Haiti's Crisis: Violence and Killings Increase Since Moïse's Death, Armed Groups Accused of Murder

Unique Points

• Haiti's national police have battled back bravely but with limited resources and themselves often the targets.
• The current security crisis is the most crippling it has faced in years a once unthinkable escalation for a country that has long suffered chronic violence, political crises and drought leaving some 5.5 million Haitians about half of the population in need of humanitarian assistance.

Accuracy

• The situation in Haiti has deteriorated sharply since the previous visit.
• Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his decision to step aside, but it is not clear who will fill the void or when.
• A promised transitional government has yet to materialize and plans for a Kenyan-led stabilisation force are in limbo.
• All roads leading out of the city are blocked by gangs, as is access to the port and international airport has been shuttered its walls pockedmarked with bullet holes.
• The only thing coming into Port-au-Prince are private evacuation helicopters which can be heard regularly in the evening and early morning.
• Hundreds of people are putting their names on lists to flee Port-au-Prince by air, several pilots told CNN where a single seat currently costs over $10,000.
• Two pilots told CNN they had heard shots fired while performing an evacuation flight.
• Eighty percent of Port-au-Prince is currently controlled by gangs according to UN estimates.
• Haiti's national police have battled back bravely but with limited resources and themselves often the targets, with several police stations attacked or burned down in the past two weeks.
• Henry came to power unelected following the assassination of Haiti's then-President Jovenel Moise.
• His premiership has been marred by months of spiraling gang violence, which grew more intense after he failed to hold elections last month saying the country's insecurity would compromise the vote.
• On Monday, amid enormous pressure to do something to staunch the violence in Port-au-Prince, Henry did announce his resignation.
• He would hand over power to a transitional council but by week’s end, the council had yet to be formed.
• One last hope for Port-au-Prince may be the deployment of foreign troops to reinforce police and confront the gangs in a mission requested by Henry, green-lighted by the UN Security Council and led by Kenya.
• Restoring peace to the streets would be the first step in allowing Haiti to hold a vote and eventually elect a new government.
• When Henry was in Kenya signing an agreement for Kenyan police officers to deploy, his forces’ deployment was postponed citing Haitian government instability.

Deception (70%)

• `In a city silenced by gangs, everyone notices the thrum of a helicopter beating overhead in the night – a brief sign that someone very lucky has been able to leave Port-au-Prince.`
• `On Friday evening, gunshots could be heard ringing in the city’s hills. Lower down, a police operation was also in course in the territory of notorious gang leader and former police officer Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbeque.`
• `Ordinary people leave their homes only rarely in Port-au-Prince these days, where daily battles between police and gangs send plumes of smoke into the air, gunshots echoing through quiet streets. Boulevards that would ordinarily be packed with cars and vendors are empty, the city’s painted “tap tap” taxis rarely full.`
• `Beleaguered Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his decision to step aside, but it is not clear who will fill the void or when.`
• `There are few places left to go. All roads leading out of the city are blocked by gangs, as is access to the port, and the city’s international airport has been shuttered, its walls pocked with bullet holes. Nothing is coming in either; the city’s grocery stores are running out of food. Gas stations are out of fuel. Hospitals are short on blood.`

Fallacies (85%)

• The article contains several examples of informal fallacies.
• The author uses an appeal to authority by citing the UN Security Council's approval of a Kenyan-led stabilisation force and Prime Minister Ariel Henry's decision to step aside as evidence that something is happening in Haiti. However, these statements do not provide any concrete information about what will happen or when it will happen.
• The author uses inflammatory rhetoric by describing the situation in Port-au-Prince as a 'war zone'

Bias (85%)

• The author uses language such as 'lucky' to create an emotional response from readers.

Site Conflicts Of Interest (0%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Author Conflicts Of Interest (0%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Unique Points

• Haiti is experiencing a crisis over its ability to govern itself
• The chaos engulfing the country has been bubbling for more than a year
• These militias and armed groups have been responsible for an increase in killings, kidnappings, and rapes since Moïse's death.
• Many armed groups have formed in recent years claiming to be community groups carrying out essential work in underprivileged neighborhoods but they have been accused of violence even murder.

