The situation in Haiti right now is heartbreaking. In the majority of the coverage I’ve read, these groups that have effectively taken over the country are described as “gangs.”
With something as widespread and seemingly organized as this, I would think these groups would be described differently. Any idea why?
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Power has always come from a monopoly on violence. In almost all countries, the government has the guns and the civilians don’t. This monopoly on violence is how governments maintain control. They have an army, you don’t. Game over.
But every society has criminals. Thankfully, most criminals don’t challenge the government. They hide from it. Unless they grow rich and powerful enough to believe they can get away with it. We have seen this in places like Colombia, Mexico, and now Haiti.
I have no idea how strong Haitian gangs are but the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico has a reported 100,000 soldiers according to most sources. That’s a lot of armed criminals. And thanks to drug profits, they’re better paid and better armed than government troops. The Mexican government has practically given up fighting them.
But Mexican cartels would never dare march on Mexico City and try to overthrow the president because they know that would lead to instant American intervention.
Haitian gangs, however, don’t have that deterrent since they don’t share a border with the US. So, once they got powerful enough, they figured they could just get rid of the government altogether and set themselves up as the new government. What’s terrifying is that they are actually succeeding.
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