World
What is the history of foreign interventions in Haiti?
The proposal initially sparked an uproar. In October 2022, then-Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and 18 top officials called on the international community to send a “specialised armed force” to help combat the spread of gang violence in Haiti.
But Haiti has struggled with a long, fraught history of foreign involvement — and the prospect of a new wave of outside interference was met with scepticism.
Now, experts say that public opinion is shifting in Haiti, as the violence continues to fester and Haiti’s already tenuous government is on the verge of yet another shake-up.
“In October 2022, most Haitians were against an international force,” said Pierre Esperance, executive director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH). “But today most Haitians will support it because the situation is worse, and they feel there are no other options.”
Still, the history of international involvement in Haiti casts such a long shadow that it continues to be a divisive subject — both among the Haitian people and the outside forces that would potentially be involved.
A new level of crisis
The instability in Haiti entered a new chapter this week when Prime Minister Henry — an unelected official who has been serving as de facto president — announced that he planned to resign.
The announcement came after mounting international pressure, as well as threats from the gangs themselves. One of the country’s most notorious gang leaders, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, told reporters that a “civil war” would erupt if the deeply unpopular Henry did not step down.
The calls for an international force to intervene arise from the acute nature of the situation, Esperance and other experts told Al Jazeera.
Gang violence has forced more than 362,000 Haitians from their home, largely in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince. The United Nations estimates that at least 34,000 of those have been displaced since the start of the year.
Armed groups have also taken control of roadways and other vital arteries around the country, limiting the flow of supplies. With high rates of poverty already driving malnutrition, the UN has warned the country is at risk of famine.
“The gangs control more than 95 percent of Port-au-Prince,” Esperance said. “Hospitals don’t have materials, there’s not enough drinking water, the supermarkets are almost empty. People are staying at home because it’s very dangerous.”
Will Kenya take the lead?
With gang violence at crisis levels and Haiti’s government in shambles, some Haitians are increasingly looking abroad for assistance.
An August poll released by the business alliance AGERCA and the consultancy DDG found that about 63 percent of Haitians supported the deployment of an “international force” to combat the gangs.
An even higher portion — 75 percent — said the Haitian police needed international support to reestablish order.
But countries like the United States and Canada have baulked at the prospect of helming such a force themselves, though they have offered to back other governments that might lead one.
In July 2023, Kenya announced it would be willing to deploy forces to Haiti and potentially lead a multinational security mission.
The UN Security Council threw its support behind the initiative, approving the Kenya-led mission. But the effort has since stalled, amid court challenges and other slowdowns.
In January, a Kenyan court ruled that deploying forces in Haiti would be “illegal and invalid”. And just last Tuesday, Kenyan officials said they would pause any deployment to Haiti until a new government was in place.
Jonathan Katz, the author of the book The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster, told Al Jazeera that the international community’s hesitation to lead a mission to Haiti is a testament to the poor track record of past foreign interventions.
“These countries are saying, ‘We need to do this because we can’t think of any other solution,’” said Katz. “But nobody wants to do it themselves because every single one of these interventions throughout Haiti’s history have ended with significant egg on the face for everyone involved.”
‘A direct colonial occupation’
Since the early 1900s, there have been at least three direct interventions in Haiti, including a decades-long occupation by US forces.
That occupation lasted from 1915 to 1934 and was carried out in the name of restoring political stability after the assassination of then-President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam.
But during their time in Haiti, US forces oversaw widespread human rights abuses and the implementation of a “corvée”, a system of forced labour sometimes likened to slavery.
“Slavery it was — though temporary,” said US civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson, writing for The Nation magazine in 1920.
“By day or by night, from the bosom of their families, from their little farms or while trudging peacefully on the country roads, Haitians were seized and forcibly taken to toil for months in far sections of the country.”
US soldiers even removed substantial funds from the Haitian National Bank, carting them off to New York.
“This was a direct colonial occupation that began under US President Woodrow Wilson and lasted for five administrations, both Republican and Democrat,” Katz said of that period. “Later occupations were carried out with varying degrees of directness and indirectness.”
