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“Haitians hope for a 

country where criminals are 

arrested, judged under law 

and held in prison, and not 

protected through corruption, 

ineptitude or dysfunction. 

For too long, however, the 

guarantors of personal 

safety—police, courts, prisons, government bodies, 

watchdog groups—have 

been too weak, too corrupt, 

too dysfunctional or simply 

inexistent to provide even 

minimal security assurances.”

June 13, 2011

The Challenge of Keeping 

Haitians Safe

Summary

•	 President Michel Martelly takes office at a time when Haitians are frustrated with the pace and 

scale of earthquake recovery and insecure about the future.

•	 Haitians are uncertain what to expect from their new leader who has promised much and who 

now must address a broad range of immediate needs. 

•	 Progress toward improved personal, social, economic, environmental, political and energy 

security for Haiti’s citizens has been mixed. 

•	 The Haitian National Police comprise an important building block for improving Haiti’s personal safety and security environment. A greater effort is needed to deal with Haiti’s chronic 

problems with jobs, education, healthcare and housing. 

Enter Haiti’s New President, Michel Martelly

On May 14, 2011, Haiti’s presidency was transferred peacefully from René Préval to Michel Martelly. The 

new president, known as singer and bandleader ‘Sweet Micky’ for his flamboyant performances or as 

Têt Kalé for his bald head, had traversed a remarkable political path within a year. When his candidacy 

was announced in 2010, it was not taken seriously. Martelly benefited from his celebrity, however, 

and from voter frustration with an ineffective and unresponsive political establishment. Martelly 

campaigned as a political outsider untainted by the flawed leadership and unfulfilled promises of the 

past despite his well known association with figures from past military regimes. In the November 28, 

2010, general election, Martelly was initially excluded in favor of the governing party’s candidate, but 

was reinstated under pressure from the international community. He won a run-off on March 20, 2011 

by attracting 67.57 percent of the vote in an election marked by low voter turnout. 

President Martelly begins his five-year term at a time when Haitians feel insecure about their 

future. The country’s omnipresent conditions of poverty, deprivation and lack of opportunity that 

preceded the January 2010 earthquake remain firmly in place. Haiti’s recovery from the earthquake’s devastation has been slow. Eighteen months later, some 680,000 people remain in squalid 

tent encampments in and around Port-au-Prince. Few Haitians have experienced tangible benefits 

from the now almost legendary $5.3 billion pledged by international donors at a March 2010 

United Nations conference for earthquake recovery and new investments in agriculture, manufacturing and tourism. Adding to the insecurity is a cholera epidemic that has infected 300,000 and 

killed 5,000 people and the impending 2011 hurricane season.

Robert Maguire

E-mail: remaguire@verizon.net

202.944.3342

Courtney McCreesh 

E-mail: CMcCreesh@usip.org

703.376.1416

peaceBrieF96
© USIP 2011 • All rights reserved.

The Challenge of Keeping Haitians Safe

page 2 • PB 96 • June 13, 2011

Security Eludes Most Haitians

For most Haitians, security means living free from intimidation and abuse, conflict and violence, 

and crime and impunity. Minimally, this translates to assurances that basic freedoms of expression, 

assembly and civic action are protected. Haitians hope for a country where criminals are arrested, 

judged under law and held in prison and not protected through corruption, ineptitude or dysfunction. For too long, however, the guarantors of personal safety—police, courts, prisons, government 

bodies, watchdog groups—have been too weak, too corrupt, too dysfunctional or simply inexistent to provide even minimal security assurances.

Haitians are also concerned about threats to their national territory from international narcotics 

traffickers and Haiti’s inability to control its land border or airspace. Haitians are humiliated when 

Haitian migrants are rounded up in the Dominican Republic or intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard 

and unceremoniously returned to Haiti. Since deploying to Haiti in 2004, the U.N. Stabilization 

Mission for Haiti (MINUSTAH) has provided a security blanket for Haiti. Relations between Haitians 

and U.N. peacekeepers have worn thin over time and have been exacerbated by circumstantial 

evidence that U.N. troops from Nepal were responsible for the cholera epidemic. 

For Haitians, security has important economic and social components, namely that individuals 

can meet their needs through work, education and other opportunities to develop their talents in 

order to pursue legitimate aspirations. Discrimination, exclusion and repression have ensured that 

most Haitians have little or no access to jobs, education, and opportunities to provide for themselves and their families. As a result, they have looked toward external sources for security. In the 

absence of state capacity, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or for-profit contractors provide 

education and health care, manage environmental rehabilitation projects, and are first responders 

following natural disasters. 

Issues of environmental insecurity confront Haitians on a daily basis. A landscape so abused that 

in many places it can no longer produce more than deadly landslides and flash floods is a source of 

great insecurity throughout the nation. Rehabilitating Haiti’s environment, particularly in heavily 

deforested watershed areas, would yield greater security (and opportunity) not just for farmers, 

but also for poor people crowded precariously in downstream ravines, on deforested hillsides, in 

river flood plains and on coastal alluvial mudflats. 

Enhancing Security Remains a Primary Challenge

In recent years, some improvements in security have been achieved. The Haitian National Police 

(HNP) has become increasingly accepted by Haitians as an institution that will protect them. 

