The Empire’s Puppet in Haiti

by Contributor | February 17, 2026 10:17 am

Ira Lowenthal observed, “Haiti was the first free nation of free men.” Paul Farmer wrote, “[In 1804] Haiti became the only case in history of an enslaved people breaking its own chains and using military might to beat back a powerful colonial power.” However, after the Haitians repelled the French Empire, France returned with the help of the nascent U.S. Empire.

The Christian Science Monitor wrote, between 1849-1913, the “United States Navy ships [entered] Haitian waters 24 times to protect US lives and property.” President Wilson ordered an illegal occupation of Haiti in 1915, which lasted until 1934.

During the occupation, the New York Times wrote, “The Americans seized control of Haiti’s central bank and created a labor force akin to slavery.” We “rewrote Haiti’s Constitution to give [U.S. companies] the right to own land.”

Hans Schmidt wrote, “the Occupation embodied all the progressive attitudes of contemporary Italian fascism.”

From 1957 to 1986, Washington supported the Duvalier dictatorships in Haiti. The Nation wrote that Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier “presided over the murders of an estimated 30,000 people. Thousands of others simply disappeared or were imprisoned.” A Haitian court ruled that Papa Doc’s son, Jean-Claude, “could be charged with crimes against humanity.”

Despite the infamous record of corruption, torture, and murder, a declassified State Department document freely admitted the “Duvalier’s sense of dependence on US economic, military, and diplomatic support.”

Congressman John Conyers said, “The military thugs down there understand… that they have got a nod and a wink from the US government.” Or as Henry Kissinger described it: “our present course of cool, correct relations with the Duvalier government.” Kissinger knew that the Duvalier dictatorships granted U.S. corporations access to Haiti. U.S. companies expanded from 13 in 1966 to 154 in 1981.

The New Yorker reported, in 1971, Washington used gunboat diplomacy to give Haitians an ultimatum. “The U.S. dispatched warships to the coast of Haiti,” to force Haitians to accept the legitimacy of Jean-Claude Duvalier as he usurped his father. History repeats itself.

The Miami Herald reported, on February 1st, three U.S. warships “arrived in the Bay of Port-au-Prince at the direction of the Secretary of War.” Without winning an election, U.S. warships announced to the Haitian people that their new leader was Alix Didier Fils-Aimé.

It doesn’t matter that “the majority of Haitians do not recognize him as the legitimate authority.” Haitian journalist Reyneld Sañon wrote, “in general, the population is outraged by the pressure exerted by the United States… to keep Alix Didier Fils-Aimé in power.”

Sañon continued, “Aimé is not here to govern the country; he is a servant that the U.S. placed there to execute its imperialist plan. For example, it allowed several U.S. companies to win contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

To understand the current mafia actions of the Don in Washington, place those actions in the context of a long history of U.S. imperialism. Last week, the great U.S. democracy hand-picked the new leader of Haiti.

-Anton Porcari

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/the-empires-puppet-in-haiti/

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