April 17, 2025 marked two centuries since one of the most unjust episodes in modern history: the forced collection of an illegitimate debt that France imposed on Haiti as a condition for recognizing its independence. On April 17, 1825, King Charles X signed an ordinance forcing the nascent republic to pay 150 million gold francs – equivalent to about USD 21 billion today – plunging the country into a cycle of poverty, dependence, and violence that continues to this day.
Amid an unprecedented humanitarian and political crisis, social organizations, political parties, and human rights defenders from Latin America and the Caribbean have submitted letters to French embassies demanding historical reparations. The demand seeks not only economic justice, but also recognition of a colonial crime that has left Haiti in a situation of extreme vulnerability.
The current crisis: a silent genocide
The situation in Haiti is devastating. 85% of the capital Port-au-Prince is controlled by armed gangs that impose curfews, extort the population, and force thousands of families to flee their homes. In the metropolitan area, one in three people is displaced, crowded into makeshift camps where the lack of water, health care, and electricity exacerbates their suffering. The authorities have had to relocate institutions to less conflict-prone areas, while violence paralyzes any attempt at stability.
Added to this is the xenophobic policy of the Dominican Republic, which in the last six months has deported more than 180,000 Haitians with an irregular immigration status, ignoring calls from international organizations. The expulsions, driven by a government that has been accused of fueling structural racism, have left thousands of people in limbo without protection. Meanwhile, the construction of a border wall deepens segregation.
Read more: Anti-Haitian protest in the Dominican Republic turns deadly, nationalists call for intensifying mass deportations
The debt that strangled a people
In 1825, arriving with warships, King Charles X forced Haiti to accept the ordinance to pay so-called “reparations” to France for the loss of its colony and “property” ie. the enslaved Haitians, which were both freed through the Haitian revolution in 1804 which abolished slavery and defeated colonialism. This agreement forced the Caribbean nation and free Black republic into debt with European and US banks. For more than a century, Haiti allocated up to 80% of its income to paying off this debt, paralyzing its development and condemning generations to poverty.
“The real victims of this odious [debt] were the Haitian peasants,” says Camille Chalmers, an economist and representative of the Caribbean People’s Assembly (CPA). ”It is they, along with the entire Haitian people, who have borne the crushing weight of this debt and who must now be the only ones to decide how the returned funds will be used.”
Chalmers warns against any attempt by France to impose conditions: “Extreme vigilance is needed to prevent France from recovering, in other forms, the money it has committed to return. Popular sovereignty must be absolute in this process.”
An urgent call for solidarity
The Haitian crisis is not France’s responsibility alone. The United States and other powers sustained a neocolonial system that drowned the country in debt and interventions. Today, as the Multinational Security Mission (MSS) – led by Kenya – attempts to contain the violence, many question whether it will be enough without economic justice.
“By demanding reparations, we are not only demanding the payment of an illegitimate debt, but the recognition of a historical crime,” Chalmers points out. Haiti’s struggle is also the struggle of all peoples who have suffered colonial exploitation. Two hundred years later, it is time for France to return what it stole. Haiti can no longer bear the weight of a freedom it won for itself and for all humanity.
