Haiti Does Not Need Another Experiment

By: Christopher Louissaint

Email: newsroom@haitianprimenews.com

Date: December 29, 2025

Location: Port-au-Prince / Diaspora

Haiti is once again being spoken about as a security problem to be solved from the outside, as if history has not already answered this question for us.

Before talking about a “bigger army” or another international deployment, we must confront a reality many prefer to ignore: Haiti has already become a testing ground for private military operations operating without transparency, without public consent, and without accountability. Reports of private security actors using drones in Port-au-Prince, resulting in civilian deaths, raise a fundamental and frightening question—who authorized these operations, under what legal framework, and who will be held responsible when innocent Haitians are killed?

If foreign private military contractors are operating in Haitian airspace, launching drone strikes in densely populated neighborhoods, this is not security assistance. This is a collapse of sovereignty. A weak state does not mean an absent people, and Haitian civilians cannot be treated as acceptable collateral damage. If Erik Prince or any private military entity is involved in security operations in Haiti, the Haitian public has the right to know: What contract was signed? By whom? For how long? With what oversight?

Silence is not neutrality. Silence is complicity.

At the same time, the United Nations is once again repeating an old formula by deploying Kenyan forces under an international mandate. We are told this time will be different. Haitians have heard that before. Kenya itself has faced serious allegations of human rights violations, including recent internal crises tied to policing and healthcare. Just weeks ago, major international agreements were signed with Kenya despite these unresolved issues. This contradiction cannot be ignored. How can a country struggling with its own systemic abuses be presented as a stabilizing force for another nation?

Haiti knows, painfully, what happens when accountability is postponed in the name of urgency.

We are still living with the consequences of the first UN mission. Cholera was introduced and never fully reckoned with. Thousands died. Children were left without fathers, victims of abuse they could never trace back to justice. Rape cases were buried under diplomatic immunity. Entire communities were traumatized, not protected. To this day, the Haitian state and its people are still dealing with the psychological, social, and institutional damage left behind.

And once again, it is Haitian civilians who are expected to absorb the cost.

So we must ask ourselves honestly: Are Haitians ready for another trauma imposed in the name of stability? Or more importantly, are we being given a choice at all?

What is most disturbing is not just the presence of international forces or private contractors—it is the absence of investment where it actually matters. Billions of dollars have been spent on foreign missions, logistics, and external security models, while Haiti’s own police, justice system, and national security institutions remain underfunded, fragmented, and politically manipulated. Why are we paying others to police us instead of building our own capacity? Why are contracts signed behind closed doors while the population is kept in the dark?

Security without legitimacy is occupation by another name.

If Haiti is to move forward, transparency must become non-negotiable. The Haitian government must be compelled—by its people—to publish all security agreements, all military contracts, and all foreign engagements. No more secrecy. No more decisions made over Haitian lives without Haitian consent.

More than that, Haitians must come together to articulate our own security vision, rooted in our reality, our institutions, and our responsibility. No foreign force will fix what we refuse to confront ourselves. No private military company will build trust. No UN mandate will substitute for national accountability.

The final question is not whether Haiti needs security. It does.

The real question is this: When and how will Haitians reclaim the power to fix Haiti themselves?

That answer will not come from drones, soldiers, or op-eds written abroad. It will come when the Haitian people decide that their future can no longer be outsourced.