{"id":16428,"date":"2024-03-05T00:46:44","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T00:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/05\/gangs-rule-haitis-capital-some-say-theyre-ready-to-overthrow-the-government-too\/"},"modified":"2024-03-05T00:46:44","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T00:46:44","slug":"gangs-rule-haitis-capital-some-say-theyre-ready-to-overthrow-the-government-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/05\/gangs-rule-haitis-capital-some-say-theyre-ready-to-overthrow-the-government-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Gangs rule Haiti\u2019s capital. Some say they\u2019re ready to overthrow the government too"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From above,\u00a0Haiti\u2019s\u00a0capital city Port-au-Prince still looks serene,\u00a0its\u00a0white-washed homes climbing steep green hills that encircle a glittering bay. But to step onto its cracked streets requires a careful calculation of risk and reward. <\/p>\n

Ruthless gangs have a stranglehold on the city, preying on the population, carving neighborhoods into warring criminal fiefdoms, and cutting Haiti\u2019s international port off from the rest of the country. <\/p>\n

It was a glimpse into the viral daily torment of life in Haiti, where frequent civilian protests emphasize that the population has reached a breaking point.\u00a0Gangs control 80% of the capital, according to UN estimates, and are fighting to seize the rest. <\/p>\n

Since last week, Port-au-Prince has been gripped by a wave of highly coordinated gang attacks, with armed groups burning down police stations and freeing prisoners in what one gang leader described as a direct challenge to Haiti\u2019s unpopular Prime Minister Ariel Henry. On Sunday, Haiti\u2019s government declared a state of emergency after thousands of inmates apparently escaped from its largest prison. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have chosen to take our destiny in our own hands. The battle we are waging will not only topple Ariel\u2019s government. It is a battle that will change the whole system,\u201d said Jimmy \u201cBarbeque\u201d Cherizier, a former police officer who styles himself as Robin Hood figure in his territory, in a statement reported by local media. <\/p>\n

Henry\u2019s whereabouts are currently unclear, after a visit to Kenya last week. <\/p>\n

\u2018The country cannot continue like this\u2019<\/h2>\n

Each year in recent memory has been worse than the last, each catastrophe another blow to the disintegrating Haitian state. In downtown Port-au-Prince, the country\u2019s historic National Palace is still in ruins from Haiti\u2019s devastating 2010 earthquake. Now, multiple courthouses in the area have\u00a0now been taken over and occupied by gangs. <\/p>\n

Many Haitians blame their prime minister for rapidly ceding ground to the gangs over the past three years, while refusing to organize elections that would bring in a new government and give the country a fresh start. Henry and his allies say that the current insecurity would make a free and fair vote impossible, but such explanations do little to appease popular outrage. <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, when rumors swirled in one Port-au-Prince neighborhood that a local police station would be closed, fed-up residents quickly spilled into the streets, toppling a bus and burning tires\u00a0as they called\u00a0for Henry\u2019s ouster. <\/p>\n

\u201cAriel Henry has to go,\u201d one\u00a0protester\u00a0shouted. \u201cWe are living in total precarity. We\u2019re living on trash, on sewage. I have nothing, I\u2019m empty. I can\u2019t go to work, I can\u2019t support my family, I can\u2019t send my kids to school.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even for some within the gangs, the brutality of the current situation has become unbearable. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe sentiment on the ground is that the country cannot continue like this. The level of violence that people are exposed to is inhumane,\u201d United Nations deputy special representative\u00a0in Haiti\u00a0Ulrika Richardson warned in a press briefing in New York Wednesday. <\/p>\n

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80% of Port-au-Prince controlled by gangs<\/h2>\n

On TikTok and WhatsApp, accounts flaunting guns and flashy cars tout affiliation with groups like the 5 Segond gang, 400 Mawozo (notorious\u00a0in the US for the 2021 kidnapping of over a dozen foreign missionaries), and\u00a0Kraze Barye,\u00a0whose leader has a nearly $2 million bounty on his head from the FBI. <\/p>\n

Haiti\u2019s gangs were once seen as thuggish instruments for powerful politicians and business elites.\u00a0 But today, they seem to have slipped their leashes; the gangs overrunning Port-au-Prince have become independent \u201cviolent entrepreneurs,\u201d according to a recent analysis by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. <\/p>\n

In an impoverished country with little to exploit, the gangs are treating\u00a0human beings like commodities, snatching at least 2,490 people off the street last year to trade in a fast-growing kidnapping business,\u00a0per UN figures. <\/p>\n

Victims whose families cannot pay for their release are often killed, adding to the thousands of others who have lost their lives to indiscriminate gunfire, waves of arson, and other abuses. Haiti\u2019s national homicide rate doubled last year, reaching 41 murders for every 100,000 people,\u00a0the\u00a0UN\u00a0says\u00a0\u2013 one of the highest murder rates in the world. <\/p>\n

Haiti\u2019s National Police, which boasts an aggressive new anti-gang unit, has seen some success in apprehending some criminal figures and holding back gang expansion in a key areas of the city, including next to the US embassy. But with nearly 100 growing gangs in the metropolitan area, the force just does not have the firepower or training to restore calm to the country, sources say. <\/p>\n

According to UN figures, Haitian police are quitting en masse, with 1,663 officers leaving in 2023 alone. <\/p>\n

As hunger spreads, popular anger grows<\/h2>\n

One recent morning in the neighborhood of Delmas, dozens of women from the nearby gang-controlled slum of Cit\u00e9 Soleil lined up to receive food handouts from the UN\u2019s World Food Programme, distributed by Catholic charity St.\u00a0Kizito. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was at home with my family, when a rival group to our local gang attacked the neighborhood. I had the time to run with my child, but my husband was too slow behind us. They burned the house down with him inside.\u201d <\/p>\n

