© 2025 WLRN
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Can Haiti’s historic World Cup win help end gang rule?

Ways To Subscribe
Fans celebrate Haiti's qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup after a soccer match against Nicaragua, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
Odelyn Joseph
/
AP
Fans celebrate Haiti's qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup after a soccer match against Nicaragua, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.

Opinion: Haiti's remarkable qualification for the 2026 soccer World Cup won't rescue it from the country's gangs — but it reminds us that Haiti undoubtedly is worth saving from that monstrous evil.

Qualifying for next summer’s World Cup – it’s first in over half a century – won’t rescue Haiti from the clutches of the gangs ruling and terrorizing a growing portion of the county.

But on the latest episode of Americas Decoded, WLRN’s Americas editor Tim Padgett says that, as the U.S. and the U.N. press onward with a new solution to gang governance, it ought to remind the international community that it needs to get serious about sending police or even military backup into Haiti.

You can watch the video for this and other Americas Decoded commentaries on WLRN’s YouTube channel on youtube.com/@WLRN or on WLRN.org/Decoded. You can read Tim’s digital commentary along with WLRN’s coverage of Americas news on WLRN.org/americas. Sign up for the Americas Report newsletter on WLRN.org/newsletters. WLRN is South Florida’s NPR member station.