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Haiti in Crisis: The Search for a Way Forward

Man carrying Haitian flag; info: Haiti in Crisis
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
Keith Mines, Louis-Henri Mars

(Note: We will be accepting questions in advance of the event to put forward to the speakers. Please email them to las@duke.edu with the subject HAITI CRISIS.)

Haiti is experiencing one of the most difficult moments in its troubled history. In the aftermath of the July 2021 assassination of President Moïse, political instability and criminal violence affect all aspects of daily life. Gang activity has all but incapacitated efforts to provide food and medical supplies. Homicides and kidnappings have skyrocketed. Calls for an international rescue effort have not yet been answered. The international community is struggling to find a way to support restoration of the rule of law, provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance, and strengthen the government of Haiti's capacity to govern.

Join Keith Mines, Louis-Henri Mars and Ambassador Patrick Duddy for a wide-ranging discussion of the current crisis, Haiti's most urgent needs, and the prospects for robust international help and what form that should take.

Keith Mines joined USIP after a career at the State Department, where he was most recently director for Andean and Venezuelan affairs. In 32 years of diplomatic and military service, he has worked on governance and institution building in Central America and Colombia and in post-conflict stabilization in Haiti.

Louis-Henri Mars is the executive director of Lakou Lapè (@lakoulape) a Port-au-Prince-based peacebuilding organization since 2013. Mr. Mars has worked in the private sector, as a business owner and manager of assembly and manufacturing plants in Haiti. He holds certificates in conflict transformation and dialogue facilitation from the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation out of Dublin, Ireland and from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding of Eastern Mennonite University. Since 2007, he has been exclusively engaged in activities related to fostering peace and reconciliation in Haiti.

Patrick Duddy is is the Senior Advisor on Global Affairs at Duke University and Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. From 2007 to 2010 he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for both President Bush and President Obama. Prior to this, Ambassador Duddy served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (DAS) for the Western Hemisphere. Currently he is a fellow with the Caribbean Policy Consortium. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.