Haiti: a country stuck between two presidents, kidnapping gangs and chronic misery

Haiti’s chronic hunger and hardship have always been linked to a long series of corrupt, autocratic and brutal politicians which added to the instability in the country. To this list, now the current president joins, Jovenel Moses. He got into a controversy over when he should step down and stay in the power he uses criminal gangs who attack opponents while doing good business by kidnapping people.

After taking office four years ago, Moïse’s tenure was characterized by a degradation of democratic institutions and extreme violence that transformed the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, into a city full of fear and despair. . Armed gangs run with impunity and we see them crossing the streets in motorbike trailers or armored trucks. Each group maintains control of at least one neighborhood where they impose terror and they charge tolls to the locals. And neighborhoods known for their opposition vote are under constant attack.

Most Haitian opposition parties and organizations appointed the judge last Monday Joseph Mécène Jean-Louis “president of the transition”, considering that on Sunday February 7, the mandate of Moses ended. Jean-Louis, 72-year-old magistrate and member of the Court of Cassation since 2011, sent a video via social networks in which he said he accepted “the choice of the opposition and civil society to be able to serve the campaign . ” President Moïse, for his part, maintains that his mandate as head of Haiti extends until February 7, 2022. The disagreement on the date arose from the fact that Moïse was elected in a vote canceled by fraud , but was re-elected a year later. In a televised message, he said this week: “I am not a dictator.”

Although his actions suggest otherwise. Justice Minister Rockefeller Vincent announced that the immediate arrest of the president-elect. 23 were arrested, including judges and political leaders. Something that threw thousands of people onto the streets to confront the police and gangs. There have been many casualties, but no one knows the exact figures. We are talking about tens. Moses had already dissolved the democratically elected parliament and stripped mayors across the country of office.

He also began to rely on armed gangs to which he gave greater power and are considered by the government because “They impose order.” This meant that since the beginning of 2020, these criminal organizations were dedicated to kidnap people and demand ransom that very few people can afford. Informal vendors, students, traders and even the police were their victims. According to the report of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), between January and May of last year, kidnappings increased by 200%. The vast majority of kidnappings are resolved directly with family members. However, during this period, the police received 92 case reports, 50 of them only in February. The Haitian human rights organization Defenders Plus declares that more than 1000 kidnappings in 2020; a disproportionate figure for a country the size of Haiti with eleven million inhabitants. In Mexico, for example, with 128 million people and comparable degrees of violence, last year, according to the NGO Alto al Secuestro, 1,387 cases were recorded.

Jameson Francisque wrote in AyiboPost -in a project sponsored by CONNECT as part of the Investigative Journalism of the Americas Initiative, that “through this profitable activity, armed gangs have experienced unprecedented development. According to figures provided by the National Commission for Disarmament, Dismantling and Reintegration (CNDDR), there are more than 76 gangs in the country. Currently, 500,000 illegal weapons circulating in Haiti“. An unusual event linked to the power of these gangs occurred last April when, in the middle of a press conference on Covid-19, Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe assured that he was “In constant communication with gang members” and that they knew his phone number, that they had called him at least once. Izo, a leader of one of the gangs, complained to the minister about police roadblocks outside the neighborhood controlled by his group. Live, Jouthe promised the offender that he would call him at night. In a subsequent interview with Ayibopost, Jouthe said: “The gangs see themselves as development agents because they rule in these neighborhoods. They called me for help and I took the opportunity to invite them to lay down their arms and resume a normal life. Unfortunately, they didn’t agree and now the police are going straight to dismantling. I don’t see why they get angry They called me and I answer like everyone else“.

Two months later, an alliance was created between nine of the main gangs in Port-au-Prince. They baptized her “Family and ally G9” (family and allies, in Creole) and is managed by Jimmy Cherizier, alias “Barbecue”, a former police officer expelled from this institution in December 2018 for serious human rights violations. According to the Je Klere Foundation, an NGO very critical of the government, the G9 was created to ensure the victory of the party of Moses, the PHTK, in case there is an election. The same ensures the National Network of Defense of Human Rights (RNDDHR). The organization believes that it would be “impossible” to have a clean election with the conditions created by the criminals who control the neighborhoods and, consequently, the voters and the polling stations.

In this situation, the constant flow of migrants to the United States and Latin America has increased. Many first pass through Mexico to seek refuge at the northern border. But they do not succeed. Many were stranded on the Mexican side and around 600, according to the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy group that tracks migrants, were deported on six special flights for crossing without papers. A Washington Post editorial this week called on President Joe Biden to end deportations and put pressure on Moses to leave power and new elections are called. A huge challenge for the new American president. Chronic instability in Haiti can derail any good intentions.

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