(Français)
Viv Ansanm (Let’s Live Together), a contested, criticized, feared – but above all misunderstood – entity, extends a generous hand to those who, only yesterday, refused even to acknowledge its “political” existence. This proposal is an invitation to dialectics. Not to compromise, but to the co-construction of reality.
Yes, let’s put it bluntly: the time has come to negotiate. Not out of weakness, but because reality, stubborn, and irrefutable, imposes its own logic.
Why now?
Because even the powerful have understood that brute force has not triumphed. Because criminalization hasn’t eradicated protest – it’s amplified it. Because silencing speech did not extinguish popular legitimacy. Because chaos has changed sides. And above all, because a red line has just been crossed: the decision by the United States to classify certain Haitian groups as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” This declaration is not just a moral verdict – it’s a strategic turning point. It’s the language of geopolitics, which says: “You exist too strongly for us to ignore you, but not yet well enough for us to respect you.”
Paradoxically, this designation implicitly recognizes a de facto power, a monopoly on violence in certain areas, which even the Haitian state no longer holds. But it is precisely this excess of language that reveals the truth: we only demonize what we can no longer ignore. We call “terrorists” only those we implicitly recognize as possessing real power – power that escapes institutional fiction. The corrupt state has neither sovereignty nor popular roots.
Viv Ansanm, yes, the international community cannot ignore a structure that is already replacing the state on the ground.
Viv Ansanm has imposed a balance of power. And when a force imposes fear, order, obedience or silence, it enters the realm of politics. You can reject their ideology, but you can no longer deny their existence. Let’s be honest:
The Haitian state no longer governs – it administers collapse. The elites don’t govern – they preserve their privileges behind armored walls. As for the chancelleries, they pass the buck, but know exactly where the real authority lies on the ground.
So, yes, the international community must negotiate.
But why?
1) Because to exclude is to radicalize. Sun Tzu, in The Art of War, asserts: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” True victory does not lie in extermination. It lies in converting the balance of power into a political construct. So, force has failed. Military interventions, targeted sanctions and UN missions have not disarmed the country – they have fractured it. MINUSTAH proved this, and its bloody failures still resonate in Haiti’s collective memory.
Viv Ansanm, on the other hand, has imposed an alternative order, real territorial control and local regulation. This is no utopia. It’s a fact. And facts can be dealt with, not denied. And this fact deserves dialogue, not condemnation. History has proven it: the more you hit a structure without understanding it, the more you entrench it. The example of Boko Haram or FARC is clear.
2) Because Haiti is on the brink of civil war. The mistake would be to believe that Haiti is experiencing a simple “gang” crisis. No. Haiti is experiencing a popular pre-insurrection, fueled by the collapse of the State’s verticality, and aggravated by the arrogance of imported responses. Viv Ansanm is a radical expression of this. To call it “terrorism” without diagnosis is to choose the “Israeli” path – perpetual war. Better to transform this energy of rupture into a lever for stabilization.
Violence is not a political project. And Viv Ansanm knows this. War only creates chaos, not power. If you want to govern, you have to convince, not conquer. So dialectic rather than force is a sign of strategic maturity. And in diplomacy, the strongest is not the one who shoots, but the one who can impose a negotiating table. The art of modern warfare is no longer about bullets. It’s about deals. In coalitions, in representations, in the ability to transform a balance of power into a lever for political transformation.
3) Because Viv Ansanm exercises a part of real sovereignty. It’s here that an inconvenient truth emerges: legitimacy has shifted. Not in the hotels where fake transition pacts are signed, but in the working-class neighborhoods. Viv Ansanm does not replace the State – it fills the void of its absence. And the one that manages security, local justice, and even humanitarian aid, exercises de facto political authority. The Haitian government is delegitimized, disorganized, and has no hold on the territory.
if you ignore this outstretched hand, you will have refused the last chance for Haitian peace, by and for Haitians.
4) Because fear is changing sides .Even in chancelleries. What worries us now is not just violence, but the possibility of a structured, articulate, irrecoverable popular uprising, driven by an awakened collective conscience. In this context, it’s better to have an identified interlocutor than a generalized fire with no way out.
5) Because a channel for dialogue can save thousands of lives. The truce I am proposing is not a surrender. It’s a test of responsibility. If you believe in peace, prove it. If you want to rebuild Haiti, start by listening to those who have never left.
