If you have been following Healing Art Missions’ (HAM) monthly Newsletters, you are aware that the current Haitian President, Jovenel Moïse, has been ruling by decree for over a year now and has faced public protests over his rule for over two years now. Last month we talked about the importance of February 7th in Haitian politics, and that opposition parties had planned large protests prior to and on February 7, 2021 that most people anticipated would bring violent clashes.
That date has now come and gone now, so you might be asking, where does the state of politics stand now? As anticipated, there were violent protests as predicted though fortunately most Haitians stayed away from the streets to remain safe. Unfortunately, the status quo remains, President Moïse continues on ruling by decree and the streets continue to be ruled by gangs, often linked to police and politicians, responsible for the surge in kidnappings and murders.
According to this Economist article, those demanding President Moïse step down immediately, fall into two broad groups at odds with each other. “Pro-democracy idealists … are mainly activists, professionals and young people. They have no political parties or elected officials.” The other group, “The established opposition is led by former office-holders… They join the anti-Moïse agitation, but are regarded by the idealists as being just as corrupt as the regime.” The Economist continues on to say, “But the three-way fight makes it harder to predict who will steer the country’s future.”
So, where does this leave the citizens of Haiti? In a bad way. As you can see from the chart below from the same Economist article, with data from from U.S. State Department and U.N., the increase in kidnappings and murder in 2020 is frightening and continuing to climb in 2021.
While HAM’s projects in Haiti continue to operate in serving their communities, we remain concerned about their safety. Fortunately, our projects are not located within major cities and therefore away from the major protests and most gang activity, though not immune from violence. However, our doctors and some medical specialist staff live in the Port-au-Prince area, and most of the medical clinic resources require travel into the city, thus putting those staff members at higher risk.
There has not been a more important time for HAM to stand with the Haitian population and do whatever is possible to make sure the staff and projects have the resources necessary to continue to serve their communities.