Overview:
Originally published by Index on Censorship, this report investigates how USAID funding cuts under Donald Trump’s administration have weakened Haiti’s media, LGBTQ+ and health services sectors—leaving civil society voiceless amid gang violence, poverty and political instability.
By Gabriella Jóźwiak | Index on Censorship
Editorial Note: This article was first published by Index on Censorship on 28 July 2025. It appeared in Volume 54, Issue 2 of Index on Censorship’s print magazine, titled: Land of the Free?: Trump’s war on speech at home and abroad. Read more about the issue here.
Their assailants were armed with machetes, firearms and sticks. The group of 10 Haitian journalists did not stand a chance.
“Their equipment – cameras, recorders, telephones, helmets and bullet-proof vests – were taken by their attackers, reducing their ability to document events,” reported online Haitian news service Réalité Info.
This attack on the media was one of three which took place within a week in March 2025 in the country’s capital Port-au-Prince, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Haiti-based UNESCO representative Eric Voli Bi warned that gangs, which control an estimated 85% of the city, had a strategy to silence journalists and “prevent Haitians from getting information about the situation in a transparent manner”.
The dangerous reporting climate in Haiti is why the US Agency for International Development (USAID) formerly invested in programmes to protect press freedom in the country.
Since US President Donald Trump’s administration began dismantling the department the same month the Port-au-Prince attacks happened, Haitian community media’s ability to speak out about injustices has been impaired. But this is not the only negative consequence.
USAID accounted for a fifth of Haiti’s total aid income, according to the think tank the Center for Global Development. Last year the agency committed more than $165 million in humanitarian assistance to the nation, where more than a million people are internally displaced and live in dire conditions.
The withdrawal of that funding has damaged grassroots organisations’ freedom of speech, including those representing people with HIV and AIDS, and rape victims.
Other cuts are also having dire consequences for freedom of expression. Close to $800,000 a year of USAID money used to go to community or regional radio stations in Haiti’s provinces, according to Fritznel Octave, Haiti editor of the Haitian Times newspaper. This money went towards security assistance in different forms, including paying for safe workspaces and providing security training.
Haiti has more than 700 radio and TV stations, and radio is the most widely followed medium in the country, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Octave says many stations struggle to survive as they lack investment and advertising revenue is currently low. They rely on USAID funding and the withdrawal has left a large gap. “They now operate with a skeleton newsroom, where they could be airing just spiritual or religious content, or something very insignificant, to help them sustain their operations,” he said.
Octave, who has covered Haiti for more than 25 years, added that, in addition to USAID cuts, Trump is legitimising media repression through other actions. “It has always been a struggle for freedom of expression in Haiti,” said Octave, referring to chronic media underfunding, lack of regulation, political intimidation, and restricted freedom of movement imposed by gangs.
“But when you have Trump in power, as opposed to Biden, Trump always has this dangerous narrative,” he said. “Haiti is a country that has always been picking up narrative or functioning based on US-dictated policies. So any narrative in the USA is basically spread over Haiti.” He offered the example of Trump referring to the media as the “enemy of the people,” which could give the Haitian government justification to revoke a journalist’s media accreditation if they choose. Since last year, Haiti has fallen from position 93 in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index to 111.
One of the areas of support most critically hit by the USAID cuts is the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In Haiti, PEPFAR-supported treatment facilities served 80% of patients at high risk of HIV, offering them PReP treatment which helps prevent infection.
Today, services have been completely halted, except those for pregnant and lactating women. A monthly rise of 30% to 50% of new HIV cases is expected as a result of the closure of all prevention and communication activities, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
In Croix-des-Bouquets, about 13km outside Port-au-Prince, Dominique Saint-Vil suddenly has a lot of time on his hands. He is the executive director of the Organisation Trans d’Haiti (OTRAH), an NGO dedicated to the inclusion of transgender people in the country. “We have shut down everything,” he said.
OTRAH received money from PEPFAR to deliver awareness campaigns to young people about HIV and AIDS and training for local health groups on providing healthcare to transgender and HIV-positive people, among other services.
Saint-Vil says grassroots organisations are not speaking up about the damaging impact of the USAID cuts, because they have little influence over funding decisions, but also because they fear what might happen to them. “Protesting is a dangerous way to do things,” he said. “We are scared for our lives.”
In May, Haitian protesters held placards outside central authority offices demanding the resumption of HIV drug distribution. However, only about 12 people took part, according to the Haitian Times. Saint-Vil said such demonstrations are often organised spontaneously so gangs are less likely to hear about them in advance. In the first quarter of 2025, more than 1,600 people were killed in Haiti and at least 161 kidnapped, according to UN figures.
Trump’s executive order aimed at curtailing gender transition for young people in the USA has bolstered discriminatory attitudes in Haiti, Saint-Vil added. This is another reason why his organisation has cut back awareness-raising community activities.