A hand in Haiti’s politics
For instance, the US would intervene again in Haitian politics during the Cold War, as it propped up governments friendly to its interests in the name of anti-Communism.
Positioning himself as an anti-Communist leader upon his election in 1957, Haitian President Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier actively courted US support, even as he led a brutal campaign of state violence against his own people.
Despite misgivings about Duvalier, the US offered him aid: US Ambassador Robert Newbegin, for instance, arrived in Port-au-Prince prepared to give Duvalier’s administration approximately $12.5m in 1960 alone.
One estimate puts the total US support given to Haiti under Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, at $900m. Meanwhile, the Duvaliers faced accusations of murder, torture and other violations.
The US also sent troops to intervene directly in Haiti. In 1994, for instance, US President Bill Clinton sent a contingent of about 20,000 troops to restore Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power after he was overthrown by the country’s military in 1991.
That deployment took place in parallel with a UN mission that ran from 1993 to 2000, also with the support of the US.
In 2004, Aristide was overthrown once more, but this time, the US encouraged him to step down, flying him out of the country and sending troops to the island alongside nations such as France and Chile.
That force was then replaced by the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, which lasted from 2004 until 2017 and was led by the Brazilian military.
While MINUSTAH was tasked with enhancing security, it soon faced allegations of committing rape and other atrocities against civilians. A massive cholera outbreak that killed more than 9,300 people was also traced back to a sewage leak from a UN facility.
A Haitian-led future
Given its pockmarked history of Haitian intervention, the US has expressed wariness towards leading a new international mission to Haiti. Many are calling for solutions to be Haitian-led, instead of foreign-led.
“We need to give the Haitians time and space to get this right,” former US special envoy to Haiti, Daniel Foote, said in a recent interview with NPR.
“Let’s let the Haitians have a chance to mess up Haiti for once. The international community has messed it up beyond recognition countless times. I guarantee the Haitians mess it up less than the Americans,” he added.
For his part, Katz said the Kenya-led mission, with its UN backing, would have provided a buffer for the US and other powers that have a checkered history in the region.
In the 20th century, the US carried out these occupations of Haiti. Later, you get these outsourced occupations by the UN, which the US supports,” said Katz.
“But these always turn out poorly for the reputations of those involved, and they never leave the country on a better footing. So now with this Kenyan-led initiative, you have an almost double-outsourced intervention.”
A last resort
But with the Haitian government in disarray and violence rampant, some experts question what systems are in place to foster recovery.
President Jovenel Moise’s assassination in 2021 left a power vacuum in Haiti’s government, and no general elections have been held since. Katz argues the US made the situation worse by lending support to Henry, whose popularity has cratered amid questions about his commitment to democracy.
“Anybody paying attention has been saying for years that this was an unsustainable situation that was going to explode,” said Katz. “When there’s no legitimate democracy, it opens the door for people with the most firepower.”
Both Katz and Esperance point out that, while countries like the US have helped equip the Haitian National Police, the boundary between the officers and the gangs they are meant to combat is often porous.
The gang leader Cherizier, for instance, is himself a former member of the Haitian National Police’s riot control branch.
The result is that Haitians feel like they have no choice but to look abroad, Esperance explained.
“We need a functional government. An international force will not be able to solve the problem of political instability,” said Esperance. “At the same time, Haiti cannot wait. We are in hell.”
World
Trump-backed ‘El Tigre’ looks to crush cartels, end Colombia’s socialist era in pivotal election
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As Colombia heads into a pivotal presidential runoff on Sunday, conservative outsider Abelardo de la Espriella is riding a wave of voter frustration over crime, cartels and economic uncertainty.
His rise comes as outgoing President Gustavo Petro faces mounting political turmoil, turning the election into a high-stakes battle over the future of one of America’s most important allies in Latin America.
De le Espriella’s campaign is built on a platform of law and order, anti-cartel crackdowns and repairing U.S.-Colombia relations as he faces leftist politician Iván Cepeda in the presidential runoff. Cepeda is from Petro’s socialist party.
