Seven years ago, Brazil ended its military occupation in Haiti, with a death toll of 30,000

Brasil de Fato

Seven years ago, on October 15, 2017, the criticized United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) ended its occupation in the country. Led by the Brazilian government, the initiative left a track of the deaths of thousands of Haitians and systematic human rights violations.

The mission was established on June 1, 2004. At that time, the country was plunged into a spiral of violence that culminated in the coup d’état against then president Jean Bertrand Aristide, a popular leader who had been a Salesian priest linked to the liberation theology.

Since then, the stabilization mission, composed of troops from 16 nations, occupied Haiti with the aim of “stabilizing the country” and “promoting free elections.”

The military occupation lasted 13 long years. During this period, around 37,500 Brazilian soldiers, organized into contingents that rotated every six months, took part in the mission in the Caribbean country.

Brazil had already joined UN military missions, the first time in 1947 in the Balkans, but had never before exercised military command. By taking on the responsibility of leading Minustah at the invitation of the UN Security Council, the government sought to build an international image of leadership, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The military mission left a history of violence and human rights violations in Haiti, with more than 30,000 deaths and 2,000 victims of sexual abuse, mostly women and children.

General Augusto Heleno was the first Brazilian to head Minustah between 2004 and 2005. He would later take on a prominent role during Jair Bolsonaro’s government as head of the Institutional Security Cabinet (GSI) and head of intelligence. 
In July 2005, troops under his command operated a “pacification” operation in Cité Soleil, one of the largest slums in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.

The “operation” was denounced to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) by the Global Justice Center. The complaint was based on several testimonies from residents who stated that, in the early hours of the morning, around 300 men invaded the neighborhood, killing 63 people. 

Commander is out, but violence perpetuates

Heleno was dismissed due to severe accusations of human rights violations by the troops he commanded. However, those same troops remained in the country for over a decade.

Set up in the poor neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, these soldiers’ experience of violence later gave rise to the embryo of the Pacifying Police Units (UPP), which were later implanted in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

In 2010, Haiti suffered a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people (according to the Haitian government). It was one of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded.

The UN Security Council has decided to increase Minustah’s potency by expanding its personnel in the country. The new soldiers who traveled to the island introduced diseases such as cholera, a disease that had not been recorded in Haiti for more than a century. Around 10,000 people have died as a result of the epidemic.