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Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Killer gangs are inches from ruling all of Haiti
The collapse of Haiti's government in April last year was a challenge but also an opportunity. An interim government called the Transitional Presidential Council was installed. A UN-brokered, Kenyan-led security mission arrived soon after. But a year later things are worse than ever. 'We are approaching a point of no return,' María Isabel Salvador, the UN's top official in Haiti, told its Security Council at a meeting on April 21st. Tasked with preparing for elections that in theory will be held in November, the council is now mired in allegations of corruption. The security force of around 1,000 people (less than half the number originally planned) has not been able to stem the chaos. Its funding runs out in September. The council is a 'transitional authority that controls nothing', says Claude Joseph, a former prime minister. 'It's an unsustainable catastrophe. We could lose Port-au-Prince at any time.' Port-au-Prince, the capital, now sees daily gun battles in which police and civilian vigilantes face off against a gang coalition called Viv Ansanm ('Living Together'). It has seized control of much of the city. The international airport has been all but shut down; the only way in or out is by helicopter, or by a barge that skirts the coast to bypass gang territory to the south. On May 2nd the United States designated Viv Ansanm and a sister organisation as terrorist groups, opening the door to tougher criminal penalties for those who provide them with money and weapons. The collapse of public life is accelerating. Most schools are shut. Cholera is spreading. The Marriott, one of the last functioning hotels, has closed its doors. Gangs have surrounded the offices of Digicel, Haiti's main cellular network, through which most people connect to the internet. 'If Digicel goes down, the country goes dark,' warns a security expert. The gangs don't need it. Increasingly sophisticated, they use Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system to communicate, organising themselves to the extent that they have been able to keep control over access to Haiti's ports. They also extort lorry drivers and bus operators moving along many of the country's main roads. The UN reports that in February and March more than 1,000 people were killed and 60,000 displaced, adding to the 1m, nearly 10% of the population, who have fled their homes in the past two years. Circulating videos show gang members playing football with severed heads, bragging: 'We got the dogs.' Central Haiti, once relatively peaceful, is fragmenting into fiefs. Mirebalais, a city which lies between Port-au-Prince and the border with the Dominican Republic, is now controlled by gangs. 'The country has become a criminal enterprise. It's the wild, wild West,' says a foreign official. Patience is running thin at the UN Security Council. The United States has already committed $600m to the security mission, but is unlikely to offer more. 'America cannot continue shouldering such a significant financial burden,' said Dorothy Shea, the US ambassador to the UN. Few other countries want to donate. The Transitional Presidential Council is so desperate that it is exploring deals with private military contractors. It has been talking to Osprey Global Solutions, a firm based in North Carolina. The founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, visited Haiti in April to negotiate contracts to provide attack drones and training for an anti-gang task force. The council declined to comment. The Haitian police are overwhelmed; an estimated 12,000 officers police a population that approaches 12m, barely half the UN-recommended ratio. Weak leadership, poor co-ordination with the Kenyan-led force, and calls for the ousting of the police chief point to deep institutional rot. In Canapé-Vert, one of Port-au-Prince's last gang-free pockets, a former policeman known as 'Commander Samuel' leads a vigilante group called Du Sang 9 ('New Blood' in Creole). Gangs have thinned its numbers. It is all that stands between them and the prime minister's office. Clarification (June 3rd 2025): Paragraph eight of this article has been amended to make clear that the council exploring deals is the Transitional Presidential Council. Sign up to El Boletín, our subscriber-only newsletter on Latin America, to understand the forces shaping a fascinating and complex region. Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Miami Herald
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Rubio: U.S. will not punish humanitarian-aid groups in Haiti forced to pay gang tolls
The Trump administration has no intention of punishing humanitarian-aid groups that are forced to pay gang-enforced tolls in order to provide aid to Haitians who have been victimized by the ongoing violence, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress on Wednesday. Earlier this month, the Trump administration designated Haiti's major gangs as foreign and global terrorists, and warned that anyone providing 'material support' risks being penalized and criminally charged. The warning has created and fear in Haiti, where little gets through without going through armed gangs, now in control of up to 90% of metropolitan Port-au-Prince and parts of the Artibonite region and Central Plateau. 'We are concerned that humanitarian groups, in order to distribute humanitarian aid, are often charged, for lack of a better term, 'tolls.' You gotta pay the money to let them go,' Rubio said during his testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday in response to a question about Haiti. 