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Colombia’s presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, of the Defensores de la Patria party, speaks behind bulletproof glass during his closing campaign rally in Medellin, Colombia on May 24, 2026. Colombia will hold presidential elections on May 31. (Jaime Saldarriaga/AFP Via Getty Images)
In a region increasingly defined by larger-than-life political figures, de la Espriella is known universally as “El Tigre,” and has transformed his nickname into a political movement. Campaign rallies feature tiger imagery, merchandise and slogans built around strength and fearlessness.
He has openly embraced comparisons to President Trump, presenting himself as a political outsider willing to confront entrenched elites, challenge progressive orthodoxies and restore what supporters describe as strength and order to government.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro delivers a speech during a troop recognition ceremony at the Jose Maria Cordova Military Cadet School in Bogota on March 11, 2025. (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier this week Trump endorsed him stating in part on social media that: “Colombian Presidential Candidate, “El Tigre (THE TIGER),” Abelardo de la Espriella, is a Smart, Strong, and Tough Leader, who fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America.”
Trump added, “Because of his tremendous accomplishments in life, and his political support for me, it is my Honor to give Abelardo my Complete and Total Endorsement. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR “EL TIGRE” ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA — HE WILL NOT LET THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA DOWN. It will rise to a new height of Greatness!”
President Donald Trump, left, waves as he greets El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele as Bukele arrives at the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
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Aside from the Trump comparison, he’s also been likened to El Salvador’s President Bukele. Like Bukele, he has built a political brand around toughness, disruption and public frustration with crime. His campaign rhetoric frequently emphasizes restoring state authority and defeating criminal organizations through overwhelming force.
Petro’s ally, Iván Cepeda, has pledged to continue the administration’s social and economic agenda while expanding negotiations with armed groups.
Cepeda’s campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on his campaign and hopes for the country.
Colombia’s presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda, of the Pacto Historico party, speaks to supporters during his final campaign rally in Barranquilla, Atlantico department, Colombia on May 24, 2026. (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)
Carlos Chacón, executive director of Instituto de Ciencia Política (ICP), a think tank in Colombia told Fox News Digital, “Colombia is torn between two models and two visions: the leftist model, which seeks to increase state intervention in the economy, a model already proven to generate fiscal deficits and economic crises; a model that prioritizes negotiations and appeasement over security, resulting in the strengthening of criminal networks nationwide; and, above all, a model whose political agenda is to alter the Constitution.”
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Chacón said the difference between the two candidates is clear, saying that Abelardo’s model “favors free enterprise and seeks to ensure security, regain territorial control, downsize the state, revitalize strategic sectors, and mend international relations, would be implemented entirely within the framework of the 1991 Constitution.” He added, “Abelardo has never spoken of replacing the constitutional model with an authoritarian one, as is the case with the project proposed by Petro, Cepeda.”
Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella of the political movement Defenders of the Homeland reacts after the results of the first round of the presidential election, in Barranquilla, Colombia May 31, 2026. (Sergio Acero/reuters )
One of the recurring themes of de la Espriella’s campaign has been rebuilding a close relationship with Washington and pursuing a more aggressive security partnership against narcotrafficking and armed groups. He has advocated U.S.-backed operations against narco-terrorist camps and stronger bilateral cooperation on security issues.
De la Espriella rise comes as the outgoing Colombian President Petro faces a battle over allegations of improper involvement in the country’s presidential election. The head of Colombia’s congressional investigative commission has proposed suspending president Petro while authorities examine allegations that he improperly intervened in the presidential campaign on behalf of his political movement.
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A supporter of Colombia’s presidential candidate for the Defensores de la Patria party, Abelardo de la Espriella, takes a selfie as she awaits his arrival to his last campaign rally in Barranquilla, Colombia, on May 23, 2026. Colombia will hold presidential elections on May 31. (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)
The proposal has triggered fierce debate across Colombia, with supporters describing it as necessary accountability and critics arguing it exceeds constitutional authority. Petro has denied wrongdoing and remains in office.
