The assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Mose on Wednesday was the first slaying of a Haitian leader in more than a century. But the scripts that dominate interpretations of Haitian politics, with its cycles of political upheaval abetted by foreign actors, can seem relatively unchanged over time.
Often lost in this narrative are the root causes of the alienation of the Haitian people from their government. Over and over, the Haitian state and its manipulators have failed to support the democratic aspirations of its people, who have faced mutating but ever-present obstacles in their efforts to create a life based on principles of freedom, dignity and true sovereignty.