Haiti president assassinated

[Oexmelin]

From CNN

Haiti's President Jovenel Moise was killed during an attack on his private residence early on Wednesday, according to the country's acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph.

Joseph said in a statement that a group of unidentified individuals stormed Moise's home at around 1 a.m. and fatally wounded the head of state. He described the assassination as a "heinous, inhumane and barbaric act."

In a further statement, Joseph said the President was killed in a "highly coordinated attack by a highly trained and heavily armed group." He did not specify how Moise died. Haiti's first lady was shot and is receiving treatment, he also said.

The country has been reeling from violence for weeks. Addressing the nation in a televised statement, Joseph declared a "state of siege" in Haiti and pleaded with citizens to remain calm.

"Me and all the ministers have been working since the news broke and we want to assure you we will bring the killers of the president to justice," he added. "Please stay calm and let the authorities do their work. We don't want the country to plunge into chaos. This is a very sad day for our nation and for our people."

The state of siege is the middle of three levels of emergency under Haitian law, alongside the lower "state of emergency" and the highest level referred to as the "state of war."

Under the state of siege regime, national borders are closed and martial law temporarily is imposed, with Haiti's military and national police empowered to enforce the law.

It isn't immediately clear who will replace Moise. Judge Jean Wilner Morin, President of the National Association of Haitian Judges, told CNN that the line of presidential succession in the country is now murky.

Haiti's President of the Supreme Court would normally be next in line, but he recently died of Covid-19. For the acting Prime Minister Joseph to formally replace the President, he would have to be approved by Haiti's parliament, said Morin. But without recent elections, the parliament is effectively defunct.

Moise was 53 years old. The former banana exporter was a controversial figure and spent most of the past year waging a political war with the opposition over the terms of his presidency.

Many in the country were disputing his right to continue serving in the presidency this year.

While the United States, United Nations and Organization of American States supported his claim to a fifth year in office, critics say he should have stepped down in February 7, 2021, citing a constitutional provision that starts the clock once a president is elected, rather than when he takes office.

Moise claimed his five-year term should end in 2022 because he wasn't sworn in until February 2017. His inauguration was delayed over allegations of voter fraud during the 2015 election, which led to a presidential runoff that was postponed twice over what authorities called threats and "security concerns."

Throughout his presidency, Moise had repeatedly failed to hold elections at local and national levels, leaving much of the country's governing infrastructure empty.

A constitutional referendum originally scheduled to be held last month was postponed and is now set to be held in September, alongside the presidential and legislative elections, authorities said, blaming the Covid-19 pandemic for the delay.

The country's electoral council said in a statement that the country would implement health measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus so that Haitians could cast their votes safely.

Municipal and local elections have been scheduled for January 16, 2022, the official electoral calendar also showed.

[celedhring]

I remember listening to Mike Duncan's Haiti podcast, and how essentially the last episode - which reviews the country's history since the revolution up to today - is just a long series of calamities. This just seems to add to that. One of the unluckiest nations on Earth.

[Oexmelin]

Let's say that imperial countries and countries beholden to slavery lent a very heavy hand to luck in crushing down Haiti. It paid heavily the price of overturning slavery.

[The Minsky Moment]

Let's say that imperial countries and countries beholden to slavery lent a very heavy hand to luck in crushing down Haiti. It paid heavily the price of overturning slavery.

Piketty discusses that in his last book (which yes I'm still reading . . . slowly).
The debt burden placed on Haiti was extraordinary - essentially it was impossible to pay off an sucked off any economic surplus for generations. Whenever it attempted to suspend or default, the burden was coercively re-imposed and extended.  Western creditors basically ran a Mafia style protection racket on the entire country for well over a century.
If ever there was an argument for reparations, Haiti has one. 

[Josquius]

Let's say that imperial countries and countries beholden to slavery lent a very heavy hand to luck in crushing down Haiti. It paid heavily the price of overturning slavery.

Piketty discusses that in his last book (which yes I'm still reading . . . slowly).
The debt burden placed on Haiti was extraordinary - essentially it was impossible to pay off an sucked off any economic surplus for generations. Whenever it attempted to suspend or default, the burden was coercively re-imposed and extended.  Western creditors basically ran a Mafia style protection racket on the entire country for well over a century.
If ever there was an argument for reparations, Haiti has one. 

Capital in the 21st century or another?

Sounds interesting.

[Valmy]

Let's say that imperial countries and countries beholden to slavery lent a very heavy hand to luck in crushing down Haiti. It paid heavily the price of overturning slavery.

Piketty discusses that in his last book (which yes I'm still reading . . . slowly).
The debt burden placed on Haiti was extraordinary - essentially it was impossible to pay off an sucked off any economic surplus for generations. Whenever it attempted to suspend or default, the burden was coercively re-imposed and extended.  Western creditors basically ran a Mafia style protection racket on the entire country for well over a century.
If ever there was an argument for reparations, Haiti has one. 

It was a miscalculation by the Boyer that Haiti's past as an extremely rich cash crop export economy could be restored once they achieved international recognition (and, you know, stopped having to worry about being invaded at any moment), which was always the pot of gold at the end of the never-ending rainbow. And that was also the expectation of Charles X as well, which was why his demand seems insanely evil in retrospect (not that I mind people thinking he was incredibly evil). But once it was clear that was not happening in a more logical and less dystopian world than 19th century Imperialism some kind of deal should have been worked out.

