The public sentiment surrounding the Haiti security crisis resonates with frustration, skepticism towards international intervention, and a strong call for local self-reliance. Many express doubts about the effectiveness of past foreign aid initiatives, stressing the need for internal reforms while simultaneously fearing collateral damage from external actions. The pervasive issues of corruption and the influence of foreign powers further complicate the situation, leaving commenters with a sense of urgency but diminished trust in solutions proposed from outside Haiti.

Haitian Government

International NGOs

Foreign Governments

Haitian Civilians

Gangs in Haiti

Parents and schools are not raising critical thinkers. Our style of child rearing is incredibly outdated and conducive to a self-determined self-motivated culture. 

Rodney__strong

The power-hungry corrupt politicians of Haiti.

Speedstick2

Its education. The People's inability to understand the real issues they need to vote for. 
When Haiti voted for Martelly instead of Manigat, I knew we deserved whatever came to us.

Buffoy

TwinFrBrooklyn

357Eagle357

[deleted]

mzbz7806

Neocolonial control by France/Canada/US exercised through domestic bourgeoisie like Bigio and Boulos and Apaid etc who use death squads to keep the people of Haiti terrorized.

Top-Significance-501

US imperialism and isolation from powerful geopolitical counterweights like China who can provide economic lifelines. China completely revamped Cuba’s power grid recently. Haiti could have the same thing if it were led by anti-imperialist, sovereignty-focused leaders.

elimars

No-Psychology1635

Haiti needs to take the tourist route. Bring some money in.

Squali_squal

A lot of things but one of the biggest has to be corruption, bureaucracy, and general incompetence. At all levels of society and government, not just at the highest offices. 

For example, I watched a [video](https://youtu.be/SwE_uUgomd0?si=PXMfUqqx16NZqlnr) not too long ago of a journalist reporting on the state of the judiciary system in Haiti and he found that many men were left rotting away in overcrowded prisons due to a bunch of systematic issues; such as a lack of on duty judges in the courthouse (many of them not even being in the country), loads of paperwork being in chaotically unorganized file cabinets and stacks in the clerk’s offices, rude, clueless public officials not having any actual answers, etc. There’s an inmate in the video who finally gets a court date and is found not guilty, but continues to be stuck in prison because the courts are not able to actually produce the physical documents. A system like this leaves people who could otherwise be productively paying their debt back to society, rotting away in limbo, thus delaying the potential to have people reintegrated back into the work force and society at large. 

Corruption and incompetence like this by extension is happening at all levels of society, which ultimately lowers trust and deters productive participation and investment in Haiti from citizens, diaspora, and foreigners. A society where public offices can barely produce a piece of paper (or a .pdf in this day and age) needed to conduct business or personal affairs will struggle to actually progress because by design nobody can actually get anything done, and that makes others too apathetic to even try to do anything.

hyphy_d

**Lack of political stability** : that's the common factor between every poor country. Decades of dictature ruined the country and our democracy is too fragile, every election lead to some type of violent opposition. Our infrastructure are weak. Peace and security are important for economic growth.

Religion. I see a lot of people talking about Vodoo despite the fact that majority of haitians are hardcore christian but vodoo or christianism it's the same issue for me. Religion and supertititions keep us ignorant. Haiti needs more schools and less churches.

DXBrigade

You can only get a real answer from an outsider point of view. Because people often can’t see how they come off to the outside world and also people wont come to a certain conclusion out of ego

1- No real love for themselves and one another, their country and their future generations
2- doesn’t have appreciation for civility, laws, rules, order, authority. 
3- lack of accountability, for everything bad going on in Haiti they have a story ready to pass on the blame to everyone else that is not haitian. 
4- don’t appreciate nature and doesn’t take care of greenery, crops, animals-they deforest in haiti too much. 
5- lack of showing appreciation - they feel things are owed to them 
6- they have a lot of entitlement, specially on foreign land when they cant create gains for themselves in their land, they demand what they cant provide for themselves in their own nation
7- lack of being able to think of long term consequences instead of instant gratification. 
8- Their Religion voodoo
9- history of betrayal, within their family, withi  communities, within government and neighbors (Dominican Republic)

DecentGoal4691

Gang violence and corruption is what hurts the country.

Ayiti79

Trust in the government there for the people

PearlDreamer

FlufyBalz

Haitians don’t want more progress. The ones that do left to grab it. 

We can also mention the Haitians who left and returned to bring back progress.

