Help us #SaveSolino Haiti!

February 1st, 2024 Why are PHTK paramilitary gangs burning down Solino?

#SaveSolino! The second largest neighborhood in Port-au-Prince is under attack. Over 100,000 residents of Solino are facing invasion from the murderous paramilitaries of paid killer Kempès Sanon. Death squad gangs have overrun Port-au-Prince. Armed with in excess of half a million, smuggled U.S. guns, the bloodthirsty PHTK-thugs burn down entire neighborhoods like Kafou Fèy. They have taken over the biggest slums like Matisan, and exterminate their rivals and the civilian population. They use the route to Kwadebouke and the Dominican Republic to conduct terrorist kidnapping campaigns. Izo, Ti Bout Ba and Kempès are the names of some of the paramilitary warlords who rape and pillage. The unelected government of Ariel Henry, appointed in 2021 after a State Department tweet, is supposed to leave office next week. Guy Philippe, a former agent of the State Department, was released from a U.S. prison in late 2023 and is seeking to take state power.

Murals in Solino

Why are death squads targeting Solino and the other peaceful communities of the capital city?

In 2021, there was a united, nation-wide upsurge. Millions danced rara through the streets demanding the resignation of Jovnel Moise and democratic elections. There have been no truly democratic elections in Haiti since 1990. Popular priest Jean Bertrand Aristide, Ti Tid, represented Haiti’s potential Second Revolution when he won the popular vote that year. But for daring to assert Haiti’s independence, the U.S., Haitian oligarchs and military men organized a coup against him, violently removing him from power after a few months. Aristide again won the presidency in 2001 by popular vote, only to again be kidnapped by U.S. marines. I wrote a more extensive history of U.S. meddling in Haiti for Truthout.

2021 was a moment of national unity and euphoria. It was a carnival of liberation where hope and kleren moonshine consumed the hunger, if only for a moment. On July 7th 2021, the unelected, inept, presidential PHTK-stooge Moise was assassinated. The case of magnicide was the top headline in the world, for at least one morning. 18 Colombian paramilitaries with links to the U.S. military, aspiring Haitian-American politicians and DEA agents and several shady right-wing private security contractors have been imprisoned for the assassination. The Center for Economic and Policy Research documented the details of the assassination. The net effect of the assassination was to give the Haitian PHTK dictatorship a justification for repressing all protests. Overnight, the national movement was crushed. The PHTK unleashed armed bands to attack and burn down communities that were the epicenter of this resistance.

Upwards towards 500,000 residents of Port-au-Prince have become refugees in their own ancestral land. Most are children. They cram into schools with 20 families in one class room. Their laundry hangs anywhere and everywhere. Some have no laundry. They escaped at a moment’s notice under the hail of Washington Bullets. A blanket over the hard cold concrete is their bed. From the last semblance of dignified poverty, they now live in wretched colonial misery. Hunger and terror is colonialism’s order of the day.

Haitian leadership wonders: how does this moment fare in our proud history of oppression and resistance?

Community Barricades in Solino

The United States, French and Canadian governments have but one role to play in Haiti’s destiny: pay reparations. As we fight for Haitian sovereignty and reparations, we are calling on all of Haiti’s friends and supporters to help us #SaveSolino. Solino needs food and water to keep its people resisting and supplies to erect barricades against the marauding paramilitaries. Thank you for all of your help this far. Our efforts show the Haitian people they are not alone as they resist colonialism and the U.S.’s local minions and paramilitaries. This is a truly David vs Goliath story but not the first time the Haitian people have had to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to win their true independence!

Internationalism: a Haitian value

May 20th, 2023: What is happening in Haiti?

I just returned from Haiti and wanted to update everybody. Guns, gangs and genocidal attacks in the city of Port-au-Prince against stable communities have made life even more difficult for millions of Haitian families. Inflation is over 50%. There is no gasoline in the pumps and the cost in the black market is $15 per gallon. Food is scarce. According to the World Food Program, a total of 4.9 million Haitians - nearly half the population - do not have enough to eat, and 1.8 million are facing emergency levels of food insecurity.

