In Haiti, Gang Killings and Murders of Journalists Expose the Country’s Weakness

A new injection of about 150 foreign officials arrived in Haiti this weekend to strengthen the international security force charged with fighting the powerful and well-armed gangs that have wreaked havoc on the country for months.

But if the past is any guide these latest installations are unlikely to make much of a difference.

A series of massacres that killed more than 300 people, followed by a Christmas Eve attack at Haiti’s largest hospital, underscored the Haitian government’s growing control over the country’s tense situation.

A press conference to announce the reopening of a government hospital that had been closed for nine months due to gang violence came under another gang attack, killing two journalists and a policeman.

More than 22 journalists who were caught under surveillance were trapped for two hours checking on their seven injured colleagues before they were rescued. They tore their own clothes and fashioned tourniquets and used tampons to stop the bleeding because, eyewitnesses said, several doctors at the hospital ran for their lives. The journalists escaped through the back wall.

“There was blood on the floor and on our clothes,” said Jephte Bazil, a journalist with the online news channel Machann Zen Haïti, adding that the hospital had “nothing available to treat the victims.”

The shooting at the hospital followed two massacres in different parts of the country that killed more than 350 people and highlighted the failures and shortcomings of local authorities and international security forces deployed to protect innocent civilians.

One of the massacres took place last month in a gang-controlled suburb of Port-au-Prince where the absence of police meant that for three days old people were mutilated and thrown into the sea without the authorities finding out. At least 207 people were killed between December 6 and 11, according to the United Nations.

Around the same time, another three-day killing spree took place 70 kilometers north in Petite Rivière. Community leaders say 150 people were killed when gang members and vigilante groups attacked each other.

The violence is part of the endless bloodshed that has engulfed Haiti in the past two months, exposing the weakness of its interim government, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the US-led security campaign and leaving behind a planned electoral reform and stability. leadership on the verge of collapse.

With President-elect Donald J. Trump about to take over an international mission that has been criticized as ineffective and underfunded, Haiti’s future has never looked so bleak.

Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier said he believes the 150 soldiers, mostly from Guatemala, should help change the situation. He emphasized that some areas that were controlled by criminals have been retaken and he said that the government usually evicts people.

“The state has not yet collapsed,” said Mr. Pelissier. “The state is there. The state is working.”

But many experts believe that Haiti is a failing country, as the various parties of the interim government are involved in political conflicts with no visible strategy to deal with the spreading violence and to pave the way for the elections, which were supposed to be held this year.

“Political conflicts turn violent,” said Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst for the International Crisis Group. “Criminal groups know exactly when it is the right time to go from defensive mode to attack mode. They change their muscles when they need to. “

The attacks by the gangs also drew attention to the weakness of the equipment supported by the Multinational Security Support mission, a team of several hundred mostly Kenyan police that began arriving in Haiti last June.

The operation was supposed to have up to 2,500 officers, but due to limited international funding, the number of troops is too small and undermanned to deal with the many gang-infested areas.

Several experts say the Christmas Eve killings give the impression that the government has no problem. The ceremony to announce the opening of the hospital was held in an area known as a gang hub, with no security. Even when people are attacked, the police take at least an hour to respond, even though their headquarters is nearby.

The minister of health in this country, Dr. Duckenson Lorthe Blema, who was sick and drunk, believes that he was the target.

“I’m not mad – I wanted to do well, and it went wrong,” Dr Blema, who was fired after the attack, said in an interview. “It turned into a fiasco. I am the scapegoat.”

Dr. Blema is adamant that he asked for the police to be assigned to the event and he does not know why there was less protection. He defended the lack of equipment at the hospital, saying he intended to open the center “slowly” as an outpatient clinic, which would not be for the treatment of gunshot wounds.

The justice minister admitted that there was no cooperation between the health department and the police, and that proper security checks were not carried out in advance.

“Neighborhoods are controlled by gangs, and the police are working to take them back,” he said, noting that while the problem was severe in the capital and in the rural Artibonite Valley, much of the country was operating normally.

Haiti’s rise to chaos was largely due to the assassination of its last elected president in July 2021, Jovenel Moïse. Gangs that make money from illegal checkpoints, extortion and kidnapping use the political space to expand their territories.

With no elected national leaders, the country is governed by a transitional council made up of competing political parties, with the interim presidency rotating among its members.

The latest escalation of violence began on November 11, when the council took over the prime minister’s office, and gangs took advantage of the political turmoil to shoot at American commercial airliners and escalate their brutality. Haiti’s main airport has been closed since then.

More than 5,300 people were killed in Haiti last year and the number of people forced to flee their homes has exceeded 700,000, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Gang checkpoints and ambushes have disrupted food supplies and the non-profit organization Mercy Corp, estimates that around 5 million people – half the country’s population – are facing food shortages.

The new prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, in his only press conference since taking office nearly two months ago, announced a pay rise for the police and said he was determined to restore law and order.

The prime minister and members of the presidential council declined to comment on the matter.

In his speech on New Year’s Day, the president of this council, Mr. Leslie Voltaire, emphasized that the election will still take place this year, but compared the current situation to a war. A police spokesman said he had nothing to say.

The commander of the team led by Kenya, Godfrey Otunge, who also did not respond to requests for comment, lamented that the success of the team has not been praised enough.

In a recent message posted online, he said “Haiti’s future is bright.”

The US State Department, which has contributed 600 billion to the Kenyan mission, defended its record, noting that a recent operation with the police led to the death of a gang member.

Two police stations have recently been opened and a Kenyan operation is now permanently stationed near the main port, which has long been controlled by gangs, the State Department said.

The US government sent a large number of construction materials in December, the agency said.

But without massive foreign aid, experts say Haiti’s worsening situation is unlikely to be reversed.

“The Haitian government is not really clear about what it is doing,” said Sophie Rutenbar, a visiting scholar at New York University, who is helping to run the United Nations mission in Haiti until 2023. “Unfortunately right now they are faced with a good choice and a very bad choice.”

Some of the injured journalists blamed gangs – and the government – for the chaos that cost precious lives.

“If the state had taken its responsibility, none of this would have happened,” said Velondie Miracle, who was shot seven times in the leg, temple and mouth. “The state is a legitimate power and should not give criminals access to places where the state cannot respond.”

André Paultre contributed reporting from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.