This is not a bad thing only an acceptance that most people want Haiti the way it is.

Until you get at least 3% of the population committed to shifting in a unified new direction, this is how it’ll be.

That’s the first part before we address outside influence

JudgeLennox

I love how OP asks us but when we say More commitment to God he/she it’s like “no”

EnvironmentalGap4023

Biggest problems:

1. Holding onto Christianity that has instilled an ongoing defeatist, enslaved mindset.
2. Lacking the self-awareness to understand that their minds are still shackled.
3. Lack of valuing the country and its origins. Meaning: lacking nationalism.
4. Lack of sociopolitical cohesion.
4. Absolute corruption in every level of government / being a failed state.
5. The wider trans-Caribbean drug trafficking.

TumbleWeed75

Voodoo. 

Ephesians 6 says, ^(12) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 

Caribgirl2

The reliance on dark spiritual practices, voodoo, powers and principalities, for hundreds of years

GioPeyo

Same issue they’ve been for over 200 years Haiti keeps going against the program

AdagioNo5403

The people who should care about Haiti and can make changes don’t and they people who do care about Haiti can’t make any impactful changes.

SirTroah

It's corruption. It's the root of all problems in Haiti. The leaders aren't interested in actually moving the country forward, they just want wealth and power, and are willing to do basically anything, to get it. 

The security problem? Gangs (and Tonton Makout before them) were introduced to retain and gain power for individual elite backers. 

The economic problem? Policy is dictated not by what would actually help Haitians, but what makes the most money for the elites and satisfies international interests. 

Poor services and infrastructure? Public institutions are continually looted for money by those in power. 

Over centralization in the capital? It's easier to control the country when everything and everyone must flow through Port au Prince. 

Since the fall of Duvalier, Haiti has basically been an oligarchy with the veneer of a democracy.

RavingRapscallion

1. Business corruption. It makes no sense that majority of the land and economy isn’t ran by the Haitian people but by American companies and elites who give a fuck all. 

2. Political weakness and corruption. The politicians are bought off, soumoun, or just flat out illiterate. So it leaves them open for manipulation. 

3. Defeatist mindset bought on by extreme religiosity. I’m sorry, but Haiti’s extreme Christian bent has become a hindrance. We cannot pray our way out of this issue. We cannot “tout baygay deja bein” every day. We need action. There is no one coming to save us.

bethoj

Just take a close look at the Haitian community, and you’ll find your answer

ezjoe1

Mulattos bending over for da white man/Mulattos next door having a battery put in their back by whites and Blacks being to stupid to do something against them

Healthy-Career7226

Been said that and Imma say it again… it’s EDUCATION!!!!

splaahit

International US Community and Haitian Elites.

Worth_Surround_454

Corrupt Businessmen and Corrupt Politicians, they are the source of all Haiti's problem. I am disgusted by them. Think of the political practices of the likes of Moise Jean-Charles, Marthelly, Andre Michel, etc. etc. Just disastrous. All of them use the Diaspora to funnel money in, while funneling money out to live luxurious lifestyle in France, U.S and Canada. It's SICK. Look at the nine idiots in power now. Not one with a vision, just lies after lies.

[https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41739-haiti-flash-haiti-pays-a-debt-of-usd-$500-to-venezuela-linked-to-the-petrocaribe-program.html](https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41739-haiti-flash-haiti-pays-a-debt-of-usd-$500-to-venezuela-linked-to-the-petrocaribe-program.html)

You mean to tell me you couldn't build an army and police officer with that money? then regenerate money by take the rest to renovate cap Haitien.....Something is really wrong with these idiots in charge.

Mrburnermia


 It isn’t one thing but I’d say use of paramilitary groups and gangs reminiscent of the Duvalier regime that got us in to this

Master_Dig_1133

Well I mean if you want from a meta perspective, foreign interference has really f-cked over Haiti. The US pushed for wages to be nearly zero within US-corporation-owned factories within Haiti. That alone is horrific. 


Then going a step further, Bigio and his cronies, based out of Florida, have been arming the Haitian gangs for years and they've also been pocketing the foreign aid. More instability= more foreign aid = more profit for them. 


To save Haiti, more Haitians will need to move abroad. It's unfixable in its current state until security can be restored. First in safe zones and then those safe zones will have to be expanded. 


Haitian diaspora groups need to take charge of this. Think tanks, formal groups dedicated to creating Haitian public policy, need to be set up now. 


