Haiti鈥檚 prime minister has said he will resign, bowing to international pressure to save his homeland gripped by violence and controlled by heavily armed gangsters.

Ariel Henry made the announcement hours after officials, including Caribbean leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met in Jamaica to discuss a solution to halt and agreed to a joint proposal to establish a transitional council.

What is going on in Haiti?

It鈥檚 easy to blame this latest spasm of violence in the West's first free Black republic on , the legacy of colonialism, , and European and U.S. interference.

However, a series of experts told The Associated Press that the most important immediate cause is more recent: Haitian rulers鈥 increasing .

Haiti hasn鈥檛 had a standing army or a well-funded and robust national police force for decades.

United Nations and American interventions have come and gone. Without a solid tradition of honest political institutions, Haitian leaders have been using armed civilians as tools for exercising power.

Now, the state has grown fatally weak and gangs are stepping in to take its place.

Gang leaders, surreally, hold news conferences. And many see them as future stakeholders in negotiations over the country鈥檚 future.

How did Haiti get here?

A 1990s embargo was imposed after the military . The embargo and the international isolation devastated the country鈥檚 small middle class, said Michael Deibert, author of 鈥淣otes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,鈥 and 鈥淗aiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.鈥

After a U.S.-backed U.N. force pushed out the coup's leaders in 1994, a World Bank-sponsored structural adjustment led to the importation of rice from the U.S. and devastated rural agricultural society, Deibert said.

Boys without work flooded into Port-au-Prince and joined gangs. Politicians started using them as a cheap armed wing. Aristide, a priest-turned-politician, gained notoriety for using gangsters.

In December 2001, police official attacked the 春色直播 Palace in an attempted coup and Aristide called on the gangsters to rise from the slums, Deibert said.

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 the police defending their government鈥檚 Palais Nacional,鈥 remembered Deibert, who was there. 鈥淚t was thousands of armed civilians.鈥

鈥淣ow, you have these different politicians that have been collaborating with these gangs for years, and ... it blew up in their face," he said.

How did weak foreign intervention hurt Haiti?

Many of the gangs retreated in the face of MINUSTAH, a .

, the only democratically elected president to win and complete two terms in a country notorious for political upheaval, took a hard line on the gangs, giving them the choice to 鈥渄isarm or be killed,鈥 said Robert Fatton, professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia.

After his presidency, subsequent leaders were at best easy on the gangs and at worst tied to them, he said.

Fatton said every key actor in Haitian society had their gangs, noting that the current situation isn't unique, but that it has deteriorated at a faster pace.

鈥淔or the last the three years, the gangs started to gain autonomy. And now they are a power unto themselves,鈥 he said, likening them to a 鈥渕ini-Mafia state.鈥

鈥淭he autonomy of the gangs has reached a critical point. It is why they are capable now of imposing certain conditions on the government itself," Fatton said.

"Those who created the gangs created a monster. And now the monster may not be totally in charge, but it has the capacity to block any kind of solution.鈥

How does gang money hurt Haiti?

The gangs, along with many Haitian politicians and business people, earn money from an illicit brew of 鈥渢axes" gleaned through extortion, kidnappings, and drugs and weapons smuggling, Fatton said.

鈥淭here are all kinds criminal networks in the area,鈥 he said.

After Preval, gangs, politicians and business people extracted every dollar they could, said Francois Pierre-Louis, a professor of political science at Queens College at The City University of New York.

鈥淚t was open house for gangs, drugs, the country, basically ... became a narco-trafficking state,鈥 he said. 鈥淏asically, the gangs got empowered, and not only they got empowered, they had state protection, politicians protecting them.鈥

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