Corporations Are The New Conquistadors: Haiti

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On the 12th of January 2010, Haiti was devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. An estimated 3 million people were affected, with upwards of 160,000 to 316,000 people killed. In the wake of this disaster a massive aid-campaign was initiated, with the United States leading the charge.

However the allotted funds have not been used to help the people of Haiti, instead they have been funneled towards programs managed by USAID and Monsanto. The goals of these programs are to fundamentally restructure the Haitian economy, particularly the agricultural sectors. This is being done in order to maintain a corporate monopoly on both the import of food products into Haiti, as well as the means of food production within the country.

At the head of the post-earthquake aid effort was the the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which reported that in 2013 alone it had spent over $270m in Haiti. From this significant figure, American non-profits received 40% and a further 50% went to US-based corporations. One such company is Chemonics International, which was allotted more than $58m. Chemonics claimed this would be dedicated to further “promoting recovery and laying the foundation for long term development in Haiti.” Unfortunately Haiti’s recovery is not being pursued and the only long term foundations that are being laid are for the total corporate annexation of Haiti’s economy.

The Violent Paradox Of Origins: An Excerpt From Border Patrol Nation

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The first thing that I want to do when I arrive in Dajabón, one of the Dominican Republic’s border towns with Haiti, is find a good place to eat. After all, it is a five-hour bus ride from the capital of Santo Domingo, through a lush, mountainous landscape with many small towns, all with baseball fields on their edges. As soon as I get off the bus it’s obvious that I’m in borderlands again. There is the roar of a cumbersome green helicopter that will circle the town for hours. A mere three blocks away is Haiti, a nation where more than nine million people earn less than a dollar per day. Between the spot where I step off the bus and Haiti is the Massacre River, representing the border that divides the island of Hispaniola into two countries.

This is the Dajabón that is in one of the key places in charge of policing the Dominican border with Haiti. And that is why I am here, to learn more about the Dominican Republic’s border police. While Dajabón is more than 1,000 miles from Miami, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security have a presence of sorts there. The U.S. government has helped to fund the Dominican border policing agency and provides it with training. This speaks to Dajabón’s strategic location within something that is larger and more complex than the United States proper but is part of its sphere of interests and influence, and thus equally “vulnerable.” It is the place that the United States has long considered its “backyard.”

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