Bigio and cronies need to be addressed as well. 

Joshistotle

Corrupt politicians and government officials

jafropuff

I don’t know about the biggest but one of the things that are holding the people back (even in the diaspora) is superstition

GHETTO_VERNACULAR

nolabison26

The people. Education or lack thereof. A country often reflects its citizens. Sad but true. We need to invest in people more. 

Whenever someone wants to or making progress, we pull them down. What kind of country can function like this? I don't know how to label this.

DeLorient98

paoloandy

pedringui6

This is bad, this guy army killed innocence during the Iraq war

Jaybirdlordofskies

OK we know haiti is fucked with this guy leading the "help"haiti gang. What can we do to help now? We have to have a say on how things go down. If not, he'll hand haiti back to the french or Americans and  guess where their farmerworkers will come from. Start speaking to haitian  organizations with political mission statesments wherever you live, become members, write letters to directors of said organizations, and make your name known. It's not enough to just write on reddit anymore. Whatever plans you have create a list of like-minded people, start a coalition,a non-profit or lobbyist group. Sending this guy  is messed up if we dont step up. haiti will cease to exist.

Mediocre-Car-4386

We got mercenaries tryna fix our problem it’s gonna be just like all those other UN missions and fucking the US occupation of Haiti 1915 bro why don’t we get a Haitian contingency people who only know what’s best for our country people who have suffered not some random ass foreigners who keep trying to tell us how to fix our problem. All they do is look from a far and comment on our situation bad mouthing us unacceptable

M1KE29

Sometimes I ask myself if I am over simplifying things or just an idiot because this almost makes no freaking sense to me. Haiti has the human resources capital to deal with these issues. Invest in your young men and young women who want to see a better Haiti.

\-Run an extremely thin government, the country is broken, a lot of ministers and other government officials are not needed. The only one I would keep is agriculture and defense. I would like to target the hunger issue and the security issue.

\-I would reinforce the police force, reinforce the national army. There is too many unemployed young men in Haiti to not be able to fill up the ranks quickly.

\-Defense groups that are fighting gang attacks should be merge into the army to avoid further potential arm groups falling into the ranks of criminalility

Solving the issue with increased local police force and army would solve this issue permanently so you do not have to constantly rely on foreigners to resolve internal conflicts. It's gross mismagement and borderline dumb!

GuestWeary

haiti sold out the haitians a long time ago.  ypu all act so upset and surprised.  enjoy your mcdonalds value meals and your cheapnl ass videogames in the usa.  you loser diaspora just gave up the only thing you ever really had.  freedom in haiti.  just cant get your head together.

harveygotmyweed

Haiti’s govt sold what was left of the country. So absurd.

Mother fuck the Haitian government for funding the gangs and allowing the economic thugs to fund gangs in their country to the point where they went and signed a contract with these people! I was shocked when I saw that they will be collecting taxes from DR imports. I’m sure the reason why is because the Haitian government is broke and actually can’t afford to fund these people so they decided ONCE AGAIN to give another foreign entity control over another aspect of the Haitian economy in exchange for something else (in this case security). They’re so STUPID!

Wild-Background-7499

We are beyond Efff up at this point. They are giving the little that is left of Haiti to a guy who openly wants to see colonialism back. No one really knows about this contract. I hope thanks can’t get worst than it is now or it’s time to rise and fight.

we doomed yall can give thanks the light skinned "Haitians" you love to claim so much. Gotta go to the white man for a thing he help create lmao

TBH I agree corruption is just too damn deep in. Restart the whole thing.

haseo8998

TheTruthRadio

So my latest thinking is paid mercenaries under UN or US control to do the dirty work of combatting the gangs. We can recruit for HNP but they cannot lead. Money makes one brave.

ChomageU-6

Ashlala13

Yeah its why they need a super prison at this point and to arrest people. I've seen people say prisons are bad but I have to assume theyre Americans who are trained to see criminals are victims constantly. These people attacking hospitals and ransacking places of innocent victims. This isnt a case of US gang violence of its only being between two blocks. I think Haiti should create those super prisons and start mass arrest. But PaP is in a bad spot and feels like its a drug trafficking and even sex trafficking haven because of low security and country not stable. I think they need a president who has money and a vision

INicoNicoNiiLuv

Get rid of the government, yes. But keep the gangs? Did I miss that part? Haiti needs leaders who care about the civilians not just follow orders at gunpoint.

