Haitians barricade their neighborhoods to protect themselves from violence. (Photo: Johnny Fils-Aimé For the Miami Herald)
Editors’ Note:
In the past couple of weeks, there has been an uptick in the western media’s coverage of Haiti. Perhaps linked to the scheduled United Nations Security Council meeting on Haiti, April 26, 2023, this coverage has focused specifically on the issue of “gang violence” with the not-so-implicit suggestion that Haiti had descended into chaos. Note that all western coverage of Haiti over the past ten months has centered on “gang violence” and not the protests by the people against an illegitimate Prime Minister, unending U.S. imperial interventions, the removal of fuel subsidies, chronic poverty, and growing insecurity. To report thoughtfully and truthfully on Haiti - to present the country and its people in all their complexity - would require western journalists to be exorcized of their racist anti-Haitianism. But, alas!
Below, we present a first-person narrative of the ways that the people in two neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, came together to protect themselves from the unrelenting violence meted out by armed young men. The coverage of such actions by communities under siege has been what we expect about the ways they represent Haiti, with terms that dehumanize a people protecting itself in the context of a collapse of the State - a collapse that was by imperialist design. It is no secret that the military-grade weapons flooding Haiti come from the U.S., pass through privately owned ports, and are given out to impoverished young men by those - foreign and local - who seek to keep Haiti under siege. Haitian people, and especially Haitian women, have borne the brunt of the violence. In the absence of the state, they have risen up - as they have done in the past - to protect themselves. Long live Haiti and its people!
English translation by Chris Bernadel
The Invasion of Armed Gangs from Bel-Air to Solino: A Night of Storm and Detonations.
by Jean Ronald Montas
The armed gangs from Bel-Air attempted once again to forcefully occupy the community of Solino. On Thursday, April 27, 2023, very early in the morning, under a light rain, the inhabitants of these areas woke up to prepare themselves against any form of attack. However, since they are alone without the help of the authorities of the State in Haiti, these people who have lived in this area since time immemorial take justice into their own hands.
One o'clock in the morning. The inhabitants of Solino felt tormented by the sound of the alarm. Some were sound asleep while others formed a surveillance group for the security of the area. During the detonations, there was a voice shouting loudly: "Leve! Leve! Yo anvayi n." ("Get up! Get up! They are invading us"). Suddenly, empty bottles, machetes, and sticks were in the hands of the residents. Many women were on the streets accompanied by their equipment. They say with all honesty that they are also on the verge of being triggered to prevent the armed gangs from Bel-Air from taking control of the area and establishing their instruments of violence.
Women with Nerve!
In these moments, women stand alongside men. Sometimes they take the lead as vanguards or retreat to defend their territory. What is noticeable is that this situation is not only happening in the localities of Solino. It is also the case in [the neighborhoods of] Carrefour Feuilles, Canapé Vert, Fontamara, etc. There is a desire, a push for revenge against the gangs who have ravaged, tortured, burned and killed children of all ages. These women do not consider themselves only as mothers but also as soldiers, as valiant ones. The real victims have always been these women. They undergo collective rapes, massacres, but they have not been able to take advantage of every opportunity to participate in brigades or night corps. Because of the crimes [by the gangs], they are the first ones to suffer the serious repercussions of poverty.
May the thunder of women lead to the triumphant victory of the new revolution!
There is no sense, in the last instance, to leave the leash of popular uprising to drag only in the mud of men. Liberation has the scent of women. The suffering of the Haitian people is at the center of the bowels of a little girl exposed on a sheet in front of the gate of the cathedral church of Port-au-Prince. As long as the life of human beings attracts our attention, there will be no other means as strong, courageous, and powerful as when those who seek their own foundations for life understand that it is through a good ontological understanding of the struggle for national liberation, without resorting to any biological, moral, sectarian, or epistemological approach. May Haitian women take up the struggle without getting bogged down in the worldview of a Western ideological current.
Français
L'envahissement des gangs armés de Bel-Air à Solino: une nuit d'orage et de détonations
Par Jean Ronald Montas
Les gangs armés de Bel-Air ont tenté encore une fois d'occuper par la force la communauté de Solino. Le jeudi 27 avril 2023, très tôt dans la matinée, sous une pluie légère, les habitants de ces zones se sont réveillés afin de se mettre prêt contre toute forme d'attaque. Toutefois qu'ils se voient seuls sans les secours des autorités d'État en Haïti, ces personnes habitées dans cette espace depuis la nuit des temps se rendent justice.
Une (1) heure du matin. Les habitants de Solino se sentaient tourmentés lors du passage de l'alarme. Certains ont été en plein sommeil comme d'autres qui se forment un bloc de surveillance pour la sécurité de la zone. Pendant les détonations, il y a eu une voix qui clamait si forte : lève ! lève ! yo anvayi n. D'un moment à l'autre, les bouteilles vides, les machettes et bâtons sont entre les mains des résidents. Les femmes ont été nombreuses dans la rue accompagnées de leurs matériels. Elles se disent avec toute franchise qu’elles sont sur le point aussi de toute forme de déclenchement afin d'empêcher aux gangs armés de Bel-Air prennent contrôle de la zone et instaurent leurs appareils de violence.
Les femmes au flambée nerfs
Ces derniers moments, les femmes se mettent au rang des hommes. Tantôt elles se mettent en avant comme des avant-gardes ou bien se replient aussi dans le souci de défendre leur territoire. Ce que l'on constate, cette situation ne répète pas seulement dans les localités de Solino. C'est également le cas à carrefour feuilles, Canapé Vert, Fontamara, etc. Il y a une envie, une poussée de vengeance contre les gangs qui ont ravagé, torturé, brûlé et tué des enfants de trois (3) de tout âge. Ces dernières ne se considèrent pas seulement comme des mères mais aussi des soldats, des vaillants. Les véritables victimes ont été toujours ces femmes. Elles subissent des viols collectifs, des massacres, cependant, elles n'ont pas pu profiter de chaque occasion d'y participer dans des brigades ou des corps de nuit. En raison de ces crimes, les premières qui vont ressentir le retomber gravissime de la pauvreté ce sont eux-mêmes.
Qu'elle soit la tonnerre des femmes à la victoire triomphante de la révolution nouvelle!
Il n'y a pas de sens, en dernier recours de laisser la bride de soulèvement populaire traîner dans la boue des hommes. La délivrance a l'odeur femme. La souffrance du peuple Haïtien est au centre des entrailles d'une fillette exposée sur un drap couché devant la barrière de l’église cathédrale de Port-au-Prince. Pourvu que, c'est la vie de la vie humaine qui attire nos attentions, il n’y aura pas d'autre moyen aussi vigoureux, valeureux, fort que lors que celles qui cherchent des fondements propres à leurs vies seraient comprise que c'est par la toute bonne compréhension ontologique de la lutte pour la libération nationale recourant de toute approche biologique, sans aucune limite dans un domaine moral, sectariste épistémologique aussi précaire et stérilisant. Que les femmes Haïtiennes endossent la lutte sans se laisser enliser dans la cosmovision d'un courant idéologique occidental.
Jean Ronald Montas was born in the capital city of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, and raised in the Site Soley community. He is a Marxist-Leninist militant, member of the MOLEGHAF central committee, researcher on religion and culture. He is someone who is attached to his country's culture and always believes that the revolution cannot be done without the cultural struggle.
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