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L'Échec de l'aide internationale à Haïti: Dilemmes et égarements by Ricardo Seitenfus

2018; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/jhs.2018.0012

2333-7311

Pierre Minn,

International Development and Aid

Reviewed by: L'Échec de l'aide internationale à Haïti: Dilemmes et égarements by Ricardo Seitenfus Pierre Minn L'Échec de l'aide internationale à Haïti: Dilemmes et égarements. By Ricardo Seitenfus. Translated from the Portuguese by Pascal Reuillard. Montreal and Port-au-Prince: CIDIHCA and Les Éditions de l'Université d'État d'Haïti, 2015. ISBN 978-2-89454-3306. 421 pp. $40.00 CAD. On one level, critiques of international aid and interventions must fight an uphill battle. They work against dominant narratives and widespread assumptions that international charitable organizations do good, that the relief and development programs of wealthy governments straightforwardly improve living conditions in poorer countries, and that global political and financial systems favor progress, success, and eventual equality for all. Yet on another level, persistent poverty and growing inequalities have fueled suspicions that none of these assumptions are correct and that international aid and development are dysfunctional or exploitative, fueling the interests and greed of rich nations. Haiti is often the exemplar of aid gone wrong: a country that, despite (or because of) its saturation by international projects and programs, persists as a site of widespread deprivation, absent or crumbling infrastructure, ineffective governance, and ongoing precarity in nearly all spheres of daily life. Exposé critiques of aid in Haiti abound, but they have been produced primarily by journalists and scholars. What makes Ricardo Seitenfus's volume such a unique contribution is the author's role in the systems that he critiques. Seitenfus (now a professor in the Faculty of Law at the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil) was the Special Envoy of the Brazilian government in Haiti from 2004 to 2008 and the Special Representative of the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) to Haiti from 2009 to 2011. This means, of course, that he was holding this crucial position during the devastating earthquake of January 2010. His book, first published in Portuguese, was translated into French shortly afterward. Seitenfus's work thus became much more accessible to a Haitian scholarly audience than most texts about the country, which are published primarily in English. (A group of Haitian students, led by sociologist Hérold Toussaint, recently published a critical response to Seitenfus's account.1 L'Échec de l'aide internationale is divided into three sections. In the first, Seitenfus traces Haiti's history from colonial times to the contemporary period, with chapters devoted to the colonization of Saint-Domingue and the postrevolutionary era, Haiti's place in international relations, and the rise and fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Two especially insightful [End Page 173] and informative chapters detail the roles played by Latin American nations in Haiti's politics, with particular attention to the place of Brazil in MINUSTAH. They are particularly welcome given that most analyses of international relations in Haiti focus heavily on US–Haiti dynamics. The second section describes the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake: it criticizes the inefficacy of the immediate response to the disaster and details the shortcomings of the International Commission for Haiti Relief (ICHR) established after the quake. Seitenfus names specific individuals he blames for irresponsible or unethical behaviors, including prominent leaders of MINUSTAH and the OAS, who he claims jockeyed for power and put their own countries' interests before those of the Haitian people. In particular, he criticizes the UN's handling of the cholera epidemic that was introduced by MINUSTAH soldiers. A chapter is devoted to a critical appraisal of international NGOs for their exclusion of the majority of Haitians in decision-making processes, and another to his perspectives on President René Préval. Seitenfus offers both a critical assessment and a respectful appraisal of Préval's strengths and weaknesses in what was certainly one of Haiti's most challenging presidential mandates. The third and most compelling section of the book details the involvement of MINUSTAH leaders and other powerful international actors in the 2011 election, which led to the choice of Michel Martelly as Haiti's president. Seitenfus claims that Haiti's provisional electoral council was pressured by MINUSTAH and the US government to alter the results in order to ensure that the Unité candidate ( Jude C...