Haitian residents lynch and set fire to suspected gang members
NBCNov 29, 2022
Report: Haitian Vigilante Movement Leading to a Drop in Gang Violence
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Image copyright: US Navy [via Wikimedia Commons]
The Facts
The Haitian human rights group CARDH released a report Sunday saying that violence committed by armed gangs in Haiti has fallen "drastically" — with at least 160 suspected criminals killed in the last month — since the emergence of a vigilante justice movement that formed during the simmering humanitarian crisis.
The report added that, since the "Bwa Kale" movement began, there were "almost no" recorded kidnappings over the past month and a decline in gang-linked murders from 146 during the first three weeks of April to 43 this month. One survey found 70% of Haitians support the group.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
As the UN has already called for, the international community needs to step up and provide military assistance to Haiti if it wishes to ever defeat the gangs destroying the nation. Jamaica is the only country to offer troops so far, but that will not be enough to save a country whose capital city is overwhelmingly controlled by violent armed groups. After first being skeptical of another peacekeeping mission after the US brought cholera to the island, the Haitian people's minds are changing, and the world should change its stance along with them.
Establishment-critical narrative
Establishment international bodies, including the governments and media outlets that helped dismantle the nation in the first place, are now calling for blunt-force intervention in Haiti. What these people don't understand, or pretend to not understand, is that the Haitian people can revive their country on their own if they were only given the initial tools —for example, sanctioning the Americans and Haitians profiting from the violence — to get started. Haitian society is willing and ready to bring this era of chaos to an end, but the global community seems content to just take a back seat.
