Urban violence and gang control in Port-au-Prince, political instability and a resurgence of cholera are some of the problems plaguing the island. While a democratic transition is increasingly difficult, the announcements of an international military intervention revive the shadows of the darkest episodes in the country’s history.
Living in Port-au-Prince is a constant act to evade death. The capital of Haiti is one of the most dangerous places in the Western Hemisphere. We visit the streets of Port-au-Prince through the stories of inhabitants who suffer from violence, fear and a public health threat due to the outbreak of cholera registered last October.
Few people speak out for fear of reprisals from the criminal gangs that control the city. “Life is very tense in Port-au-Prince. Get up. Go out alone if you have to, even if your family begs you not to go out or to be careful,” acknowledges Rosy Auguste Ducena, a resident of Port-au-Prince, lawyer and head of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) and one of the few people who agree to speak to the media.
Nonconformity, fed up and little hope in the announcements of change, and international interventions, are some of the most common feelings of the inhabitants of this coastal city, who walk the streets less and less, for fear of being kidnapped, suffering a rape or never return.
Marianne*, who lives on the border with one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Latin America, cite de soleil, says that after 5:00 p.m., he cannot walk on the street. She, who sells chemical fertilizers, had to sell her business to pay for the release of her partner, kidnapped by Grand Ravine, one of the gangs that controls part of the city. “One morning he left for the hotel where he worked and did not return. There were many nights without him. Some time later they contacted me, I had to collect 500,000 gourdes (3,270 euros, approximately) if I wanted to see him again.
The crises in Haiti add up incessantly: the Caribbean country has not had a democratically elected president since 2021, after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and the possibility of a democratic transition, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, is increasingly distant.
Despite the arrest that this December 21 the Police advertisement of an ex-military and an inspector of that institution. There are already 40 detainees, most of them without procedural guarantees, including 18 Colombian ex-military officers accused of being part of the commando that broke into the president’s residence. However, little progress has been made in clarifying the determiners of the assassination.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.2, in August 2021, and the subsequent aftershocks that not only demolished some of the old buildings and houses in Puerto Príncipe and Los Cayos; they also killed almost 3,000 people and further deepened the social cracks of hunger, poverty and urban violence.
In addition to the natural and human disasters that plague this Caribbean enclave, last October 2022, an outbreak of cholera once again struck a country declared a “humanitarian crisis” by the United Nations World Food Program and in the that 4.7 million people are in extreme hunger and close to 100,000 children, according to UNICEFwho suffer from severe acute hunger, are especially vulnerable to contracting this bacterial disease and dying from it.
Likewise, the increase in food and fuel prices seems to fuel social discontent even more. The price variation is close to 40% during the month of December 2022.
Urban violence is rampant through the streets of Port-au-Prince, at the hands of the six alliances between gangs that control most of this city, about 60% of the territory according to the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH).
“Today, in Haiti, all the indicators are red. The Haitian people live in a situation of denial of human rights, characterized by the systematic violation of their rights to life, security, and physical and psychological integrity,” Ducena highlights.
Jimmy* has tried to leave Haiti on two occasions: he traveled to Ecuador in 2016 and began a journey from the south of the continent to the United States. His plans were frustrated in Mexico, in the Tapachula region, after losing even his passport and ending up deported. On a second occasion, in June 2022, he tried to take a boat, bound for Puerto Rico, from the Dominican Republic, and was intercepted on the way by coastal authorities. “My family lives in Miami, I want to go there and start a new life. I’ve lived in Port-au-Prince all my life, but I don’t think I can take it anymore. I lost hope that something would change.” He is part of the more than 140 thousand Haitians who have been repatriated from the neighboring country, during 2022.
Gangs, increasingly powerful
After the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, at dawn on July 7, 2021, instability worsened and this environment has been propitious for the gangs to occupy the territorial space that the institutions have not been able to maintain. In addition, the participation of members of the Police in crimes is increasingly high, as recorded by the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH).
For months, access to the country’s main oil terminal, Varreux, and the main courthouse was blocked by the presence of three gang alliances. The gangs, according to InSightCrimethey chose to ally themselves to expand their territorial influence and their bargaining power with increasingly weak institutions.
One of the most visible faces of gang action and the impunity that reigns on the island is Jean Simson Desanclos. This inhabitant of Port-au-Prince narrated to the program the Observers of France 24last November, how he lost his family to gang violence: both his wife and his two daughters aged 28 and 24 were murdered on August 20, 2022, by members of the gang 400 Mawozo, in the city limits, while they were heading towards a university: “Upon arriving at the place, the street was completely deserted, you could only see the body of the car, I did not find anyone, I went to a funeral home to identify the bodies. The bandits wanted to kidnap them, they resisted and the thugs shot. My whole life is gone, my whole life.”
The sanctions announced by the United States Department of State on November 11, 2022, against the president of the Haitian Senate, Joseph Lambert, and the former senator, Youri Latortue, for having “actively contributed” to the drug trafficking that transits through this country, shows a growing collusion between the authorities and the gangs. “Also, the territorial location of the gangs around Port-au-Prince allows them to increase their power, since they are located in strategic areas where police intervention is not easy.” says political analyst Eddyson Damas.
A ghost haunts Haiti
The ghost of a military intervention in Haiti seems to be haunting the streets of Port-au-Prince. This December 21, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, urged countries “with capacity” to consider Prime Minister Henry’s request for an intervention in this country, despite the questionable results that other interventions have had.
In October 2022, thousands of Port-au-Prince residents took to the streets to demand both the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry and to reject his call for international military intervention. A good part of Haitians mistrusts the arrival of foreign troops, led by a de facto political leader with little legitimacy.
“Today, in Haiti, all the indicators are red. The Haitian people live in a situation of denial of human rights, characterized by the systematic violation of their rights to life, security, and physical and psychological integrity,” Ducena highlights.
A review of the history of military interventions in the last century partly explains the local reluctance in the face of the prime minister’s request:
Chronology made by Andrés Triviño.
“A military intervention in Haiti will not change anything. An eventual international intervention will protect the political and economic elites. An intervention will protect what is wrong in Haiti. This will not solve the problem. We’ve seen it before.” says Louis Jean-Pierre Loriston, doctor in Political Science and Public Administration.
For Rosy Auguste Ducena, a viable solution for Haiti depends on several factors: on the one hand, reforms to the Police that improve the capacity for action on the ground and the fight against corruption. A consensus is also needed, difficult to achieve, among the country’s political forces. “In addition, the authorities must have the political will to solve the problem of insecurity, which does not seem to be the case today.”
“A military intervention will never be the solution to the crisis because, from 1990 to today, there have been more than ten interventions in Haiti and after each intervention the situation worsens. An intervention will be a way to distance certain countries from the international community from the crisis they have created. The people are fed up with prefabricated answers, the solution to the crisis must be Haitian to be effective”, affirms the political analyst Eddyson Damas.
Haiti seems to continue in its political labyrinth. With no democratic transition in sight and an international military intervention that raises more questions than answers.
*Names changed to protect identity.
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