ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of coercive paramilitary force in contemporary Haiti and the structural dynamics that have propelled these groups, with emphasis on the last 20 years. The central focus is on the relationship between these phenomena and the incorporation of Haiti into the globalizing economy. I analyze the role of paramilitary forces in dismantling the progressive-grassroots Lavalas political project as well as their relationship to the US-France-Canadian ouster of Haiti’s infant democracy. Following the end of the Cold War, a critical juncture characterized by the rising success of Haiti’s grassroots movement, the disbanding of Haiti’s army, the shifting goals of policy-makers from various supranational and national institutions and international human rights pressures, influenced and pressured elites who have traditionally relied on extra-legal methods of social control. The central argument advanced in this chapter is that the recent emergence of numerous paramilitary groups that can easily switch back and forth between being dormant and active, and the rise of para-police, has to do with the new capitalist class configuration that has formed over the recent decades of globalization and the shifting strategies of US policy-makers and other transnational elites for consolidating political domination.
