Haiti: 'Deep mistrust' over outside intervention

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00:00 That report from Delano de Souza, who joins me now on the set.

00:03 Delano, we heard there in your piece that there is really a lot of mistrust on the part

00:07 of the people of Haiti toward the international community.

00:09 That's right, Janine.

00:10 Whether we're talking about gang leaders or simply people on the street, they often reiterate

00:15 this term, Haitian solutions to Haitian problems.

00:19 As you mentioned, there is this deep mistrust in the country to outside and even regional

00:24 interventions.

00:25 And this dates back to Haiti's troubled past, particularly if we go right back to its colonial

00:29 past here with France.

00:31 France's rule of Haiti was particularly ugly.

00:36 Haiti was the first black country to rise up and gain independence right back in 1804.

00:42 But that independence came at a cost.

00:43 They had to pay reparations to France right up until 1947.

00:47 Then you had the U.S. invasion for about 20 years back in 1915, brutal dictatorships,

00:52 military coups.

00:53 Then you had the earthquake in 2010 that really brought the country to its knees.

00:57 You had the United Nations coming in with its peacekeeping mission, the U.N. peacekeeping

01:02 mission, bringing back cholera into the country after it had been eradicated for about a century.

01:07 Then you had the reports of sexual exploitation against women and children by U.N. peacekeepers.

01:13 Then you had, of course, the president who was gunned down by Colombian hitmen in the

01:17 middle of the night three years ago, and no elections that have been held since 2016,

01:21 which brings us where we are today.

01:23 Indeed.

01:24 And what we see also today is that gangs are ruling much of the country.

01:28 Tell us a bit more about their role in all of this.

01:30 Well, whoever thinks that you can keep gangs away from the equation of what happens tomorrow

01:35 is sorely mistaken.

01:36 We have been saying that they do control 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and

01:41 this is something we just simply cannot ignore.

01:43 The Kenyan police force, whenever they do come to restore order in the country, will

01:48 attempt to take on the gangs, but they cannot suppress them entirely, given how powerful

01:52 they are.

01:53 According to people who know Haiti well, the challenge will be convincing the gangs

01:57 to lay down their weapons.

01:58 But how do you do this?

01:59 Do you integrate them into the police force, for instance?

02:02 But what concessions do you make with these gang leaders, considering they do control

02:07 80 percent of the capital, and the local police force who are currently taking on the gangs

02:12 are simply out of their depth?

02:15 There are some voices who fear, unfortunately, that if you give gangs a seat at the table,

02:20 that they're so powerful, they may end up calling the shots in the country down the line.

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