JAKE JOHNSTON, johnston@cepr.net, @JakobJohnston
Senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Johnston is author of Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti, which was released earlier this year.

He said today: “The world has been inundated by sensationalist headlines of Haiti in crisis for the last two weeks. There is no question that, indeed, Haiti is facing an incredibly difficult situation. Yet part of the story has been left out of much of the coverage: the role played by foreign powers in causing this crisis.”

Johnston just put out a backgrounder “Haitian Prime Minister Henry Agrees to Resign as CARICOM Announces Formation of Presidential Council,” which reads in part: “What is clear is that the announcement in Kingston late last night is unlikely to lead to a solution to the current crisis by itself. After criticizing Henry for relying on the support of the U.S. and other foreign powers, an agreement pushed by those same foreign powers is likely to face legitimacy concerns from the moment it forms. Though negotiations have been taking place for the better part of a week, none of the participants or discussions have been made public, leaving the vast majority of Haitians in the dark. Notably, CARICOM set conditions for participation, including accepting deployment of a Kenyan-led intervention force. …

“It was U.S. and foreign support for Henry that pushed the situation to its dire state. But rather than letting a truly Haitian-led process play out, those same foreign powers have opted for a stability pact that, it would seem, is likely to lock in an unsustainable status quo at least in the short term.”

See NPR interview with Daniel Foote, a former American diplomat who resigned in protest over U.S. policy.