Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, during the G-20 summit in Japan, June 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Former President Donald Trump speaks at the White House, March 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Both the Trump and Biden administrations threw their support behind Haitian President Jovenel Moïse when violent protests rocked the Caribbean country in the months leading to his assassination on July 7, 2021.
Moïse got backing from the U.S. even as members of Congress warned about his “anti-democratic abuses,” reminiscent of earlier dictatorships in Haitian history, The New York Times reported.
U.S. history is littered with support for strongmen across the world using a foreign policy playbook that often results in hits to democracy and human rights.
During the Cold War, the U.S. allied itself with dictators including Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire — now the Democratic Republic of the Congo — Augusto Pinochet in Chile, and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the former shah of Iran.
The U.S. has also assisted in overthrowing tyrannical leaders in allied countries such as the Philippines, Egypt, Panama, South Korea and Taiwan. Even Libya’s rebel commander Khalifa Haftar, a dual Libyan-U.S. citizen, benefited from U.S. favor.
Intent on keeping Haitian migrants out of the U.S., former U.S. President Donald Trump looked the other way as Moïse tightened his grip on power.
The Biden administration picked up where Trump left off in its relations with Haiti, looking at the surge in Haitian migrants across the Mexico border as a reason to keep a tight lid on the turmoil in Haiti, officials told The New York Times.
Haiti was described by Trump as a “shithole,” simultaneously dangerous and diseased. Trump once ranted at a Cabinet meeting on immigration that Haitians “all have AIDS”, continuing a legacy of racist U.S. attitudes and policy towards Haiti.
The Biden administration was accused of pushing anti-Black policy after it deported thousands of the estimated 14,000 Haitians who have entered the U.S. fleeing turmoil and political unrest in Haiti.
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