Organized Violence and Criminal Statehood: The Haitian Governmental Crisis of the First Quarter of 2024

Abstract

Criminal violence has grown exponentially in Latin America and the Caribbean. The criminal repertoires of criminal organizations have diversified to the detriment of state capacities. An extreme example of this process can be seen in the current crisis in Haiti. In this regard, this essay explores the process of state formation based on organized criminal violence in Haiti in early 2024. This analysis opens the door to understanding state-criminality relations at the regional level in a different way. To this end, historical and current information on state formation during the Haitian Revolution and
the crisis events recorded in the first three months of 2024 in that country were reviewed. In each case, bibliographic sources and the Spanish-language press were used. The analysis revealed that criminal actors deployed organized violence that allowed them to challenge the monopoly of the legitimate use of force, hegemony, and the state project against Haitian state actors. Based on this, the essay concludes that organized criminal violence is the mechanism that operated in the formation of a nascent criminal statehood in the Haitian case.