‘It’s a state of terror’: inside Haiti’s descent into chaos

05/20/23 • 26 min

Audio Long Reads, from the New Statesman

In May 2023, the UN reported that 600 people had been killed in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince in the previous month alone – victims of gang violence and the near total collapse of law and order. In April the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned that insecurity in the country had “reached levels comparable to countries in armed conflict” and called for the deployment of an international force.

In this powerful reported piece, freelance writer and former Haiti resident Pooja Bhatia talks to contacts on the ground, as well as historians and US State Department officials. She traces the origins of the current crisis through successive governments – from Papa and Baby Doc to Jovenel Moise - and through waves of US intervention. Between 2004 and 2017, UN peacekeeping forces brought cholera and 10,000 deaths to the country. Today cholera is back, with 40,000 suspected cases since October 2022. Against a backdrop of escalating violence and political corruption, many Haitians have come to see escape to the US (under Joe Biden’s “humanitarian parole programme”) or foreign intervention as the only way forward. But will any nation step up?

This article was originally published in the 12-18 May issue of the New Statesman magazine. You can read the text version here.

Written by Pooja Bhatia and read by the New Statesman’s global affairs editor Katie Stallard.

If you liked listening to this episode, you might also enjoy A journey through Ukraine at war.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This article was originally published in the 12-18 May issue of the New Statesman magazine. You can read the text version here.

Written by Pooja Bhatia and read by the New Statesman’s global affairs editor Katie Stallard.

If you liked listening to this episode, you might also enjoy A journey through Ukraine at war.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Why Liverpool bet big on Eurovision

Liverpool has a rich musical history, from the Beatles to Echo and the Bunnymen, and beat six other British cities to become the 2023 host of Eurovision. Can the annual jamboree of geopolitics and high camp help the city overcome recent scandals?

In this entertaining long read, the New Statesman’s culture writer Kate Mossman visits the city and meets contestants from Moldova, Beatles tour guides and Brian Nash of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who believes that successive councils have “done more damage to this town than the Luftwaffe”. Where does Liverpool’s “casual musicality” come from? Will Sonia perform at the opening ceremony? All is revealed as the city prepares for the party it hopes will revive its cultural fortunes.

This article was originally published in the 12-18 May 2023 issue of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here.

Written by Kate Mossman and read by Anna Leszkiewicz.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy listening to I was Joni Mitchell’s “Carey”.

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Next Episode

Inside the Conservative party’s radical right

May 2023 saw two significant gatherings of the Tory right: the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) in Bournemouth, and the National Conservative Conference in London. The latter was organised by the US-based think tank the Edmund Burke Foundation, and drew heavily on its ideas about family, faith and the failures of globalism and liberal individualism. The former was emphatically not a ‘Bring Back Boris’ convention (the ex-prime minister did not attend), though it numbered several of his political cheerleaders and delegates nostalgic for the boosterism of the Johnson years.

In this week’s long read, the New Statesman’s commissioning editor and writer Will Lloyd attends both conferences, and explores the origins of their discontent. Is he witnessing “the final crack-up of British conservatism, or the birth of a new, harder-edged ideological programme that will dominate the party for years to come”? Will American populism shape the next generation of Tories? Through conversations with ministers, delegates, journalists and assorted hangers-on, Lloyd pieces together a darkly entertaining portrait of the Conservative right.

Written and read by Will Lloyd.

This article originally appeared in the 26 May-2 June edition of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here.

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy listening to The strange death of moderate conservatism by Jeremy Cliffe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.