Criminal gangs connected to the neocolonial state continue campaigns of arson, theft, intimidation and kidnapping. The spontaneous Bwa Kale ghetto self-defense movement has been the masses' response to the gangs. I have been updating every day on twitter and Instagram at @dannyshawcuny and you can follow Black Alliance for Peace @Blacks4Peace for more updates. Here Domini Resain, a key MOLEGHAF leader lays out the assassination attempts on his life.

Migration is the inevitable byproduct of imperialism. Every day thousands of Haitians are forced to involuntarily leave their precious, rich homeland. The racist harassment and humiliation at the border with the Dominican Republic continue to be a challenge for involuntary migrants trying to eke out a living for their families.

MOLEGHAF and Haitian grassroots leadership continue to educate, organize and fight back, promising that the Core Group, the historical exploiters of Haiti, will not continue to "turn our homeland into a desert." As these two clips indicate, the guns that fuel this horizontal violence come from the United States. MOLEGHAF encourages everyone to get involved, follow us on social media, educate others that Haiti does not want to be a U.S. neocolony and donate to keep us standing and fighting back!

Update Summer 2022 from Port-au-Prince: Key social leaders & their families have been burned out of their homes in Tibwa & Granravin. Paramilitarized gangs have shot at them & chased them out. I will repost the people-to-people solidarity fundraiser to help them find shelter. They are among tens of thousands of Haitians sleeping in basketball courts, stadiums & on the street. Monday a gas truck exploded in front of Lafoset, the South Bronx of Cap Haiti, Haiti's second-largest city. Dozens are dead. Gasoline currently costs $11 to $20 U.S. dollars. Many families have no access to water to drink or bathe. The state does nothing to help these families out. It is clear to the Haitian revolutionary leadership & the solidarity movement that only a different type of state & society, free of neocolonialism, can defend the interests of the Haitian people.

Today MOLEGHAF celebrates 12 years of existence on the frontlines training the everyday street soldiers of the ongoing Haitian Revolution! These anonymous global heroes never expected anything in return for their service to their people. Neocolonialism only guarantees them more threats, repression and time underground away from their families Yet everyday and year Haitian resistance comes back stronger. For us, nothing. For the people, everything! 

Here follows a short summary of where Haiti is at in terms of their struggle against dictatorship and neocolonialism.  

The July 7th assassination of Jovenel Moïse, the widely unpopular U.S. puppet, did not in any way change the neocolonial relationship that exists between the U.S. and Haiti. Regarding this assassination, David Oxygene spokesperson of MOLEGHAF said: “the apprentice is gone but the master, the boss and teacher are still there. Their illegitimate proxy isn't there but the master, U.S. imperialism, still is.” MOLEGHAF extends their heart-felt appreciation for the solidarity anti-imperialists have sent from around the world. This people-to-people solidarity has empowered MOLEGHAF to organize survival programs, demonstrations against dictatorship and popular education projects.

A geological tragedy in August in the form of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake followed a geopolitical reality of centuries of resistance to foreign control. The Haitian people and their grassroots leadership are the best positioned to respond today and in the immediate future. Let's stand with these humble warriors against imperialism, humiliation and their local lackeys!  

Haiti's elites and their foreign backers are using Moïse's assassination to intensify repression in the streets of Port-au-Prince and our anti-imperialism is more important than ever. I teach Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the City University of New York. I have worked with a grassroots organization Mouvement de Liberté, Égalité des Haïtiens pour la Fraternité (Haitian Movement of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, MOLEGHAF) for the past 8 years in the fight for a people's democracy. The mainstream news will not cover their struggle. The world needs to hear directly from them. The community youth leaders, popular educators, artists, poets and journalists continue to urgently need cell phones, an office space, computers, educational materials, internet, food, paint and materials to make signs to continue fighting for justice. Stand in solidarity with the just, democratic future of Haiti! My coverage of Haiti is here.