In Solino, the State Has Returned to Where It Deserted, Is It Ready to Stay?

PORT-AU-PRINCE.— The visit of Haitian authorities to Solino, presented as an act of reconquest of public authority, raises as many questions as it claims to provide answers. Behind the official staging of the State's return, persists the unease of a power that still struggles to demonstrate its capacity to exercise real and lasting sovereignty in territories long abandoned.

Council-Presidents Leslie Voltaire and Edgar Leblanc Fils, accompanied by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, visited this emblematic district of Port-au-Prince this Saturday, as part of the government program «Retour au quartier» (Return to the Neighborhood). An initiative of high symbolic value, certainly, but whose concrete impact remains largely questionable. For if the State claims to return, it would still need to demonstrate that it had retained the means to do so.

For years, Solino lived to the rhythm of armed violence, the erosion of public institutions, and the abandonment of essential services. This void was filled by criminal groups who imposed their own order, often with extreme brutality. In this context, the mere occasional presence of high-ranking officials, under heavy protection, cannot suffice to erase years of state abdication.

Even more troubling, the very conditions of this visit fuel suspicions. How was such an incursion made possible in a neighborhood that authorities had abandoned to heavily armed gangs? In public opinion, persistent questions circulate, evoking possible tacit arrangements with the criminal group Viv Ansanm, which, a few weeks ago, had issued a call for return.

At what price did the CPT obtain temporary secure access to certain strategic areas? These are allegations that the authorities have, until now, neither clearly dispelled nor substantiated with convincing explanations.

Faced with these doubts, the official discourse emphasizes firmness and the will to restore order. Yet, announcements remain vague and concrete commitments are difficult to identify. No precise timetable, no detailed plan for lasting security, nor effective reinstallation of public services was clearly communicated at the end of the visit. There is a great risk that this initiative will be reduced to a propaganda operation, intended more to manipulate public opinion than to transform the reality on the ground.

For the residents of Solino, caution is essential. Experience has taught them that the State's promises are sometimes just empty words, while reprisals from armed groups can be immediate. Moreover, an image that went viral on social media shows a citizen lashing out at the Prime Minister.

The true return of the State will be measured neither by an official march nor by disseminated images, but by the continuous presence of the police, the resumption of public services, the protection of civilians, and the gradual restoration of trust. In Solino, the State can claim to have returned. It remains to be seen if it is ready, this time, to stay.