and foreign powers preparing new interventions under the guise of security.

A. Political Vacuum and Regime Crisis (2015–2021)

Following Michel Martelly’s presidency, the election of Jovenel Moïse in 2016—marred by low turnout and irregularities—ushered in years of rule by decree. Moïse’s administration, backed by the U.S. and the so-called “Core Group” (including Canada, France, and the UN), bypassed parliamentary checks and faced mass opposition. Protesters accused Moïse of corruption (notably the PetroCaribe scandal) and deepening inequality.

B. The Assassination of Moïse and Rise of Gang Power (2021–2023)

Moïse’s assassination in July 2021 left Haiti without an elected president or functioning legislature. In the power vacuum, gangs—especially the G9 federation—seized control of key infrastructure, ports, and neighborhoods. Political life has become militarized: gangs act as de facto authorities while state institutions disintegrate. Kidnappings for ransom, sexual violence, and blockades of fuel and food have become daily realities.

C. Foreign Control Without Uniforms: The Core Group’s “Silent Occupation”

Although UN troops formally withdrew, imperialist influence has shifted to diplomatic coercion and financial dependency. The “Core Group” has endorsed unelected leaders such as Ariel Henry (appointed in 2021 after Moïse’s death) who rule without a democratic mandate. Henry’s government has suppressed protests with police force while failing to organize elections. His resignation in March 2024 reflects the unsustainability of elite rule imposed from above.

D. The Call for Another Intervention (2023–2025)

Despite the legacy of MINUSTAH, foreign intervention has again returned to the agenda. In 2023, the UN Security Council authorized a Kenya-led multinational force to assist Haiti’s National Police in fighting gang violence. This new mission—MINUJUSTH in everything but name—has been delayed by court challenges in Kenya and widespread Haitian distrust. As of 2025, the force has begun limited operations, triggering fears of renewed occupation.

E. Mass Resistance: The “Bwa Kale” Movement

In 2023, a grassroots vigilante movement called Bwa Kale emerged, organizing extrajudicial actions against gangs amid widespread frustration with the state. While reflecting popular desperation, this development also illustrates the dangers of unorganized mass violence in the absence of revolutionary leadership. Dezorzi’s call for political organization remains tragically relevant.

IV. Critical Continuities and Contradictions

A. Imperialism’s Adaptability

The main thesis of Dezorzi’s article—that imperialist powers suppress Haitian self-determination through armed proxies—is still accurate. What has changed is the form: the guns have often been replaced by diplomatic dictates and proxy leadership. Yet repression, dependency, and neoliberal exploitation remain.

B. Absence of Revolutionary Organization

As Dezorzi lamented in 2014, the Haitian masses continue to lack a revolutionary party capable of uniting popular resistance and transforming uprisings into political power. Lavalas, while still symbolically potent, is fragmented. The vacuum has been filled by opportunists and criminal networks.

C. Neo-MINUSTAH?

The new intervention approved in 2023 suggests a return to the same logic: Haiti is to be “pacified” through foreign arms. That these arms are now Kenyan or Jamaican does not change the fact that they serve U.S. and European interests. As Dezorzi presciently warned, humanitarian justifications are a fig leaf for imperial discipline.

V. Conclusion: The Struggle for Haitian Sovereignty and Socialism

Caio Dezorzi’s 2015 analysis remains a powerful indictment of imperialist control masquerading as peacekeeping. Haiti, from 2015 to 2025, has been a crucible of neoliberal decay, elite betrayal, and popular rebellion. The contradiction between the revolutionary legacy of 1804 and the reality of 21st-century subjugation continues to define the nation’s trajectory.

The urgent task remains the same: build an independent, mass-based, revolutionary movement that connects the struggle for immediate survival—against gangs, hunger, and repression—with the long-term fight for socialism. Only by dismantling the structures of imperialist control and organizing the working class for power can Haiti’s heroic history of resistance finally translate into liberation.