No One Is Coming: Haitians Must Save Haiti

No foreign power will rescue Haiti—not the Kenyans, nor the Americans, Chinese, Russians, or the Core Group. That may be a hard truth to accept, but it is the only starting point for any serious national reckoning.

In a recent conversation, some colleagues asked two revealing questions: “Why does the U.S. keep sending weapons to Haiti?” and “What does America want from us?” Beneath those questions lies a deeper reflex—our tendency to shift blame outward and avoid responsibility.

“Se pa fòt mwen”—it’s not my fault—remains a national refrain.

That impulse, born of deep historical trauma, offers momentary relief but long-term paralysis. Whether or not the original harm came from foreign actors, the responsibility for healing Haiti now rests squarely with us. Our future does not depend on U.S. intervention or terrorist designations of our gangs. It depends on our willingness to confront our corrupt elites and rebuild the institutions we have long neglected.

America’s Just Not That Into Us

Some of us still believe that if only the United States remembered how we stood with them in Savannah, or if France repaid its debt, or if the Dominican Republic acknowledged how we helped build their economy, then they would stop the gun trafficking and help us rebuild. But that belief is rooted in fantasy, not fact.

If America is unwilling or unable to protect its own citizens, we should not expect it to save ours.

Even in the United States—my adopted home and the richest nation on Earth—basic needs go unmet. In 2023, “47.4 million people lived in food-insecure households,” yet school meal programs face over $1.1 billion in cuts. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death among American youth, with more than 3,500 people killed in 2024. Yet, at the same time, mental health programs for children and families are being slashed by another $1 billion. If America is unwilling or unable to protect its own citizens, we should not expect it to save ours.

Another fallacy is the notion that U.S. lawmakers would rewrite their gun laws to stop weapons from reaching Haiti, or invest millions to inspect cargo bound for our ports. This is not a strategy—it’s a distraction.

And yet we invent elaborate theories about America’s interest in our minerals, our strategic location, and our educated youth. The sobering reality is simpler: the U.S. isn’t thinking about us. While we debate Washington’s motives, the work of rebuilding Haiti remains undone—work that only we can do.

Our Addiction to Conspiracies

Yes, American policy has hurt Haiti. But we cannot ignore our failures. Haiti is not uniquely targeted, and there is no special Haiti doctrine. The US diplomatic prescriptions—support for elites, vague reforms, and token elections—are used across fragile states worldwide.

Still, our internal contradictions are striking: we demanded the UN mission's departure, yet now criticize the Kenyan peacekeeping contingent for failing to solve our gang crisis. We denounce USAID's influence while simultaneously relied on their funding to keep our healthcare system functioning. We lament the presence of "10,000 NGOs" but have consistently failed to build public institutions that could render them unnecessary.

What we called a master plan was just domestic politics.

Even migration is cast as a conspiracy. When the Biden administration launched the CHNV humanitarian parole program, some of us claimed it was a plot to “steal” our best minds by fueling gang violence to drive them out. Now, those same recipients face deportation under the Trump administration, we simply move on to the next conspiracy. Indeed, what we mistook for a master plan was merely domestic politics, but we struggle to distinguish fact from fiction.

Meanwhile, our leaders continue flying to Washington to beg for aid, while mismanaging the funds we do collect. Haiti brings in hundreds of millions annually through customs duties and diaspora taxes. More than a decade after introducing an education tax on remittances, there is still no public record of what was collected or how it was spent.

The truth is simple: conspiracy is easier than accountability. And too many of our commentators sell outrage because it demands less than real solutions.

We Must Matter to Ourselves

We are not simply victims of geopolitics. We are agents in our destruction.

Haiti’s crisis is a reckoning two centuries in the making and the product of three profound and overlapping failures: we never forged a shared national vision; we normalized corruption as a political operating system; and our armed elites armed our youth for short-term power, have lost control over them. Now we live with the consequences.

But this is not the end of our story—unless we allow it to be.

The United States has played a role in Haiti's troubles, but we aren't merely pawns on a geopolitical chessboard. We are the protagonists in our own story, fully capable of writing a different ending. My criticisms of us are deliberate and necessary, and are born from the conviction that no foreign power will rescue us, and no conspiracy theory will reconstruct what we've allowed to crumble.

Our failure to value ourselves—to believe in our capacity to build our nation—manifests even in how we discuss our challenges, consistently elevating foreign analysts over our voices and wisdom. This reflexive devaluation of Haitian perspectives may be our most profound national tragedy.

We may not matter to American strategic calculations, but we can—and must—matter to ourselves.