Over 300,000 civilians have been made homeless by inter-gang warfare, according to the UN. <\/p>\n

But in rural areas, the threat is hunger. Gang control of key roads in and around Port-au-Prince has dramatically slowed the transport of vital imported food and fuel across the country. Exorbitant bribes are required for safe passage. <\/p>\n

Prices are spiking unsustainably for a population where more than 60% of households live on\u00a0less than $4 per day, according to World Bank estimates. <\/p>\n

The stress of trying to make ends meet in these conditions is fraying the social fabric. In January, rioters attacked the St. John Bosco school, trying to break down its gates and reach food stocks donated by the UN\u2019s World Food Programme, according to the administrator. <\/p>\n

The food was intended for impoverished students\u2019 lunches \u2013 often their only meal of the day. But since then, the terrified kids have not come back. <\/p>\n

Anger boils over<\/h2>\n

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon by training, was appointed prime minister in 2021 with the backing of the United States, Canada and other key allies, following the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise. <\/p>\n

The job was a poisoned chalice; even then, gangs were estimated to be in control of more than half of Port-au-Prince. Henry vowed to\u00a0restore order and hold elections, but two and half years later, the world\u2019s first free\u00a0Black republic is further than ever from those democratic fundamentals. Haiti\u2019s last elections\u00a0were in\u00a02016,\u00a0so most terms have long since expired, leaving elected offices vacant \u2013\u00a0including the presidency and the entire legislature. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fertile landscape for political opportunists. Earlier this month,\u00a0Guy Philippe,\u00a0a rebel leader who was recently repatriated by the United States to Haiti after serving time for money laundering, called for a revolution. Accompanying him in some videos were members of the Haitian Environment Ministry\u2019s security brigade (BSAP), raising fears of a state security force gone rogue. <\/p>\n

\u201cAny revolution that can free the Haitian people from this dictatorship, we are ready to stand with it,\u201d he said, adding the caveat that BSAP does not intend to turn their arms against the government and that his only action so far had been to participate in protests in Port-au-Prince. <\/p>\n

The gangs meanwhile have shown no qualms about attacking government institutions directly. <\/p>\n

As armed groups pounded the National Penitentiary, one of Haiti\u2019s\u00a0police unions posted a desperate message to X on Saturday, pleading for reinforcements. If the prison\u2019s detainees are released to join gangs already at large, the union warned, \u201cwe are done. No one will be spared in the capital.\u201d But by the end of the day, the prison had been opened; over 3,500 prisoners are thought to have escaped, according to UN estimates. <\/p>\n

Violence continued throughout the weekend, with Haiti\u2019s government on Sunday announcing a state of emergency in the West department, where Port-au-Prince is located, and a curfew from 6pm to 5am in an effort to \u201cregain control of the situation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hope in a foreign uniform<\/h2>\n

February 7 was the date that a new elected government should have taken power in Haiti, per\u00a0an agreement\u00a0between Henry\u2019s government and a coalition of influential figures from Haiti\u2019s civil society and business sector. <\/p>\n

But the necessary elections were never held, so Henry last month could offer only\u00a0a rare national address\u00a0asking for patience as the deadline came and went, telling citizens it is time to \u201cput our heads together to save Haiti.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe principal task of this transitional government is to create the conditions in which elections can be organized,\u201d he assured viewers. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy interim government is working hand-in-hand with the police to restore normal life in the country. We are aware that many thing have to change, but we need to make those changes together and calmly,\u201d he also said. <\/p>\n

A new transition deadline has already been proposed: Last week, the leaders of regional bloc Caricom said in a statement Henry had agreed to hold general elections no later than August 31, 2025. <\/p>\n

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Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry at the United States International University Africa, in Nairobi on March 1, 2024.<\/span> <\/div>\n

Simon Maina\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Until then,\u00a0Henry\u2019s\u00a0best\u00a0hopes\u00a0may\u00a0rest on an outside solution over which he wields little control: The Kenyan-led \u201cmilitary support\u201d force requested by his government last year and greenlit by the United Nations Security Council. <\/p>\n

Anger toward the government for Haiti\u2019s gangs problem is misplaced, he also said, emphasizing that the government has limited options. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is so complicated that the gangs have more ammunition than us,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Foreign military interventions are viewed with deep skepticism in Haiti, where\u00a0UN peacekeepers\u00a0are synonymous with sex abuse scandals and the deadly introduction of cholera. How exactly the Kenyan-led mission will operate and what kind of human rights precautions its forces will take remain unclear. <\/p>\n

It may be no coincidence that the latest wave of gang violence began while Henry was in Nairobi last week to sign an agreement underpinning the mission. <\/p>\n

The stakes are high: If the promised 1,000-plus\u00a0troops are delivered, the foreign muscle is expected to pose a serious challenge to gang control \u2013 potentially renewing hope for change in the country and buying time for the embattled premier. <\/p>\n

But if the mission does not come soon, experts and government insiders warn that mounting pressure over Haiti\u2019s unbearable violence is likely to explode. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From above,\u00a0Haiti\u2019s\u00a0capital city Port-au-Prince still looks serene,\u00a0its\u00a0white-washed homes climbing steep green hills that encircle a glittering bay. But to step onto its cracked streets requires a careful calculation of risk and reward. Ruthless gangs have a stranglehold on the city, preying on the population, carving neighborhoods into warring criminal fiefdoms, and cutting Haiti\u2019s international port <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}