The outcome of this election will help determine not only the future of Colombia’s security strategy, but also the trajectory of one of Washington’s most important allies in the Western Hemisphere.
Current and former Ukrainian officials are to return honours bestowed upon them by Poland after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was stripped of the country’s highest state honour.
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Tensions have been rising between Kyiv and Warsaw since Zelenskyy named a military unit after the controversial World War Two Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
In response to the move, Poland’s far-right president, Karol Nawrocki, announced that he was stripping Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy said he had sent the Order back to Poland, posting a photo to social media appearing to show it being packaged up ready to be shipped.
“We believed that the Order of the White Eagle, awarded in 2023, was meant for the Ukrainian People and our army,” he wrote, adding that Ukraine was “grateful to the Polish People for their support and cooperation”.
Cracks in the alliance?
Nawrocki has insisted that the decision was “not directed against the Ukrainian people” and that Poland would continue to support Ukraine.
Even so, many in Ukraine saw Nawrocki’s move as an attack.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, was the first to react, announcing that he would return the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, which he received in 2022.
The head of the Office of the Ukrainian President, Kyrylo Budanov, and Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, followed suit by relinquishing their Officer’s Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
The second, third and fifth presidents of independent Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma (1994–2004), Viktor Yushchenko (2005–2010) and Petro Poroshenko (2014–2019), also all announced that they were giving up their Order of the White Eagle honours.
Poroshenko made it clear that he had taken the decision in reaction to the Polish president’s move, but that it was in no way directed against the Polish people.
Yushchenko also stressed that he was acting in solidarity with Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian army, while calling Nawrocki’s decision “irresponsible”.
How did the crisis begin?
On 27 May, Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree naming the Independent Special Operations Centre “North” of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces as the “Heroes of the UPA”.
He said he had taken the decision “in order to restore the historical traditions of the national army and in view of the exemplary execution of the missions assigned in the defence of the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine”.
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, was a Ukrainian guerrilla force formed in October 1942 in Volhynia, in north-western Ukraine, as the military wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B), an ultranationalist movement led by Stepan Bandera.
While fighting both the German army and Soviet forces, the organisation carried out massacres of the Polish population in Volhynia.
The decision has gone down particularly badly in Poland, and Nawrocki said he had learned of the move “with great sadness”.
“This is not how you build relations between nations,” he said on Friday, adding that glorifying the UPA gave Russian propaganda “a lot of oxygen for disinformation”.
The Polish president doubled down on Saturday, justifying his decision to withdraw the Order of the White Eagle from Zelenskyy by saying that his actions had overstepped the mark.
Some have argued that only Russia stands to gain from the breakdown in relations.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s main allies since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees and serving as a logistical hub for Western aid bound for Kyiv.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said he was convinced that, given the historical context, only Russia could profit from a Polish-Ukrainian dispute.
Sikorski shared a comment by journalist and columnist Witold Jurasz of the newspaper Onet, who argued that by stripping Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Nawrocki had indeed won a moral victory but had also suffered a defeat – and, with it, so had Poland as a whole.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government is at odds with Nawrocki, criticised Zelenskyy’s decision, while stressing that the Ukrainian leader had assured him that he had not intended to offend Poles. He called on the two nations not to lose their solidarity and not to let “history ruin our future”.
For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who had earlier described the Polish president’s decision as “a strategic mistake… from which only Russia will benefit”, expressed his gratitude to Poles who do not support escalating tensions with Ukraine.
“I wish to thank every Pole who has clearly expressed their stance against escalating tensions with Ukraine. We are staunch supporters of the same approach,” he wrote on X.
“We are wise nations, always able to find a way out of a difficult situation. We are bound by a difficult history, a shared future, and the threat from our age-old enemy – Moscow,” he added.
Russian officials – who have repeatedly invoked the Second World War as a means to justify Moscow’s invasion by claiming it is a fight against “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine – have welcomed Nawrocki’s decision.
“The Polish president has finally stripped (Zelenskyy) of the Order of the White Eagle,” said former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
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