We, La Via Campesina and its grassroots organizations in Haiti are engaged in the struggle to build global solidarity, condemn the proconsular behaviour of certain foreign embassies that have created a multi-dimensional crisis in Haiti in order to have a pretext for foreign troops to invade the country. It must be stated that for the past several years, beginning in early 2016, there has been a process of citizens’ mobilisation demanding structural changes in Haitian society and speaking out against the current threats to Haiti’s future. Since the death of the former president in 2021, and with the current absence of a parliament, the existing de facto government has tried to control everything. This government was imposed by the international community. It lacks the legitimacy that would authorise it to function in this manner and to go so far as to formulate a demand of this kind, which could be considered a crime of high treason punishable by article 21.1 of the Haitian constitution and which is a direct attack on our sovereignty and our national dignity. This new attack is causing widespread indignation at the national and international levels, and it makes evident the urgent need for unified solidarity so as to avoid our national soil being once again defiled by foreign military troops.
Aggravating the crisis, media campaigns are carried out in the Dominican Republic, in complicity with the Haitian bourgeoisie. In addition, the government of the Dominican Republic, with its racist and xenophobic attitudes, is deporting large numbers of Haitian migrants without respect for their human rights and violating their rights as migrants. Its soldiers are killing Haitian migrants, not even sparing children and the pregnant women.
As a peasant organization, we are on the frontline of this crisis, given the large-scale land grabbing that continues, as well as the evictions of peasants and their conversion into agricultural wage laborers. As a result, the situation of peasants, already marginalized by the Haitian State, which has not been able to put in place any structure to meet the basic needs of the population, is becoming increasingly precarious. As a result, the rural exodus is in rapid swing, mainly to the big cities, from where people are migrating out of the country. The youth are much more affected by the forced migration imposed by imperialism, both to exploit Haitians in other countries as cheap labor, and our natural resources as an illusory project of industrialization.
At this crucial moment, in order to defeat this insupportable, shameful, and criminal plan for military aggression and end these abuses, and to strengthen the heroic struggle of the Haitian people for a Haiti that is sovereign and freed from stifling foreign interference, there is a compelling and pressing need for the intensification of active international solidarity. And this is the reason why we are making a resounding appeal for the strengthening of international solidarity with the purpose of helping the Haitian people to overcome. In this sense, it would be essential to facilitate a worldwide awareness of the gravity of the situation and of Haiti’s immediate need for solidarity.
In this context, an urgent appeal for solidarity is being sent to the representatives of progressive organisations all over the world, to representatives of human rights organisations, of trade unions, of political, social, and grassroots organisations, to international personalities sympathetic to the rights and interests of the peoples of the world, to international activists, to winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, to political and intellectual personalities in all parts of the world, and to the worthy representatives of all the peoples engaged in struggle.
Only solidarity saves us!
