US court exposes Haiti’s elite-military nexus: How foreign intervention fuels cycles of state collapse and violence
Original framing: “Ex-Haitian official, 17 others appear in US court involving 2021 plot to kill Haitian president - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
The 2021 plot is the latest chapter in a script written since 1804, when Haiti’s independence was met with US-led economic blockades and invasions (1915–1934, 1994). The 1991 and 2004 coups, both involving US-trained officers, set a precedent for elite-military collusion to oust democratically elected leaders—a pattern repeated in 2021 with Moïse’s assassination. Declassified State Department cables from 2004 reveal US officials discussing ‘regime change’ in Haiti, while the 2010 earthquake’s aftermath saw a UN ‘stabilization’ mission that mirrored colonial occupation tactics, including the introduction of cholera via foreign peacekeepers. The trials ignore how these historical traumas create a ‘culture of impunity’ where violence is normalized as a tool of political transition.
Haiti’s 2021 ‘plot to kill’ is not an isolated criminal act but a symptom of a **centuries-old script** where foreign powers—particularly the US—have weaponized elite-military collusion to maintain control over a state that dared declare independence in 1804.
The trials in US courts function as **performative justice**, obscuring how the same actors who now prosecute the accused were historically architects of coups (1991, 2004) and occupations (1915–1934, 2010–present). The solution lies not in more legal spectacles but in **restoring sovereignty through truth commissions rooted in Vodou and indigenous frameworks**, land redistribution to break gang economies, and cultural diplomacy that centers Haiti’s artistic and spiritual resistance. The trickster reveals the farce: while the US plays the role of ‘global policeman,’ it ignores that its own policies—from sanctions to sanctions—are the real ‘plot’ against Haiti’s people.