AngledAwry

Damn, are you Dessalines in disguise lmao? Bro wants to go full koupe Tet boule Kay like we are in the 1800s 🤣 eradicate them how exactly G?

brokebloke97

Nigga we haven’t had an elected congress person in a couple of years

Quiet-Captain-2624

THEoftomorrow

Haiti has been past the point of reasoning for a very long time. Purging and eradicating is good in theory, but these people will fight tooth and nail to hold onto whatever they have. If you’re not ready to fight, tooth and nail, (most of you say you are, but actually are not) then absolutely nothing will be done. I’m talking literal war mode. Y’all ain’t ready for that.

CoolDigerati

Haiti needs a fresh restart, everything is ruined at this point

Octobers_Rich

Also forgot the wider issue of the big business of drug trafficking which flows through and are part of the Caribbean governments.

There's a huge, huge elephant in the room that isn't being accounted for but I'll just leave it at that.

hornetjohn

I’ve said the same thing. Unfortunately it’s too far gone and the corruption too embedded. Only way to save Haiti is to restart its entire governance. Eliminate the elite, seize their assets and start over

Electrical-Bird2087

What??

![gif](giphy|lkdH8FmImcGoylv3t3|downsized)

daveyjones86

It's been a 4 year long state of emergency wtf are they talking about.

rosariorossao

And USA has determined it’s safe enough to return.  SMH in disbelief

Aggressive-Truth-374

3months... the government needs to help the poor and not just  themselves anymore

RiseDtv

Haiti’s government has declared a three-month state of emergency across the West, Artibonite and Center departments as gang violence intensifies, devastating the nation’s agricultural heartland. The move follows the appointment of a new interim police chief, Vladimir Paraison, tasked with restoring security alongside a U.N.-backed multinational mission.


The region — known as Haiti’s rice basket — has been under attack in recent years, with gangs killing farmers or forcing them to abandon their fields as they raze nearby communities.


The United Nations’ human rights office noted that from October 2024 to the end of June 2025, more than 1,000 people have been killed, more than 200 injured and 620 kidnapped in the Artibonite and Central departments and nearby areas.


Gang violence also has displaced


https://open.spotify.com/track/6LJ5iHBUNyOGKclEGyug1z

metalcore1984

Whatcha talking about. This sub talks about Haiti and its instability every day. Did you just join? It would be nice if Haitians could speak about it too but due to said instability most Haitians in Reddit are diaspora most of which have never been there. If anything the problem here is that Haitians in Haiti don’t have much of a voice and when they show up they get drowned in between the Haitian diaspora

Nemitres

Nobody wants to talk about? it's been talked about plenty of times , just look up Haiti in the search bar.

Topics about DR/Haiti just turns into a back-and-forth , hence the pinned posts.

mich809

The thing is that Haitians in Reddit are mostly from the diaspora and this sub only focuses on DR/Haiti migration and racism problems. Never focused on Haitians in Haiti with daily struggles, no comment on the Haitian politic figures. That’s how I know if they really care or only like to repeat the narrative, I really feel bad for the lower class Haitians.

poisionfruit

Sounded like there are two elephants in the room you mentioned DR more than Haiti. If the Topic is Haiti focus in them.

barbarianLe

Best-Passenger-7686

No country should be forced to take other countries citizens at the cost of their own.

drax2024

It really depends on which room you're in 

Forward-Lobster5801

The rest of the English speaking Caribbean doesn’t really care.

random869

Hatians get defensive and offended even more so if their neighbor who they affect the most complain

Other Antillians also jump in as if it were bullying but I understand my Dominican friends but sometimes they need to be more compassionate however the Dominican Republic isn't a developed enough country to fix issues France and the USA caused. 

They get all the weight.

Black_Panamanian

I think Haiti just needs to solve their own issues themselves

cuvanginger

Discussing Haiti with actual Frenchmen is one of the most tiresome tasks you'll ever assign yourself. They turn into eels the second Haiti comes up. It's awful.

Parrotparser7

People in the US definitely say that the deportations are racist....

UserNam3ChecksOut

Dude, whatever possess you to write this write it in our newspaper.  What do you think this is the New York Sunday Times 😂

YaBastaaa

It really isn’t. Nobody has an answer or idea for Haiti’s future. Nobody close will or can provide dramatic positive change and larger countries that could help are not really willing to bog themselves down with that not inconsiderable proposition. 

At the end of the day, a very strong , authoritarian centralized government is the only way to get that country at least on steady ground. 