Improved macroeconomic management of public finances has provided some defense for 

Haitians against the ravages of financial instability. Public sector/NGO partnerships have improved 

the delivery of health services, particularly in combating HIV/AIDS and cholera. Politically-inspired 

conflict and violence have diminished considerably. One manifestation of improvement is the precipitous decline in the number of desperate people climbing into unseaworthy boats to flee to the 

U.S. Another was the remarkable maintenance of public order in the aftermath of the earthquake. 

Achievements, however precarious, are building blocks for the future. Areas lacking improvement beg for priority attention. Among international donors and Haitian citizens alike, the HNP 

has earned confidence and respect as one of the country’s most trusted institutions. Its political 

neutrality is particularly important in view of its potential role in assuming full responsibility for 

Haiti’s public safety when MINUSTAH withdraws. Continued investment in the HNP to fill capacity 

gaps is preferred by the international community over President Martelly’s call for restoring the 
© USIP 2011 • All rights reserved.

The Challenge of Keeping Haitians Safe

page 3 • PB 96 • June 13, 2011

Haitian army. HNP effectiveness would be enhanced by a resumption of officer vetting to remove 

those who are guilty of human rights abuses. The HNP should be enlarged to more effectively 

tackle such needs as specialized policing—particularly against organized crime—and border 

surveillance. The recent graduation of the first post-quake class of 877 new police officers is a 

notable accomplishment.

Matching this noteworthy achievement, however, is the compelling need to improve the 

still-largely dysfunctional judiciary and prisons. Haiti’s overcrowded prisons contain glaring human 

rights violations. The majority of those arrested languish for months or even years in pre-trial 

detention under inhumane conditions. Compounding the abusive nature of this situation is the 

fact that high profile criminals and those with connections readily bribe their way to freedom by 

having their cases dismissed by corrupt judges.

Haiti’s ability to improve food security and food sovereignty can be achieved through modest 

inputs that can double or even triple food production while concurrently reducing imports from 

today’s level of 52 percent of national food needs. For decades, the agricultural sector has received 

scant government financing and donor aid. Today’s precarious state of dependency on food 

imports resulted not just from neglect, but also from trade policies that undercut local production. 

An ambitious, five-year, $700 million National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP) aims at boosting 

both productivity and competitiveness. The NAIP’s goal is to increase food production through 

investment in rural infrastructure, agricultural value chain support (seeds, credit and storage), and 

the provision of farm extension and other public services. Through investment in roads, storage 

facilities, and access points, the NAIP would chart an important path by underscoring that shortfalls in production are not always at the root of food shortages. Lack of access and poor distribution of bountiful harvests also contribute to the problem. Critics of the plan note, however, that by 

ignoring the issue of land reform and concentrating on the export of cash crops, the plan appears 

to be putting old wine in new bottles. 

Achieving sustained improvements in farm productivity and competitiveness will require heavy 

lifting from the U.S., the Inter-American Development Bank and Haitian authorities. It will also 

require re-imagining Haiti’s agriculture sector not merely as a vehicle for growing other sectors 

but as a sector that stands alone as multifunctional and holistic. Greater agreement on production, investment and trade polices among farmers, policymakers and donors is a sine qua non for 

achieving and sustaining food security. 

What to Expect From an Uncertain Future

Since assuming office, President Martelly has encapsulated his goals in “the Four E’s: education, 

employment, environment and rule of law (etat de droit).” Martelly has called for a renegotiation of 

his country’s heavy dependence on foreign donors and international financial institutions. He has 

expressed outrage at the failure of the Haitian state and the Interim Haitian Reconstruction Commission (IHRC) to move people from tent camps into permanent housing. Martelly has questioned 

using NGOs as the prime agents of Haiti’s reconstruction and development. He has vowed to make 

Haiti self-reliant and to confront entrenched problems of social exclusion, rural neglect, wrenching 

poverty and geographical centralization.

It remains to be seen whether Haiti’s new president can fulfill his campaign promises and 

improve security for Haiti’s citizens. With the onset of the annual hurricane season, time is limited. 

Moreover, Haitians have become deeply impatient with the slow pace of earthquake recovery, 

poverty alleviation and economic growth. Martelly must deal with a newly elected parliament 

controlled by the former governing party. The return from exile of former president Jean-Bertrand 
© USIP 2011 • All rights reserved.

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tools that prevent and end conflicts, 

promotes stability and professionalizes 

the field of peacebuilding.

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About This Brief

This report is based on views 

expressed during a May 25, 

2011 public forum entitled “The 

Challenges of Keeping Haitians 

Safe” hosted by the U.S. Institute 

of Peace Haiti Working Group. The 

forum featured panel presentations by Ambassador Thomas 

Adams, Haiti Special Coordinator, 

U.S. Department of State; Farid 

Zarif, Director, Europe and Latin 

America Division, Department of 

Peacekeeping Operations, United 

Nations; Dr. Yasmine Shamsie, 

Assistant Professor, Wilfrid Laurier 

University, Waterloo, Canada; 

and Dr. Robert Fatton, Associate 

Dean for Graduate Programs, 

University of Virginia. Professor 

Robert Maguire, Chairman of the 

USIP Haiti Working Group, moderated the session and co-authored 

the report. 

Aristide and former dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has also introduced an unknown element in Haiti’s political equation. Observers are focused on the confirmation process for Martelly’s 

choice for prime minister to glean clues to the president’s political future. 

The Challenge of Keeping Haitians Safe

page 4 • PB 96 • June 13, 2011