Legal sovereignty… but more operational

On paper, the Haitian government retains control. In reality, external coordination mechanisms define priorities, allocate budgets, establish timetables, and monitor execution. Foreign security forces protect the corridors. International donors finance hospitals and public services. Multilateral institutions plan elections.

Meanwhile, the Haitian state observes, sometimes consults, but rarely decides.

Sovereignty is emptied of its substance: it is nothing more than a title of ownership without any real use.

The visible consequences

The example of the Mirebalais University Hospital is glaring: looted, emptied, abandoned by the state. This $16 million national investment, once a source of medical pride, is now a ghost building. While we protect turbines in Péligre, we abandon a hospital. This symbol says it all: we no longer know how to protect our common goods.

Assistance or guardianship?

Certainly, the OAS plan brings funds, expertise, and welcome coordination amidst the chaos. But by continually delegating our sovereign functions, we are setting ourselves up for structural dependency. Aid ceases to be a crutch and becomes a wheelchair again.

The truth is brutal: Haiti is no longer in control of its own agenda. Its survival depends on initiatives conceived elsewhere, executed elsewhere, and funded elsewhere.

Getting back on track with sovereignty

Refusing international aid would be suicidal. But accepting it without supporting rules of sovereignty is just as dangerous. Haiti must establish three non-negotiable principles:

1. National ownership: Any foreign mission must be integrated under a clear and public Haitian chain of command.

2. Local content: at least 50% of the funded projects must be carried out by Haitian companies, institutions and workers.

3. Exit schedule: each aid must have a deadline and a skills transfer plan.

Without these safeguards, the OAS roadmap will not be a lifeline, but a rope of dependency that will slowly strangle us.

The time of dignity

The Haitian people are not waiting for a new guardianship. They are waiting for their leaders to reassume their historic responsibility to protect, decide, and build. Foreign aid can be a support, but national reconstruction can only be done by us and for us.

Haiti has survived for too long in the shadow of international missions. It is time to put the country back on track: real security, credible justice, sovereign elections, and protected public services.

Otherwise, history will record that in the name of stability, we traded our sovereignty for outsourced management of our destiny.

And that once again, instead of writing our future, we will have let it be written for us.

Jean Junior Remy