Every morning, since last Saturday, the question of the day is "Did you hear the helicopters last night?" The comings and goings of these vehicles are intriguing.
When it's not diplomats and diplomatic mission personnel fleeing the country, it's the USA accumulating troops in Haiti.
Officially, the helicopters deployed in recent days are there to secure the US Embassy in Tabarre, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, but some must be thinking, "You never know."
Coincidence or consequence, the helicopter rotations in the skies of Port-au-Prince accompany a significant calm in the metropolitan area. There are fewer shootings.
Some believe that the silence of the guns comes through this show of force, while others think that violent actors are conserving their ammunition, waiting to see the outcome of political negotiations before resuming the offensive.
And then comes the big question: will it be a political agreement and a new government, or a new government resulting from negotiations and the deployment of the mission that will bring peace to Haiti?
Will politics suffice? Is foreign force necessary?
These questions that were thought to be settled resurface when one realizes that Haitian politicians are having difficulty proposing their representative to Caricom to integrate the Presidential Transition Council.
Political actors, who have been unable to reach a resolution to the crisis for over three years (fruitless negotiations began under the presidency of Jovenel Moïse), are now involved in the creation of the Presidential Transition Council. The political hour in Haiti will transition, if all goes well, from the rustic sundial to Swiss high horology with septuple complications.
Listening to the points on which politicians cannot agree—aside from the inevitable internal struggles—one finds their stance on the deployment of the mission.
Accepting or refusing foreign forces is becoming the true indicator of the political convictions of the parties involved in the formation of the Presidential Transition Council.
How can it be explained that on March 10, 2024, you were against any foreign presence on national territory to prevent bolstering Ariel Henry's government, and yet on March 11, 2024, you accepted the necessity of the multinational security support mission as a solution to establish your future government?
How can we acknowledge the weaknesses of the HNP and believe that Haitian law enforcement alone can meet the security challenge in 2024?
While these questions are not all answered, Kenya throws its two cents into the debate and continues to delay its entry onto the stage.
When it's not a judge blocking the deployment of Kenyan police officers in Haiti, it's an agreement that must be signed with Haiti. When the agreement is finally signed, it's the absence of a government in place in Port-au-Prince that prevents the mission from being sent.
In this affair of the Multinational Security Support Mission, there are also financial questions. The announced sums have not yet been transferred to Kenya. The United States of America is doing everything to avoid having troops on the ground in Haiti, even though everything indicates that their presence is required to lend credibility to the MMAS.
The clarification to know who really wants what will happen in the coming days or never.
For months, promises have piled up, as have the positions taken by political actors. It's time for the international community and local actors to materialize their commitments seriously.
Time has allowed the cards to be seen, to knock down all sorts of masks and to make new ones. The choices made by everyone have cost the country dearly. The bill of failure must be presented to all operators of this catastrophe and hope, against all odds, for a respite, a bias for life, for a return to some semblance of normalcy in this country, and for this population that is dehumanized.
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