For years, Haiti has been a country in turmoil. This is due to the country’s extreme levels of poverty and corrupt, unstable government. For nearly 30 years, the country was ruled by a family of dictators, the Duvaliers, who ruled with force and terror. François Duvalier, like most dictators, revised the constitution to solidify his power and replaced the army with a more powerful militia known as the Tonton Macoutes, which is creole for boogeymen. The Tonton Macoutes were responsible for many human rights violations, like murdering innocent men, women, and children. However, many Haitians rejoiced in 1991 when the country elected its first democratic president, Jean- Bertrand Aristide. This election signaled a new, promising era for the citizens of Haiti. He attempted to rebuild Haiti by back taxing the country’s elite and punishing the former generals who were responsible for crimes against citizens of Haiti. Aristide also disbanded the Haitian military to rid the country of the corrupt thugs and restore justice. This is believed to be the roots of the 2004 conflict. Many of the former militia members fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic to avoid punishment, where they organized attacks.
Rebel groups were responsible for fighting and attacking government institutions throughout the ‘90s and early 2000’s. But, in 2002, the government finally began arresting and convicting former militia members. One key leader, Jean Pierre Baptiste was convicted of "voluntary, premeditated homicide". But, he was freed from prison, along with 160 other inmates, by a heavily armed gang known as the Cannibal Army. The Cannibal Army later became known as the Gonaïves Resistance Front. After mounting international pressu...
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... This is why rebels in the years before the conflict were able to avoid capture.
Works Cited
"Disarm or Die." Haiti Democracy Project. Haiti Democracy Project, 10 08 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2012. .
"Haiti: Information on the Armed Revolt." UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, 30 03 2012. Web. 30 March 2012. .
"MINUSTAH: United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti." United nations. United Nations, n.d. Web. 30 March 2012.
Muggah, Robert. "Great expectations: (dis)integrated DDR in Sudan and Haiti." Humanitarian Exchange Magazine. 03 2007: n. page. Print. .
Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse-tung, “Che” Guevara, Osama bin Laden and others have professed unique qualifications as innovators and practitioners of Guerrilla warfare. However, in our relatively short military history, we have periodically had to use or defend against irregular warfare. During the French and Indian Wars as well as the Revolutionary War, we were the guerrillas. In the Civil War, there were the partisan operations of Mosby, Forrest and the outlaw Quantrill, who played a key role in the Confederacy’s ability to wage effective war against the numerically and industrially superior Union for over four years. It is often forgotten, that regular forces require a ratio of ten to one to prevail against a partisan operating on their native soil3. Nevertheless, one thing remains constant: the adaptability and courage of the American Soldier under the harshest of circumstances continues to allow them to prevail.
Schmidt, Hans. The United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1995. Print.
The Nation of Haiti has been plagued with excessive bad luck when it comes to external invasion. Whether it be larger countries taking control, or outsiders brought in as slaves, Haiti has endured many hardships. These issues, while very common in a lot of countries, are exposed in a short story by a native Haitian. In “A Wall of Fire Rising”, Edwidge Danticat illustrates a myriad of historical issues in Haiti from the 17th to the 20th century through a series of events in one family’s life.
The Haitian revolution had tremendous repercussions in the social, political and economic arenas of the world, but especially for the relationship with the neighboring nation of the Dominican Republic. In order to understand the development of the Dominican-Haitian relationship after the Haitian revolution one must examine how the two colonies of Hispanola dealt with each other before it. Throughout history there has been constant stress between the interactions of these nations, yet there is no easy explanation for what has caused it. In effect, it has been an accumulation of events which has allowed for the present relationship to evolve.
... can take power away from regimes successfully, but there are very few ways a regime and even a violent campaign can take power away a nonviolent movement effectively and without failing in the long term.
Zanotti, L. (2010). Cacophonies of aid, failed state building and NGOs in Haiti: setting the stage for disaster, envisioning the future. Third World Quarterly, 31(5), 755-771.
This article explores Haitian Independence in terms of a war for national liberation. The disassociation from white governance left a window of opportunity for long-term nat...
The government changed its tactics to end the rebellion, resorting to low intensity war. Paramilitaries with differing levels of tacit and explicit support terrorized Zapatistas and their sympathizers. The killings in Acteal in 1997 that claimed the lives of 45 innocent people remains a particularly gruesome example of paramilitary massacres.
Several of the problems that Haiti faces today have their genesis in the country’s colonial history. The country was like a toy being fought over by spoiled children. The first of these children arrived in the early sixteenth century in the form of Spanish settlers in search of gold. They enslaved the native Taino population and, poisoned by avarice, nearly eradicated the indigenous work force. Thousands of African slaves were brought in to take their place. Eventually, the Spanish left the island to grab their share of newly discovered treasure in other lands. Tiring of their toy, the Spanish
Haiti was once an economic power when France held claim to the Eastern Part of Hispaniola, then named St. Domingue. It was a French colony flourishing with coffee and sugar. Eventually the ideals of the French Revolution - Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity - made its way to the colonies resulting in a revolution. Haiti was the first slave-led revolution and declared its independence as a republic on January 1, 1804. After their declaration of independence, things started to make a turn for the worst. In 1934 the U.S. forces occupied Haiti to establish stability. The U.S. appointed heads of state but the real power was present in the U.S. occupiers, whereas the heads of state are just figureheads. Haiti’s economy dwindled further down when France demanded reparations of 150 million francs, which wasn’t paid off until 1947. In 65 years, Haiti had 22 heads of state.” In 1957 Francois Duvalier is elected president. He later “creates a totalitarian dictatorship and in 1964 declares himself president-for-life.” This is where Haiti’s political instability really begins.
I am writing this letter to ask that please do help Haiti overcome severe food insecurity which is killing Haitians people day by day. Haiti is the poorest country in America and has been annually suffered from the serious affection of harsh weather condition and severe food insecurity for over 50 years . Unfortunately, this country affected by a Hurricance Matthew which leads this country to be driven deeper into imporverish in 2016. The devastating hurricance made Haiti’s old problems worse and left hundred of Haitians acute malnutrion.
The 1805 Constitution of Haiti is a document that first declares Haiti’s independence from any colonizing power. It declares that the people of Haiti are free and will forever be free, which in many ways is similar to the list of grievances in the United States Declaration of Independence. The people of Haiti would not be subjected to living and working for a king or emperor. The Constitution then goes on to list the rights that Haitian Citizens will have under their new found government. In these rights they use the same language as the United States Constitution, which was made popular by the period of enlightment. This suggest that Haiti was capable of creating a civilized society, which counteracted the notion that blacks were incapable of creating and maintaining civilized society.
Fatton Jr. , Robbert. Haiti's Predatory republic :The unending transition to demcracy . Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002.
To fully understand how Debray was able to modify Guevara’s theory of guerrilla war, one must understand the history of guerrilla war and how it has changed overtime. Ganor believes that Guerrillas attack military and security forces as well as political leadership. However, do not be confused with terrorist groups, they attack civilians in order send a symbolic message (pg 6). Although Eric Reitan would argue that Guerrila style attacks could be considered terroristic because security forces, and political leaders are a target group, therefore, can be classified as a terroristic approach to accomplish an end result (pg 6). During the Napoleonic Wars, Spanish armies would utilize the guerrilla approach by murdering “off-duty soldiers, attack