Dude, I can't have absolute certainty over an alternate timeline. Maybe the Taino would have given birth to a genocidal dictator who would go on to eradicate the entire planet in a nuclear holocaust. Pretty unlikely, but who knows? All any honest person can say is that it seems very likely the country and island would have been better off without the crimes of Columbus etc.
And while Haiti has some people with the potential to become leaders, nobody has the effective ability to exert leadership over the country or a realistic pathway to gain that ability. Maybe that changes eventually. I don't know.
This isn't about an echo chamber of hopelessness. This is acceptance of reality. I have talked to emigres about the issues facing Haiti. You want to pretend there's hope? Go ahead.
Also, I'm not sure why you are trying to pretend that the US "kidnapped" Aristede when what happened is that he fled to the US after the Haitian military ejected him from power in a coup. He was later restored to power by US intervention, in 1994, after the military ran the country halfway into the ground.
I seriously don't understand why I should care
You're right that the country would almost certainly be better off if the French and Spanish hadn't colonized it in the first place. That almost goes without saying.
The Haitian people can and should challenge their leaders and strengthen their governance, but everyone else can either apologize and look for ways to be supportive or shut up.
That's the thing. Haiti doesn't have political leaders or effective governance to challenge. And telling people who recognize that fact to shut up won't change it.
Haiti has agency. Haitians have agency. They have been free of foreign control since the end of the US occupation, almost a century ago. They have been free of onerous forced foreign debt payments since 1947. Haiti is a country situated right by one of the largest import consumers in the world and has enjoyed favorable trade and investment terms and incentives with the US for decades.
But foreign investment doesn't flow into the country. Why? Because it is a failed state with no effective leadership, corrupt beyond measure. The Duvaliers and the following dictators are the ones most responsible for making the country that way, and they weren't Western puppets. They were domestic.
Save me some, yo
I mean I object to his imperialist invasion of Ukraine. You don't, then?