No one is going to come save them. No one wants to be there solely for humanitarian reasons. No one is going to reimburse the country for what was taken.  

Somewhere, somehow, the country needs to stand up on its own to establish a working system that will quell violence and gangs without adding power to a corrupt system.

PraetorGold

We can't intervene in a situation in which you're generating yourselves. This conflict is internal, and it's up to you to resolve it. You're dealing with a group of rogue men-random individuals, not an organized army. 

You guys are not the first people with a Civil War, and you won't be the last.

Those men have no real control. Maybe remove all women and girls and isolate those men to one area.

Men can not sustain a society alone; they can not replicate, they will just age and die.

T_1223

Would Haiti be in a better position if it was part of France today?

AdFuture1381

"The two countries have a complex and painful history. Haiti occupied the DR from 1822 to 1844. In 1937..."


I'm a literal person so I expected to see a statement concerning the brutal military actions of President (later Emperor) of Haiti Faustin-Élie Soulouque against the Dominican population. Oh, well. I'm new to this sub. 

Total-Engineering-26

The DR committed at best an ethnic cleansing of Haitians and at worst a genocide. I’m not sure about other countries but American for sure gets called racist for its deportation policies. 100% agree that France shares a huge blame and instead of making Haiti pay a debt, they should be paying off the debt of all the wages they should have paid enslaved people. I just think you’re being a bit soft on DR b

Li-renn-pwel

Yes and again just to highlight France and the bruise it left on Haiti… France’s claws are still out today, printing and controlling the currency in 14 African countries.

Revolutionary_Crew17

That's the point. It's for the same reason that no socialist country was allowed to exist. You don't want people to see what could be? It may seem like a hot take, but every time the economy is bad. Now all of a sudden vendors are the worst thing in the entire world, and they need to be shut down. Why, cause then people will realize, Hey, I can do things another way

JudgeInteresting8615

It’s terrible that Haiti is such a mess. For how long will there be instability there? There isn’t even a functioning government right now.

OldestFetus

France and the USA should step in given what they stole and advocated for . And yes the greatness of the history is often overlooked and not spoken or taught about as much. It truly was historic. We have to consider also economica instabilidad. When two nations have a wide gap it will always cause tensions I think, immigration issues. Look at the millions of Mexicans in the USA.

catsoncrack420

First of all, it’s important to recognize that Haiti gained its independence long before the Dominican Republic. That means it has had more time to develop as a republic. Despite this, the Dominican Republic, with less time since its independence, has managed to achieve significant development — including consistent economic growth of around 8% — thanks to relative political order and a clearer national direction.

On the other hand, Haiti has suffered from internal corruption, mismanagement of resources, and a cycle of instability. While it's easy to blame external forces like France or the Dominican Republic, we must also be honest about the internal failures that have contributed to Haiti’s crisis. The country has often been its own worst enemy in terms of governance and accountability. That cannot be overlooked.

One solution that’s often proposed — the idea of the Dominican Republic absorbing Haiti — is unrealistic and unsustainable. The DR is a developing country itself, with limited resources. It cannot be expected to singlehandedly carry the weight of Haiti’s humanitarian and political disaster. A more reasonable option could involve an internationally coordinated intervention: perhaps a provisional government backed by international support, with strict conditions to ensure real progress in governance, infrastructure, and education.

Another point worth mentioning is the danger of forgiving Haiti’s debt or offering aid without demanding accountability or a long-term plan. History has shown that countries with poor governance and limited education cannot make sustainable progress simply through aid alone. Without a clear direction, even the best intentions can be wasted.

At the same time, we should acknowledge that the Dominican Republic is not perfect. There are issues of racial profiling and discrimination that must be addressed — not as a government policy per se, but as a cultural challenge rooted in ignorance. But it is unfair to single out the DR when many countries, including the U.S., the Bahamas, and CARICOM members, enforce strict migration policies without facing the same criticism.

In conclusion, while Haiti’s struggle deserves compassion, the Dominican Republic cannot and should not be expected to handle this crisis alone. The international community — including France, the U.S., and CARICOM — must step up and provide meaningful assistance. This is a shared responsibility, and only a collaborative effort will allow Haiti to recover and for the island of Hispaniola to move toward peace and prosperity for both nations.

MasterpieceNo962

The worsening security crisis in Haiti due to rampant gang violence has led to calls for international intervention to establish a 'gang-suppression force.'

Haiti Security Crisis

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