Global Events

Reflections on Haiti brings diverse perspectives on crisis

Green School faculty join members of Haitian community for a discussion on the assassination of the Haitian president.

Garry Pierre-Pierre was asleep at his home in New York when he got the call from a reporter in Haiti that Haitian President Jovenel Moïse had been assassinated.

“It took me a minute to process the information because I did not see that coming,’’ said Pierre-Pierre, a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist who founded the Haitian Times after leaving the New York Times in 1999. “We know that Haiti is a very volatile place, but we haven’t assassinated a sitting president since 1915.”

Pierre-Pierre, who joined FIU faculty and members of the Haitian community for a conversation on Haiti last week, said there were many questions still to be answered.

“The killing of a sitting president is not a small thing,’’ he said. “This is a defining moment for us, for Haiti.”

As the world watches the turmoil unfold, organizers of Reflections on Haiti at FIU said it was important to provide a more nuanced perspective of the situation than what might be seen on cable news.

“We’re looking forward to a conversation that will help add layers to what has been in the news and the typical knee-jerk reaction in the U.S. and elsewhere to Haiti,’’ said Chantalle Verna, an associate professor of history and international relations at FIU who moderated the event. “There are a lot of misperceptions about Haiti that are really counterproductive.”

Though unexpected, the assassination was not entirely shocking given recent events, said

Nadève Ménard, professor of literature at the State University of Haiti and a visiting scholar of Haitian Studies at FIU’s Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC).

“We have seen unprecedented events, armed gangs parading in the streets, waves of kidnappings and murders, for weeks, months and years now,’’ said Ménard, who is based in Haiti. “From the perspective of one who is living in Haiti and is living through all of this, it seems like this is what we were headed toward.”

She cautioned that it was important not to cast Haiti as a violent nation or Haitians as more violent than others.

“I do not think we can claim that Haitians have some kind of privileged relationship to violence or that a cycle of violence is inherently or exclusively

Haitian,’’ she explained. There are many individuals and organizations in Haiti who are working hard toward a better future, she added.

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse

FIU hosts national security and defense leaders at the 7th Annual Hemispheric Security Conference

Special Advisor for the Summit of the Americas Debbie Mucarsel Powell, a former congresswoman, speaks with Luis Guillermo Solis, former president of Costa Rica.

For a 7th consecutive year, the Hemispheric Security Conference brought together international experts for a series of discussions on issues crucial to the security landscape of the Western Hemisphere.

Hosted by FIU’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC), the conference is always free and open to the public with simultaneous translations in Spanish and Portuguese.

Topics included the Summit of the Americas, the impact of cybersecurity, the future of the armed forces in Latin America, the geopolitical convergence in Venezuela, disinformation, democracy, and the inter-American system, and institutional challenges to democracy in the Americas.

“This year’s conference will provide an important and timely forum to enhance regional understanding about how the hemisphere should respond to the challenges ahead,” said Dan Erikson, deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere at the U.S. Department of Defense. Erikson was one of this year’s featured speakers and delivered the opening keynote address. “In today’s dynamic global security environment, it is important to bring together leaders and experts to examine the opportunities and risks facing the Americas,” he said.

Other panels included a conversation on the impact of cybersecurity and a Summit of the Americas preview with Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, special advisor for the Summit of the Americas. According to the U.S. State Department, the Summit “brings together leaders from the countries of North, South, and Central America and the Caribbean” to “promote cooperation towards region-wide, inclusive economic growth and prosperity based on our shared respect for democracy, fundamental freedoms, the dignity of labor, and free enterprise.”

“This year’s HSC takes place at a very distinct and significant conjuncture — just a few weeks before the Summit of the Americas,” said President Luis Guillermo Solis, former president of Costa Rica and interim director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center. “It will provide inputs in issues of the hemispheric agenda that will not be centrally discussed at the summit. [HSC] is a very valuable complement that will contribute to the determination of the countries of the Americas to forge a continental alliance in favor of peace, democracy and economic prosperity.”

Other notable speakers included: Juan Gonzalez, special assistant to the president; National Security Council senior director, Western Hemisphere; Ricardo Zúniga, principal deputy assistant secretary of state of Western Hemisphere Affairs and special envoy for the Northern Triangle; Rebecca Bill Chavez, president of Inter-American Dialogue and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs; Admiral Craig Faller, retired U.S. admiral and senior fellow at Florida International University; Ambassador Anthony Phillips-Spencer, Trinidad and Tobago’s ambassador to the U.S.; and Celina Realuyo, professor of practice, William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.