Violence and instability in Haiti as ongoing crisis deepens

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Haiti has been plagued for decades by natural disasters and political turmoil. Last year, President Jovenel Moise was assassinated and another deadly earthquake hit, throwing the country into chaos, and the crisis has only deepened in recent months. Gangs have overrun parts of the country kidnapping citizens and foreigners and putting up blockades to stop the flow of critical supplies like fresh water and food.

  A new cholera outbreak has killed hundreds as hospitals have struggled to provide basic services. And the UN estimates that nearly half of the population is going hungry. The crisis has many calling for international intervention, even as the United States continues to deport Haitian migrants back to the island nation. For more we turn to Jacqueline Charles, who covers the Caribbean and Haiti for the Miami Herald. It's good to have you here.

• Jacqueline Charles:

  Thanks for having me.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And you have reported extensively on the violent gangs that now control much of Haiti give us a sense of the growing security crisis there.

• Jacqueline Charles, Reporter, Miami Herald:

  It is, indeed, a growing security crisis. I mean, we are seeing reports of massacres that are happening not just in Port-au-Prince, but also outside of Port-au-Prince. Just a few days ago, in one particular town, you have at least a dozen people who have been killed, 11 of them residents were massacred by armed gangs. The top individual was actually a gang member, according to the mayor and interview I did with him.

  But people are living in fear. We had a two month blockade of the country's key oil terminal. And while that is no longer the case, the reality is that kidnappings continue. So this book gang violence, and patients really don't feel safe at all.

• Geoff Bennett:

  How is the country and how is the international community working to address this crisis?

• Jacqueline Charles:

  Well, the United States, you know, pin two resolutions at the UN Security Council one was for sanctions. The other one was for in outside force at the request of the information government to come in and to provide some assistance to the Haitian National Police.

  The UN did unanimously adopt sanctions to first time in five years the only one in this hemisphere. But the reality is, is that the request for an armed intervention force to go into Haiti. Right now we're not seeing that it remains stalled at the United Nations Security Council.

  We are hearing that there just aren't any takers. The U.S. supports this but it doesn't want to lead this effort. And so far, we don't have any countries stepping up and saying, Hey, we will go in

• Geoff Bennett:

  Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, as you well know, due in large part to foreign intervention, foreign debt, given that, I mean this foreign intervention now is given that you know, the fraught history is that a real option?

• Jacqueline Charles:

  I don't know we can say that Haiti is, you know, poverty is the result of foreign intervention.

  I mean, yes, Haiti has had different countries intervening, including in 1915, with the United Nations — with the United States, that went into Haiti, and it went in, and it created the present day, you know, tax collection agencies, and other structures that exist in Haiti today are a result of the U.S. involvement in Haiti 1915, that remains a controversial point of contention for some people.

  They see it differently, including the most recently by United Nations peacekeepers, will you say the Haitians, do you want a foreign occupation? Yes, they're got to tell, you know, they see their country is being sovereign, despite the problems.

  But when you say to Haitians, hey, do you want some assistance for your security forces? You will hear from people yes, we're not talking about the politicians or the people that have the microphone. We're talking about the mother who was worried about her child being raped or killed or kidnapped when that child has to go to school. We have had children who have not been able to go to school. We have a lost generation in this country.

  And so you know, and I'm responsible for this too. As journalists, we don't talk enough to the people on the ground, that people who don't have access to the television stations or the radio stations, and they're the people that are enduring the suffering.

• Geoff Bennett:

  In the meantime, there is a group of House Democrats who are urging the Biden administration to extend immigration, protected immigration status for Haitians, it's known as TPS. Tell us more about that.

• Jacqueline Charles:

  After last year's assassination of Haitian presidents of normal ease, the Biden administration did extend Temporary Protected Status, which basically give nationals of the countries that are designated to the right to live in the United States temporarily, but to also work here illegally.

  And what we're seeing here is that there were a number of Haitians, thousands of Haitians who arrived after that designation, which one of the effective cutoff date was July 29. So that did not involve the people who left after the deadly earthquake, which was five weeks after the assassination, or the flows that we've been seeing coming to the shores of Florida and Puerto Rico on boats were in the largest Haitian migration crisis in 18 years.

  And so what advocates are saying that they want to have it re designated so that you can have additional individuals who can qualify otherwise, they're here, they're undocumented, they're out of status, and they don't know. You know, what's going to happen to them next.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Jacqueline Charles covers the Caribbean and Haiti for the Miami Herald. Thanks so much for your time.

• Jacqueline Charles:

  Thank you.

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