Since 1986, democracy has been promised, but corruption has been delivered.

Opinion | The Haitian Pulse Editorial Team | September 14, 2025

For those who lived in the so-called “dictatorship era,” Haiti was a different place. Though far from perfect, the country functioned. Streets were safer, schools operated, public works were maintained, and the machinery of state—though heavy-handed—at least worked. There was order, even if it came with repression. It was an era with room for improvement, but the state was not collapsing.

That all changed in 1986. The departure of the Duvalier dynasty was supposed to usher in a new dawn of democracy. Instead, it opened the floodgates to a culture of corruption so pervasive that it seeped into every institution. The nation’s political, economic, and moral foundations were hollowed out. Today, nearly four decades later, corruption is not merely a problem in Haiti — it has become its very culture.

Since 1986, the only air Haitians have been breathing is the air of corruption. And when corruption becomes the environment, what else can one expect of its people?

Government: A Broken Trinity

Executive Branch — Power for Sale

The presidency was once a symbol of the state’s authority. After 1986, it became a revolving door for opportunists. Rather than serving the people, successive presidents have treated the national palace as a personal business enterprise. Public funds meant for infrastructure, education, and healthcare were siphoned into offshore accounts. Development projects became nothing more than photo opportunities designed to justify loans that would later vanish into private pockets.

International aid poured into Haiti with every crisis, but instead of being invested to rebuild the nation, it enriched a small circle of insiders. From “disaster capitalism” after the 2010 earthquake to embezzled COVID-19 funds, the executive branch perfected the art of exploiting tragedy for personal gain.

Presidents who came to power promising reform quickly aligned themselves with corrupt business families or foreign governments, trading sovereignty for survival. Instead of being guardians of the republic, they became caretakers of their own fortunes.

Justice System — The Fortress of Impunity

If the executive sold power, the justice system made sure no one paid the price. In theory, Haiti’s judiciary should safeguard fairness. In practice, it became the chief architect of impunity. Judges, prosecutors, and lawyers have long been for sale. Court cases are delayed until they vanish, files mysteriously disappear, and rulings favor those who can pay.

High-profile assassinations, massacres, and corruption scandals rarely lead to convictions. In fact, justice in Haiti is so predictable that many citizens no longer bother to report crimes. They know the system is designed not to punish criminals but to protect them — provided they have the right political or financial connections.

The justice system is not blind; it sees very clearly. But it sees only who can pay, and it sells verdicts accordingly.

Legislative Branch — The Auction House

The legislature, supposed to be the voice of the people, is the loudest symbol of betrayal. Deputies and senators were elected to represent local communities but quickly became brokers of corruption in Port-au-Prince. Laws are drafted not for national progress but to protect monopolies, shield allies, and weaken accountability.

Parliament has often functioned less like a legislative chamber and more like an auction house. Votes of confidence, budget approvals, and national decisions are sold to the highest bidder. Deputies once threw fists on the chamber floor over bribe money. Instead of protecting the constitution, the legislature has torn it apart, rewriting or ignoring it whenever expedient.

This cycle has made government not just dysfunctional but a marketplace of betrayal, where every law and every decision has a price tag.

Private Sector: The Oligarchs’ Fortress

The private sector, dominated by a handful of families, bears its share of guilt. Instead of becoming the engine of national development, these elites have been gatekeepers of stagnation. They monopolize imports, drive up prices, and crush small competitors. Haiti’s dependency on imported rice, for example, is not just the result of international policy but the deliberate choice of elites who profit from it.

Their strategy is simple: keep the population poor, desperate, and dependent. By doing so, they preserve their control. Every attempt to build self-sufficiency — from agriculture to energy — has been sabotaged by those who benefit from scarcity. Far from being the innovators of progress, the oligarchs are the custodians of poverty.

Evangelical Sector: Selling Heaven to the Poor

The explosion of evangelical churches after 1986 promised spiritual renewal but became another pillar of exploitation. Pastors and church leaders tell the poor that heaven is their only true reward. Suffering on earth is painted as destiny, even virtue. By convincing their congregations to accept misery as divine will, they create a docile flock.

Meanwhile, they demand tithes and offerings from people who can barely afford food. Churches sprout in every neighborhood, yet their leaders grow wealthy while their congregants sink deeper into poverty. And when corrupt politicians or businessmen need moral cover, many pastors are quick to pray over them, bless their wealth, or endorse their campaigns.

Far from being a moral compass, much of the evangelical sector has become a business — profiting off desperation and selling salvation while avoiding any confrontation with injustice.

Media: The Betrayal of Truth

The media, often hailed as the “fourth branch of power,” has perhaps committed the gravest betrayal. In a nation suffocated by lies, it was supposed to be the watchdog. Instead, too many journalists and media owners sold their voices to oligarchs and politicians.

Headlines are bought, stories are suppressed, and airtime is auctioned. Media outlets openly serve as propaganda machines for the elites that finance them. A population already drowning in poverty is further drowned in misinformation, kept divided and distracted while corruption thrives.

The result is devastating: Haitians no longer know who to trust. Truth is distorted, facts are twisted, and national dialogue has become polluted by lies.

A Generational Legacy of Corruption

Too often, blame falls on the current generation of Haitians. Critics say young people are apathetic, untrustworthy, or violent. But this is unfair. The youth are not the architects of Haiti’s decay; they are its product.

Those who have held positions of leadership since 1986 are now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. These are the men and women who promised democracy but delivered disaster. They mastered the art of corruption and institutionalized it. And now, they are passing that poisoned legacy to the next generation.

What young Haitians see is not opportunity but a system rigged against them. They grow up watching leaders steal with impunity, pastors exploit faith, businessmen crush competition, and journalists sell lies. If the youth reproduce corruption, it is because they have been raised in an environment where corruption is culture, where honesty is punished and dishonesty is rewarded.

Blaming the current generation without acknowledging the failures of their elders is not only dishonest but dangerous. It obscures where the true blame lies: with the very people who inherited power after 1986 and chose to destroy a nation rather than rebuild it.

A Nation Suffocating

Nearly forty years of this poisoned environment has left Haiti gasping. Corruption has become culture, and culture shapes behavior. To expect a society raised in corruption to act otherwise is wishful thinking. Many in the diaspora have already given up, convinced Haiti is a lost cause.

And yet, in every society there are always a few good ones. Haiti has them too. But they remain on the sidelines, hesitant to dive into the murky waters where corruption swallows everything in its path. Their fear is understandable — in Haiti, leadership often means martyrdom. But their absence leaves a vacuum.

The Haitian Pulse believes Haiti’s tragedy is not just in the corruption of its institutions, but in the betrayal of the promise of 1986. Where dictatorship once maintained a flawed but functional state, democracy has delivered decades of lawlessness, corruption, and despair. To save Haiti, the nation must cleanse the poisoned air it breathes — and that requires courage, organization, and the will to reject the culture of corruption at every level. The question is not whether change is possible, but whether Haitians will choose to fight for it. Leave your comments below — your voice is part of this struggle.