And to you skeptics, I ask a question: what have you got to lose by dialogue – that you haven’t already lost by silence?
To the international community: what are you really looking for? A just peace?
Then you must speak to those who hold arms. You want to “stabilize” Haiti? Then start by stabilizing your principles. Calling Viv Ansanm “terrorists” while defending a co-opted, rejected, and discredited Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) is an insult to international law itself. You speak of democracy, but you support exclusion. You speak of peace, but you impose military forces without popular consent.
The question is simple: do you want to disarm Haiti or rebuild it?
If the answer is the latter, you must negotiate. And with the real players. Yes, they are not saints. They are the products of a century of betrayal. But they still have something that neither the NGOs, nor the ministries, nor the multinational force possess: the ability to listen to the people. And no foreign force can buy that. Stop negotiating with illusion. Negotiate with reality. And today, the real thing is Viv Ansanm !
As Montesquieu said: “Power must stop power.” And sometimes, it’s in the meeting of two antagonistic powers that equilibrium is born.
Viv Ansanm does not yet impose peace – but it can make it possible. And if you ignore this outstretched hand, you will have refused the last chance for Haitian peace, by and for Haitians. The choice is yours. History has already begun to be written. What I am proposing today is not an act of weakness. It is an act of greatness. “Come, and let us reason together, sayeth the Lord: if your sins are like crimson, they will become white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).
If the world is looking for a Haitian solution to the Haitian crisis, then it’s time to move away from the classic patterns of fruitless dialogue between disconnected elites, and armed intervention with no end in sight. We need to build a progressive stabilization pact, based on reality, with all the forces at play. Peace does not begin with moral perfection. It begins with the will to sit down together – to open a channel of discussion is to enter into the art of logos, into the language of civilization. It means proving that the spoken word is stronger than the Kalashnikov. It means laying the foundation stone for recognized, legitimate and lasting leadership.
I therefore propose a five-stage political roadmap, to be debated, adjusted, and, above all, implemented without delay.
1) Establishment of a negotiated humanitarian truce (30 to 45 days) under the aegis of a neutral actor or any other credible entity – i.e. a temporary humanitarian truce between Viv Ansanm and the transitional authorities (or mandated foreign forces).
The aim is to facilitate aid distribution, reduce immediate violence, and create a minimum climate of trust. This truce does not imply mutual recognition, but recognition of the fact that the other exists.
2) Creation of a Multilateral Contact Committee composed of representatives of:
● The international community (UN, CARICOM, OAS, etc.).
● The Haitian State (or its institutional equivalent).
● Viv Ansanm, via its designated delegates.
● Haitian “civil society,” including independent community leaders.
The committee’s mandate would be to set up a humanitarian corridor, supervise the truce, assess security conditions, and identify political convergence points for the lasting pacification of the areas concerned.
3) A framework agreement for an inclusive and secure political transition under international mediation, this document would define :
● A reciprocal non-aggression zone.
● A progressive de-escalation mechanism, monitored by international observers.
● The modalities for limited political recognition of Viv Ansanm as a transitional actor, without prejudging its future status. This would be neither a general amnesty nor a guarantee of impunity, but a strategic pause allowing us to emerge from controlled chaos without mutual humiliation.
4) Viv Ansanm’s participation in a national refounding forum. This forum, to be convened within 90 days, would bring together all the country’s political and social forces: parties, popular organizations, churches, Haitians living abroad, productive sectors, as well as unconventional forces with territorial or security influence.
Viv Ansanm would have active observer status, with the possibility of entering the political game under certain conditions.
Objectives:
● Develop a new institutional architecture.
● Reconcile the State with the reality on the ground.
● Create a Haitian peace, not an imported one.
5) Define a transitional political status for Viv Ansanm. In the light of the preceding steps, and depending on the commitments made, Viv Ansanm would be offered a supervised political exit:
● Gradual transformation into a community organization, local order force, or legally framed civic movement. Viv Ansanm must emerge as a structured political platform, with an internal dialogue body, a political spokesperson, and a transitional stability program. It’s time to move on from armed dissidence to political dissidence. You have to show the world that you are not just a reaction – you are an alternative.
● Partial or full reintegration into national institutions (police, army, public services, etc.), as appropriate.
● Transitional justice procedures for the most serious crimes, based on a model inspired by truth and reconciliation commissions.
