Currents Summer 2024 (1) - Flipbook - Page 39
MA: I think it was Al Jazeera that said that Haiti had a 8criminal economy.9 If you asked me
what Haiti is today, I wouldn't necessarily categorize it as a failed state, considering it is
operating and functioning the exact way that the powers-that-be wanted.
Like you said, this is not delinquents that we're dealing with - Barbeque is a former
policeman, a high-ranking officer at that, and many of the other leaders of these armed
groups have some sort of political ties, have some sort of background and education. This
isn't just people that are coming from the most vulnerable sectors, rising to power from the
slum areas of Haiti. No, these are people who are educated and strategic about what they're
doing, and how they want to obtain what they want. I think that 10 years ago people who are
just now arriving in the country look at Haiti9s gangs and these armed groups as a 8bunch of
thugs9 but that devalues what's actually been happening here over the past 20 years. There
used to be this code that the old pappies that were running these armed groups lived by and
it was one that was
