Currents Summer 2024 (1) - Flipbook - Page 38
Jon Bonfiglio: I think it's really interesting you're saying about the fact that these gangs these paramilitary armed groups - came together as a working coalition for the first time
and that really the only thing that was able to bring them together as a coalition was the
great enemy; the great enemy of the bourgeoisie, the great enemy of the political class and of course behind that group are foreign powers and a history of foreign intervention. It9s
a key fact; that this was enough of a motivating force to have these groups forget about
everything else that separated them and to sort of catalyze them into forming a coalition.
MA: Yeah, I definitely think that people sometimes forget that these armed groups are not
what we would imagine in the sense of standard criminals, where a group of people have
banded together for a sort of lucrative economy-style of you know they want fancy jewelry
and big flashy cars and clothes and so on. I mean sure that's part of it but really what we're
seeing here, especially when you kind of track these weapons and the funneling of
ammunition and weapons into Haiti, is simply a means to an end - and the end is political
influence. It's not to have the coolest gang or sell the most drugs, it9s a way to gain the real
goal, which is political influence, which is power…
JB: Absolutely, these are not delinquents. We're not speaking about an average group of
street criminals and the financing - the economizing - that these groups are engaged in is as you say - it9s not self-seeking, it is to the end of purchasing - if you like - political power.
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