The Haiti Assassination & Private Mercenary Armies w/ Kelley Vlahos

On this edition of Parallax Views, the President of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated on July 7th. Details are still emerging, but it appears that the culprits were Colombian. The plot thickens as it also appears these Colombians were the hired guns of a private security firm based in Miami, Florida. Said firm is apparently connected to Venezuela and a Venezuelan expat. The Colombians seem to be implying that they were patsies.

These details raise the specter of a phenomena that has become prevalent in the years following 9/11 and the launching of the War on Terror by President George W. Bush. Namely, the issue of private mercenary armies. The most infamous case of this phenomena in the post-9/11 years was, of course, Erik Prince's Blackwater. Although the outsourcing of security to private firms is not new, it is now at a whole different level and on a global scale in the 21st century.

Joining us to discuss all of this is returning guest Kelley Vlahos of The Quincy Institute's Responsible Statecraft publication. In her latest piece, "The Miami-Haiti Connection: Another mercenary, another day", dives into the case of the Haitian assassination as well as dealing with last year's "Bay of Piglets" case and the potentials issues arising from the privatization of security at home and abroad. This, she argues, is an issue that should concern both the right and left of the political spectrum and an example of dangerous crony capitalism.