When a government is neither supported by constitutional legality nor popular legitimacy and cannot even gauge the extent of its unpopularity among the people, it is floating in midair and can collapse at any moment. Decision-making is nonexistent at the Villa d’Accueil or the Primature, except when it comes to appointing loyalists to the machinery of the state and squandering its meager resources on vain and trivial pursuits. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Port-au-Prince residents and its outskirts watch life pass by without ever enjoying it, harboring deep contempt for both the CPT and the government. This is a perilous moment, one where the Haitian people feel their ancestral spirit of Vertières awakening within them.

Haiti stands on the brink of ruin. One could even say, paraphrasing Mirabeau, that Haiti is not a state with gangs, but rather gangs that have a state. These gangs have long imposed tolls on people and tariffs on goods at various points along the nation’s main roads, stripping the country to the bone. And what are our leaders doing? They talk endlessly. Their security strategies and economic recovery plans are nothing more than pure fantasy. Do they believe that this transitional regime—given the impossibility of holding credible elections—will last indefinitely? Are they aware that a single decision by gang leaders to allow peaceful protests would be enough to fill the streets with thousands of citizens from all backgrounds, raising their voices in fierce opposition to the government, tipping the balance, and capsizing its ship?