“There was a lot of hate speech, a lot of transphobia and homophobia, before. But that has really affected the situation here,” he said. “Before people were more careful with what they were saying, but now they openly target transgender people online and in real life.”
This has forced trans people to stay indoors and only go out in groups to places they know they are accepted. Because of Trump, Saint-Vil says people “feel like they have permission to do whatever they want” to minority groups.
Nègès Mawon is a Haitian NGO advocating for women in Haiti, in particular victims of rape and gender-based violence. In the first three months of 2025, the UN identified more than 333 survivors of sexual violence. The majority were rape victims and they had often been subjected to gang-rape.
Co-founder and general coordinator Pascale Solages said the USAID funding cuts forced her organisation to scale back a nationwide project to encourage women’s participation in politics, ahead of the country’s scheduled presidential election in November.
A Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) has governed Haiti since last year, put in place after a surge in violence. The last democratically elected president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in July 2021.
“It was important for us to work with women in all kinds of communities to help them understand the impact of elections and their participation as citizens,” said Solages.
Women in Haiti are actively engaged in advocacy work, but the TPC is “doing nothing” to help women and girls, she added. Not one of the TPC’s seven voting members is female.
The ability of Haitians to raise their needs at US state department level has worsened under the Trump administration, Solages said. In 2022, President Biden launched a ten-year plan to prevent conflict and promote stability in Haiti. Conversely, Trump publicly referred to Haiti as a “shithole” during his first term as president in January 2018. He later denied making this comment, posting on X (formerly Twitter): “Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country.”
“We have less allies in the USA,” said Solages. “It’s more difficult now to be in spaces where we can influence and where we can be in the conversation about what’s happening.”
Increasing poverty in Haiti is another obstacle preventing Haitians from expressing themselves, according to human rights activist Nixon Boumba.
Over half the population – 5.7 million people – are experiencing high levels of food insecurity. Boumba believes the USA and the international community are failing to address the security issues and therefore contributing to the deteriorating humanitarian situation. “We have a right to speak, but we don’t have the capacity to do that, because of the situation we are living in,” he said.
“People are disconnected from human rights, or policy, because they have to deal with huge and hard challenges to survive. We can’t speak because we have to fight to survive.”
Boumba added that it is impossible for the planned presidential election to go ahead. “The main priority of Haitian people is security,” he said. “But the government itself is not able to go to the [presidential] palace or move around the country.” There are also concerns that gangs would control voters and influence the outcome, rendering the whole process undemocratic.
Trump’s condemnation of Haitian immigrants in the USA is the starkest example of how his administration has condemned the nation. One of the most publicised quotes from his 2024 election campaign was the claim Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating pet cats and dogs.
Since Trump came to power, he has revoked a legal temporary protection status for more than 500,000 Haitian, Venezuelan, Cuban and Nicaraguan migrants who fled dangerous conditions in their homelands for the USA. They now face potential imminent deportation.
Emmanuela Douyon, head of special projects and advocacy at Policité, a Haiti-based think tank focused on economic development, says fear of being thrown out of the USA has pushed Haitian migrants like herself underground. Doyon fled Haiti to the USA in 2021 after receiving death threats. But now she watches her words and avoids all contact with American authorities.
“It’s the first time in many years I’m afraid something I say might have consequences on my freedom,” she said.
“I’ve always been careful about commenting on US foreign policy here because of my status as an asylum seeker, but now I’m trying not to be [present] where protests are happening. Because I’m Black, I’ll be easily targeted.” Doyon added that even if she was a victim of crime, she would not call the police in case they began probing her immigration status.
Fear of criticising the USA runs deep through Haitian society, according to Yvel Admettre, secretary general of the Confederation of Public and Private Sector Workers (CTSP) trade union. “Even if they take actions against us in our own homes, everyone is afraid to speak [against them], even politicians and leaders,” he said.
One reason for this is people do not want to risk being denied visas to enter the USA, Admettre suggested. But another is the financial control the USA holds over the country. NGOs may be afraid to criticise the decision to cut USAID funding, in case that negates any chance of receiving funding again should it become available. Haitian businesses are also afraid the USA will destroy the trade agreements that keep some Haitian workers in desperately needed employment.
Not only did Trump impose a 10% tariff on Caribbean imports on his so-called “Liberation Day” in April, but since coming into power, he has failed to renew two trade programmes that expire in September 2025 and which benefit Haiti’s garment manufacturers. The Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act (HOPE) allows US imports of textiles and clothing from Haiti to be duty-free.
The Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act further expands duty-free status for Haitians exports. Without them, tens of thousands of garment workers could lose their jobs, plunging even more Haitians into poverty and exacerbating the impact of USAID cuts.
Admettre recounts a Haitian saying: “A wooden door cannot fight with an iron door.” It means one cannot fight with a power that is much stronger than another. Haiti knows it is the weaker side and therefore does not react to Trump’s destructive actions or derogatory comments, Admettre said.
“We cannot stand head-to-head with the USA, because it is the policeman of the world.”