This proposed roadmap is not a dream. It is a gamble – one of dialogue versus destruction, of politics versus punishment, of strategic intelligence versus militaristic pride. For it must be said: peace cannot be decreed, it must be negotiated. And those who believe they can impose it by force will end up negotiating later – in a weaker position.
Viv Ansanm has never been invited to the table. It’s time to change strategy. Not to give in to fear, but to listen to what fear reveals: the failure of old solutions.
So I put the question to all parties: Do you still want to impose an unreal order… or to build a real peace?
To the “international community” : This is no longer a misunderstanding, nor a misreading of the Haitian situation. At this level of continued failure, at this level of willful blindness, we have to tell it like it is: you know exactly what you’re doing. You know that insecurity cannot be solved by punitive expeditions. You know that the Haitian state, as it stands, represents no one but itself. You know that unilateral sanctions, selective arrest warrants and conditional aid only serve to widen the gap between the protected elites and the abandoned population. And you know, above all, that the massive popular rejection of your methods is not a nationalist whim, but the fruit of a long memory: that of a people betrayed at every stage of its quest for dignity.
Sending troops against a social insurrection Portrayed as criminality is like treating a volcano like a forest fire.
Now you know. And since you know, you are accountable. So don’t repeat the mistake made in Afghanistan, Libya, or the Sahel: killing without dialogue creates a resilient monster. You’ve already failed to achieve peace by force. Try diplomacy through reality. Haiti is not a territory to be pacified – it’s a people to be heard. Foreign intervention without a social anchor is a recipe for chaos.
You say you want stability? Then talk to those who really control the terrain. Sending troops against a social insurrection portrayed as criminality is like treating a volcano like a forest fire. To create a multinational force without resolving the crisis of political legitimacy is to kill the future of the Haitian people. Maintaining a meaningless transitional power means keeping an institutional corpse alive under diplomatic perfusion.
What Haiti needs is not armed reinforcements, but courageous political solutions capable of dealing with the complexity of reality. Yes, some gangs are criminal. But some “red zones” have become community survival zones, where the order imposed by Viv Ansanm has replaced the absent state. in some cases, the line between “gang” leader and neighborhood chief has become a gray zone of unrecognized popular governance. To ignore this is to persist in failure. To refuse to talk about it is to choose creeping civil war. History is watching. And future generations will judge.
It’s now, not later, that you can transform a policy of exclusion into a diplomacy of intelligent inclusion, moving from a strategy of neutralization to one of real stabilization, replacing old alliances with discredited elites with engagement with new social forces, however disruptive they may be.
Make no mistake: this is not about rewarding violence. It’s about understanding what made it possible. And negotiating with the consequences of the disorder you have, in part, helped to create.
Viv Ansanm, are you ready to become greater than your weapons?
The real challenge is to transform the authority of fear into the authority of legitimacy. Respect, not intimidation. The project, not the terror. The power you seek is not gained by imposing fear, but by embodying a credible, structured, humane, and historic alternative. You can be liberators. Or remain forces of reaction. The choice is yours.
Peace is won by those who have the courage to speak out. Haiti is on its knees, but not dead. Viv Ansanm can be the matrix of a new order if and only if it frees itself from its identity-based prison, and embraces the path of dialogue. Now is the time to prove that you are more than weapons. That you are an organizing force, a political will. Otherwise, you’ll remain isolated guns, not a historic movement. It’s up to you now to show that you’re more than just a force to be reckoned with. Prove that you are capable of peace, discipline, strategy, and above all: humanity. History won’t give you this opportunity twice. If you want to rule tomorrow, start by talking today.
Rwanda negotiated after the worst.
Colombia negotiated with FARC.
Northern Ireland found peace with the IRA.
And each time, it was mutual recognition, not armed superiority, that made the difference. And as the Gospel says: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).
And to you, foreign leaders, remember this: Those you now call “terrorists” could well be the founders of the new Republic. Provided they prove they know how to negotiate, organize, and govern. For that is the real revolution: moving from violence to sovereignty.
The hour is grave. But sometimes, in the darkness, an unexpected light appears. And what if this light were to come from those who have always been referred to as the darkness itself?
To the Haitian elites: You have lost your historical legitimacy. But you can still save your future. Accept the idea that a new generation is calling you to account. It’s not hate. It’s justice. And negotiated justice is better than judgment by force of arms.
An English translation of the original Haïti Liberté article in French was first published by Internationalist 360̊.
