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The Star
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Haiti gangs' US terrorism designation risks harming most vulnerable, NGOs warn
FILE PHOTO: Members of the Haitian Armed Forces patrol the area as people flee homes following the armed gangs violence over the weekend, many grouped behind an alliance known as Viv Ansanm, at the Poste Marchand suburb, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol/File Photo PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The designation of Haiti's major gangs as terrorists by Washington could risk further entrenching their power by limiting financial and humanitarian aid, NGOs focused on organized crime and human rights have warned. The United States last week designated Viv Ansanm, the armed alliance that controls most of capital Port-au-Prince, and Gran Grif, which operates in the breadbasket Artibonite region, as terrorist groups, following similar measures made recently for Latin American drug cartels. The designation is intended to isolate the groups, denying them access to financing from U.S. people or companies. "Terrorist designations play a critical role in our fight against these vicious groups and are an effective way to curtail support for their terrorist activities," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the time. Analysts at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said on Thursday that the designation could, however, "inadvertently worsen the situation on the ground." It said the move could threaten the activities of some NGOs who engage with gangs to deliver aid to communities under gang control - potentially cutting off aid and making populations even more dependent on the armed groups. International businesses could also leave Haiti to avoid the risk of falling foul of U.S. law, it added. Haiti's Center for Analysis and Research for Human Rights earlier this week raised similar doubts, saying the move could hurt NGOs working with Haiti's most vulnerable in gang-controlled areas, already hit by frozen U.S. aid funding. "If drastic and appropriate measures are not taken to contain the root of the problem (such as) arms trafficking from the United States and across the Haitian-Dominican border, then gang members, most of whom are social victims, could become even more radicalized," it said in its report. An alliance of gangs has been using brutal tactics to grow its power since the 2021 assassination of Haiti's last president. Pierre Esperance, who heads Haiti's National Network for the Defense of Human Rights, said in an interview on Tuesday that his group had long considered the gangs as terrorists. "During 2024 they started setting people on fire while they were in their homes, they stopped them from running out and burnt them, rapes continued, kidnappings... These are terrorist acts," he said. In a recent report, Haiti-focused security adviser Halo Solutions Firm said while nuanced enforcement could cripple gang financing, "a policy that does not distinguish between corrupt enablers and extorted survivors will risk collapsing the commercial backbone of the country." Haiti's central bank on Wednesday warned lenders, exchange bureaus and payment services to be vigilant for exposure to operations financing terrorist groups. More than 1,600 people were killed in violent clashes in the first three months of this year while over 1 million are internally displaced, according to U.N. estimates, with local security services backed by limited international support. (Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City and Harold Isaac in Port-au-Prince, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Straits Times
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
US designates powerful Haiti gang alliance as transnational terrorist group
A woman carries her belongings as she flees homes following the armed gangs violence over the weekend, many grouped behind an alliance known as Viv Ansanm, at the Poste Marchand suburb, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol/File Photo FILE PHOTO: Former police officer Jimmy \"Barbecue\" Cherizier, and leader of an alliance of armed groups, walks past journalists, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 11, 2024. REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol/File Photo FILE PHOTO: A man carrying his belongings observes the wreckages of vehicles burnt over the weekend by armed gangs, many grouped behind an alliance known as Viv Ansanm, as he flees the Poste Marchand suburb, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol/File Photo FILE PHOTO: Members of the Haitian Armed Forces patrol the area as people flee homes following the armed gangs violence over the weekend, many grouped behind an alliance known as Viv Ansanm, at the Poste Marchand suburb, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol/File Photo The United States on Friday designated Haiti's powerful Viv Ansanm gang alliance, whose members have taken control of almost all the capital Port-au-Prince and spread to surrounding areas, a "transnational terrorist group". The U.S. Treasury Department also applied the designation to the Gran Grif gang, which in October took responsibility for a shocking massacre of at least 115 people in the agricultural town of Pont-Sonde. "They are a direct threat to U.S. national security interests in our region," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, adding that providing material support or resources to the gangs could lead to "criminal charges and inadmissibility or removal from the United States." The gang conflict in Haiti has been met with little international response, while neighboring countries, including the U.S., have continued to deport migrants back to the Caribbean nation despite United Nations pleas not to due to humanitarian concerns. Over 1 million people have been displaced by the conflict, and tens of thousands more in recent weeks, as the violence has spread to central Haiti, forcing more health facilities to shut their doors and pushing more people into severe food insecurity. Frozen U.S. funding for security efforts and the dismantling of the U.S. agency for International Development, as well as other cuts, also complicate the situation. The latest designations come after the U.S. in February designated Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang, alongside a number of other organized crime groups across Latin America including Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, as global terrorist organizations. The U.S. government later invoked a rarely used wartime act to designate Tren de Aragua as "alien enemies," resulting in the deportation without due process of many Venezuelans to a controversial prison in El Salvador, which is being paid to hold them. It was unclear what, if any, impact the terrorist designation would have regarding Haiti. Armed groups in Haiti have made significant gains in the first part of 2025, as an under-resourced, U.N.-backed security mission has stalled, and along with police has been unable to hold off advances of the heavily-armed and well-funded gangs. The U.N. has called for tougher measures to prevent guns being trafficked to the Haitian gangs, especially from the U.S., which it said was the major source of illegal firearms in Haiti via ports in Florida. Luckson Elan, who heads Gran Grif, and Jimmy Cherizier, who acts as spokesman for the Viv Ansanm alliance that is seeking political representation in Haiti, are both subject to U.N. sanctions. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
