Feb 4, 2023
The island nation of Haiti has moved closer to the brink of collapse. Heavily armed gangs have taken over the capital and are targeting police.
the country has been without a single elected official since early January. Jacqueline Charles, the Miami Herald’s Caribbean correspondent, joins John Yang to discuss what she saw on a recent trip to Haiti.
February 8, 2023
Around two hundred criminal groups operate in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, a city with a population of one million people. These numerous gangs have established a criminal order capable of hindering the supply of food and humanitarian aid in Haiti; this criminal sovereignty, organized through the illegal activity and violence, manufactures political legitimacy for these gangs. While the criminal network and governmental corruption in Haiti has drawn the attention of the international community, the related food insecurity crisis has not received significant external concern. This article analyzes the use of hunger as an instrument of criminal governance and reinterprets the meaning of sovereignty and governance within the context of criminality.
Haiti today can be characterized as a phantom state with a supplanted political structure—competition between gangs vying for political authority has created a limited, fragmented, and authoritarian presence within the state. The country can also be considered as a criminal federation, or a ‘criminocracy’, because several criminal organizations have acquired government capabilities and their sphere of influence threatens the lives of Haitians through direct violence or forced starvation.
Following the assassination of former president Jovenel Moïse on June 7, 2021, the humanitarian and food security crisis of the last two decades further deteriorated. The polarization and political violence that ensued after Moïse’s assassination precipitated limited access to COVID-19 vaccines and widespread hunger due to food shortages. These factors have also enabled criminal networks in Haiti to govern by enacting rules and corrupting the legal regime to exercise control over the lives of the Haitian population, suppressing individual liberties and the most basic rights of Haitian citizens, such as the right to freedom of movement or to access food.
One prominent criminal leader, a former police officer and commander of the G-9 gang, Jimmy Chérizier, previously co-governed with president Moïse through a non-aggression pact in which Chérizier provided territorial control and intimidation over Moïse’s political opposition in return for legal immunity. Pacts between governments and criminals are not uncommon in Haiti.
In fact, during the dictatorial government of the Duvalier family (1957–1986), paramilitary forces were developed for intimidation purposes. Presidents Jean-Bertrand Aristide (2001–2004) and Michel Martelly (2011–2016) were also tolerant of organized crime and suspected of ignoring drug trafficking in exchange for bribes. The process by which gangs rose to power in Haiti was gradual, but since 2017, when Moïse took office, their territorial control has greatly increased.
The rise of gangs in Haiti is intertwined with domestic political incentives and the deterioration of democracy that sustained the Moïse regime through armed support. Additionally, the criminal groups managed to make alliances with the police and security during the Moïse regime, thus enabling kidnapping, human trafficking, the flow of weapons, and other crimes while minimizing the consequences. Now, following the Moïse regime, more than half of the political institutions in Haiti are controlled by criminal gangs and operate as de facto governments. At this moment, about 60 percent of Port-au-Prince is under gang control. The Haitian state demonstrates its acceptance of gang violence by not counteracting or inhibiting it.
gjia.georgetown.edu/2023/02/08/criminal-power-in-haiti-and-hunger-as-an-instrument-of-governance/
An escalation of gang violence, political instability and a deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti has left half its children relying on humanitarian aid to survive, Unicef says.
At least 2.6 million are expected to need immediate lifesaving assistance this year as the overlapping crises leave Haiti’s children in the worst position since the earthquake of 2010, Unicef’s Haiti representative, Bruno Maes, told the Guardian.
“Haitian children don’t just face challenges accessing food and potable water while the health system collapses around them,” Maes said. “There is also a lack of protection. Children are being abused, young girls are being raped and services are not there at the scale they should be for their survival and development.”
Gang violence has escalated in Haiti since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021, and the Caribbean country’s economy and security order is in freefall. Gangs have seized control of two-thirds of the capital, bringing human rights abuses, unprecedented malnutrition and the return of cholera.
A mother and daughter run past a roadblock in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in late January.
Haiti is experiencing the worst level of hunger in its history, with 4.7 million people suffering from acute hunger, the World Food Programme recently warned. Anarchy reached new heights in late January when police – the last line of defence against the gangs – staged a revolt. Angry officers terrorised Port-au-Prince, firing guns into the air, creating roadblocks of burning tyres and trapping the prime minister in the airport.
Jan 31, 2023 #gangs #haiti #criminal
Sky News’ Stuart Ramsay reports from one of the most lawless places on earth – the Caribbean island of Haiti which is beset by violence, poverty and a cholera outbreak.
Our chief correspondent meets one gang leader – a former policeman who’s the subject of UK sanctions.
As foreign nations talk of an intervention, the groups warn that this would lead to even worse bloodshed
h/t Digital mix guy