Accuracy

• Haiti still has not fully recovered from the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed about 220,00 people and left 1.5 million homeless.

Deception (80%)

• The article presents Henry as having been prime minister under Moïse who was assassinated, which means he did not have any democratic mandate. For example, the author states that Henry assumed power after being appointed by several nations including the US.
• The article presents armed groups as community leaders carrying out essential work in underprivileged neighborhoods when they are actually responsible for violence and human rights abuses. For example, the author states that G-9 is led by a former elite police officer Jimmy Chérizier who has become the public face of unrest and claimed credit for various attacks on public institutions.

Fallacies (85%)

• The crisis in Haiti is due to a lack of elected officials.
• ,

Bias (85%)

• ]Haitian advocates and scholars like Jemima Pierre, a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, say foreign intervention, including from the U.S., is partially to blame for Haiti's turmoil. The U.S. has routinely sent thousands of troops to Haiti[
• Haitians and their supporters have put forth their own solutions over the years[
• In 2021, both Haitian and non-Haitian church leaders, women’s rights groups, lawyers, humanitarian workers[

Site Conflicts Of Interest (100%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Author Conflicts Of Interest (0%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Unique Points

• The Dominican Republic has made policy choices that have increased its wealth and stability
• Haiti's economy is significantly worse off than the Dominican Republic's
• Over the last four decades, Haiti has experienced chaos while the Dominican Republic has prospered

Accuracy

• Haiti is currently experiencing chaos
• The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, is prospering
• Over the last four decades, the Dominican Republic has made policy choices that have increased its wealth and stability
• Hait's economy is significantly worse off than the Dominican Republic's

Deception (50%)

• An obvious question presents itself: What explains this stark divergence?
• The Dominican Republic has made a lot of policy choices over the last four decades that have increased its wealth and stability.

Fallacies (100%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Bias (85%)

• > The two countries share the island of Hispaniola and a lot of history, and yet <br>the Dominican Republic now stands as one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America. An obvious question presents itself: What explains this stark divergence?

Site Conflicts Of Interest (50%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Author Conflicts Of Interest (100%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Unique Points

None Found At Time Of Publication

Accuracy

• Haiti is located on the western tip of Hispaniola, an island in the Caribbean.
• The Dominican Republic and Haiti share an island with different trajectories.
• Christopher Columbus's son established a functioning government as an outpost of Spain on Hispaniola.

Deception (30%)

• The article describes Haiti as a 'breakdown of civilization' and 'human misery'.
• The author implies that Haiti's problems are solely due to its history with slavery when in fact both countries on the island have had different trajectories politically speaking.

Fallacies (85%)

• Christopher Columbus and his son established a functioning government on Hispaniola
• Haiti and Dominican Republic have very different trajectories
• The breakdown of civilization in Haiti is described as a 'crashing breakdown'

Bias (85%)

• > You really are looking at the breakdown of civilization there on that western tip of the island known as Hispaniola.

Site Conflicts Of Interest (0%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Author Conflicts Of Interest (0%)

• Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 to Hispaniola island, where he established a functioning government as an outpost of Spain on that island. Over time, Christopher Columbus's son had the nation known as Dominican Republic on eastern side and Haiti on western end
• Haiti

Unique Points

None Found At Time Of Publication

Accuracy

• Haiti was horribly exploited by its former colonial master France, which imposed reparations on it that weren't paid off until 1947.
• The Dominican Republic, with which Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola, was just as poor as Haiti in 1947 and today is six to seven times richer.

Deception (30%)

• Comparison with another country to make it seem like Haiti's problems are unique
• Oversimplified explanation of why Haiti is poor
• 'Religion has tremendous effects on political, social and economic life'
• The use of derogatory term 's**thole'

Fallacies (75%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Bias (75%)

• Max Weber famously credited Protestant values with building capitalism and liberal democracy.

Site Conflicts Of Interest (100%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Author Conflicts Of Interest (0%)

None Found At Time Of Publication