Haiti: The Plot Thickens

 https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/assassination-of-the-haitian-president-a-wake-up-call_226005?profile=1096

Since this article was written some other things have been revealed. It has come to light that elements of the economic elite and some of the political class who opposed the President hired Columbian mercenaries dressed as and claiming to be DEA agents through a Miami firm with the help of a failed Haitian businessman who had Presidential aspirations. It seems that some of the presidential guard are accomplices as they did nothing to prevent the attack and none were wounded. There was discord in Haiti because the President wanted to stay in power a year longer than some interpreted the law to allow. Secondly, the president had failed to control the gangs which had recently united into a super gang and were calling for violent revolution. The growing power and reach of the gangs and their call for revolution alarmed the economic elite some of whom financed the operation to get rid of the president. Seven of the Columbians have confessed that they actually shot the president and his wife. The original plot was to detain/kidnap the President and force him to appoint the failed businessman as President but something went awry. It seems that some interests wanted the President dead and instructed some of the mercenaries to kill the President which they did - which probably surprised the others involved who were not aware there was another agenda for some of the mercenaries. This led to the fiasco of their futile attempted escape with the mercenary group panicking, splitting up and scattering. To get the mercenaries to go to Haiti, most of them had been misinformed about the true purpose of the mission as they had been told that they were being hired for VIP close protection. If the mercenaries had just kidnapped the President as originally planned, the attackers would have had leverage.

What Jamaica needs to learn from Haiti is that Haiti is Jamaica on steroids. Although Jamaica House Guard House was shot up once and Holness has been threatened, Jamaica remains fairly stable when compared to Haiti - so far. However, underdevelopment is never sustainable. To hold back a large portion of the population through poor education, poor health care, poor housing and general poverty while at the same time a corrupt political elite in tandem with an economic elite enjoys conspicuous consumption is not sustainable in the long run. We too have our gangs but so far, they remain mostly criminal with some social generosity helping a few people in the areas they control. If our gangs fall under the sway of another Dudus type but a leader with political aspirations and such a leader is able to unite them, our cawna dark. United, the Jamaican gangs could again challenge the power of the state as Dudus did. Properly organized, managed and trained Jamaican gangsters could start the ball rolling to violent social unrest. 100 heavily mobile armed gangsters disguised as police or soldiers could easily take out the Prime Minister. A couple hundred more could kill the rest of the cabinet. Fortunately for Jamaica, our gangsters still focus on economic crimes and fights over turf or leadership. The day the Jamaican gangs wise up to their power if they unite and the day they become 'woke' is a day we will rue...

Raymond D. Grant

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