Well they do get foreign aid, but they could certainly use more and we could certainly brand that reparations if it helped achieve that goal.

But in the short term I am not sure what can be done to stop the current issues. It will be interesting to see if the government gets overrun by the protestors or if they actually hold their elections this fall. They have no current legitimate President now.

[Admiral Yi]

Piketty discusses that in his last book (which yes I'm still reading . . . slowly).
The debt burden placed on Haiti was extraordinary - essentially it was impossible to pay off an sucked off any economic surplus for generations. Whenever it attempted to suspend or default, the burden was coercively re-imposed and extended.  Western creditors basically ran a Mafia style protection racket on the entire country for well over a century.
If ever there was an argument for reparations, Haiti has one.

What do you mean when you say a debt burden was "placed" on Haiti?

[Valmy]

What do you mean when you say a debt burden was "placed" on Haiti?

Well Haiti agreed to pay Charles X millions of Francs in gold for France to recognize their independence, which would mean most other western countries would as well. Then Haiti would stop being in a state of siege and maybe could get rich again. That was the expectation by Haiti's President and the French King. But whoops no those days were over. So once that was clear Haiti should have been forgiven the debt, or allowed to go bankrupt. But no instead Haiti was held to this insane debt, agreed to under false assumptions and eventually came under 20 years of US occupation to get the insane debt repaid. It was crazy and horrific.

That is how it was "placed" on Haiti. Yes Haiti agreed to it, but everybody thought a fortune in sugar gold was about to come rolling in. When that did not happen then Haiti basically became a slave state to its creditors to the point of losing its independence for a long stretch.

[celedhring]

Piketty discusses that in his last book (which yes I'm still reading . . . slowly).
The debt burden placed on Haiti was extraordinary - essentially it was impossible to pay off an sucked off any economic surplus for generations. Whenever it attempted to suspend or default, the burden was coercively re-imposed and extended.  Western creditors basically ran a Mafia style protection racket on the entire country for well over a century.
If ever there was an argument for reparations, Haiti has one.

What do you mean when you say a debt burden was "placed" on Haiti?

Charles X reinvaded Haiti and in exchange for recognizing their independence exacted an exhorbitant sum.

[Valmy]

Piketty discusses that in his last book (which yes I'm still reading . . . slowly).
The debt burden placed on Haiti was extraordinary - essentially it was impossible to pay off an sucked off any economic surplus for generations. Whenever it attempted to suspend or default, the burden was coercively re-imposed and extended.  Western creditors basically ran a Mafia style protection racket on the entire country for well over a century.
If ever there was an argument for reparations, Haiti has one.

What do you mean when you say a debt burden was "placed" on Haiti?

Charles X reinvaded Haiti and in exchange for recognizing their independence exacted an exhorbitant sum.

Reinvaded? I would have liked to see him try.

He extracted it entirely through diplomatic pressure.

[celedhring]

Ok, "sent a fleet to". I listened to Duncan's podcast two years ago 

[Valmy]

Ok, "sent a fleet to". I listened to Duncan's podcast two years ago 

Yeah Charles X didn't want it back really. He just wanted a big cut of all those big bucks Haiti was surely going to make once they got their export cash crop thing going again.

[grumbler]

He extracted it entirely through diplomatic pressure.

I would not call the dispatch of a fleet and threatening war to be "entirely through diplomatic pressure."  That's like saying that the New York mafia is just a collection of insurance companies.

[Valmy]

He extracted it entirely through diplomatic pressure.

I would not call the dispatch of a fleet and threatening war to be "entirely through diplomatic pressure."  That's like saying that the New York mafia is just a collection of insurance companies.

Well it was the 19th century.

But even if he hadn't done that the Haitians were getting pretty desperate for recognition at that point. Especially as they had just annexed the Spanish half of the Island and now had two angry Empires to worry about.

[Sheilbh]

Piketty discusses that in his last book (which yes I'm still reading . . . slowly).
The debt burden placed on Haiti was extraordinary - essentially it was impossible to pay off an sucked off any economic surplus for generations. Whenever it attempted to suspend or default, the burden was coercively re-imposed and extended.  Western creditors basically ran a Mafia style protection racket on the entire country for well over a century.
If ever there was an argument for reparations, Haiti has one.

Yes. I totally agree it's an extroardinary example.

Though personally I support reparations far more widely on more moral grounds but I think the case with Haiti is really difficult to defend.

Capital in the 21st century or another?

I think his latest is Capital and Ideology.

Well they do get foreign aid, but they could certainly use more and we could certainly brand that reparations if it helped achieve that goal.

The issue with aid is that it's normally got lots of conditionalities and also generally organisations bid for it - so all the NGOs operating in Haiti put together pitches and proposals (I know some of the people who write these in other countries - and are quite cynical about it) for USAID or FCDO or Japanese or German aid agency money.

I think the point of reparation that it is more unconditional and certainly would not involve (non-Haitian) NGOs pitching for the money. You know I think it's origins as a term are theological and that is still, I think, a useful way of understanding they are an act to make amends for yours and others sins - a repair in the moral fabric or an atonement in it's most literally Tyndale-ish sense.