'Will that make them subject to sanctions because they paid somebody money to let them go through? That is not the intent of these sanctions and we don't intend to punish them.' READ ME: Haiti gang leader 'Yonyon' found guilty of kidnapping 16 U.S. missionaries Rubio's first appearance before the committee came a day after he met with senators. In both hearings, he was lauded by Republicans but heavily criticized by Democrats over the administration's cuts to foreign aid and his revoking of student visas. Haiti came up only once on Wednesday, and the questions were posed by South Florida U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. After the powerful Viv Ansanm gang coalition and the allied Gran Grif gang in the Artibonite region were designated as as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, Cherfilus-McCormick and New York U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, the committee's ranking member, told Rubio they are worried the designation will worsen the humanitarian situation in Haiti, where reports of sexual violence against children are seeing a dramatic rise. In addition to displacing more than 1 million Haitians, more than half of whom are children, gang violence has resulted in half of the population, 5.7 million people, to go hungry. It has also left Haitians without access to healthcare and led to oil companies last week warning of a collapse of the economy after gangs doubled their extortion fees to use the roads they control. 'We think that designating them was important,' Rubio said, stressing that there are individuals, including those living in Florida, 'who are in cahoots with these gangs.' Rubio said he feels 'passionately about' the situation in Haiti, and used Cherfilus-McCormick's questions as an opportunity to offer the first public insight into his thinking on what the U.S. policy should be, including changing the international armed mission's current mandate, which requires them to be defensive in posture and limits the abilities of its 1,000 security personnel in taking on the armed gangs. The gang members 'have to be eliminated, put in jail... you've got to get rid of them. As long as they're around, you won't be able to have stability in the country,' he said. The Kenya force, he added, has 'complaints about some of the equipment they've been provided. So it's a combination of not having a force posture, not having the legal authority, and not having the appropriate equipment they claim to be able to conduct some of these missions.' Rubio also doubled down on the idea that the Organization of American States should take over leadership of effort against the gangs from Kenya's Multinational Security Support mission. 'We're going to challenge the OAS to build a mission with regional partners to confront this,' he said. 'We're grateful to the Kenyans, but this is a regional problem, and it should have a regional solution.' Rubio's proposition, which he first made public on Tuesday during his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, comes with its own sets of challenges. They include whether the OAS charter would allow for such an involvement, whether its members would deploy forces and who would pay for the effort. The Trump administration has made it clear that it can't continue to carry the lion's share of the cost of Haiti's anti-gang efforts. Rubio's comments come amid ongoing cuts to foreign aid by the administration and a continued push by some Republican lawmakers for Kenya to focus on fighting terrorists in Africa, and not in Haiti. Rubio defended himself against accusations by Democrats that he has betrayed the positions on foreign aid that he once held as a senator who once spoke of the importance of U.S. soft power and humanitarian assistance. It remains unclear where any future funding for the Kenya mission will come from. After Republicans in Congress opposed paying for the Kenya force, the Biden administration used money from the Pentagon and re-directed other funding. Rubio did not provide any specifics on the mission, which is asking for more and better equipment and waiting to see if the U.S. will extend the contract of its base of operations in Port-au-Prince beyond September, when it expires. 'We're going to continue to be supportive of that mission for two reasons,' Rubio said. 'It's the only mission, and number two, because of the Kenyans; they've been very brave.... And number three, because who's going to join a future mission if the previous mission was abandoned? But we don't believe the [Kenya-led] mission is going to solve this problem. It could be part of the answer, but it won't alone be the answer.' Haiti poses a fundamental challenge in that 'none of our existing international mechanisms are built' to tackle the problem of a country controlled by organized crime and threatened by 'a coalition of criminal enterprises,' he said. 'It's basically a very different mission set,' he said. 'We're undertaking, right now, a substantial review... of what options exist to tackle a country that's being taken over by a mafia, for lack of a better term.' Haiti's gang members, whom he estimated to be as many as 45,000, 'don't care about governing the country. They just want to control territory. 'So if there's no government, it's like allowing the mafia to take over the five boroughs of New York,' Rubio said.
American Military News
19-05-2025
- American Military News
Haiti gang leader back on trial in US, this time for missionaries' 2021 kidnapping
The one-time 'king' of one of Haiti's most violent criminal gang, already looking at spending 35 years in a U.S. prison for his role in a gunrunning conspiracy that funneled high-powered weapons to gang members using kidnapping proceeds, will soon learn if he will face more prison time in the United States for his alleged role in the abduction of 17 Christian missionaries, including five children. Germine Joly, better known as 'Yonyon,' who served as leader of the 400 Mawozo gang in Port-au-Prince, was sentenced last year after pleading guilty to a 48-count indictment related to weapons smuggling and money laundering. For the last week, he's been back on trial in front of the same federal judge, John D. Bates, inside a Washington, D.C., courtroom, charged with 16 counts of hostage taking. On Wednesday, closing arguments are expected in the case where federal prosecutors accuse Joly of targeting the group in order to use them as a bargaining chip to win his release from a Haitian prison, from where he conducted arms purchases and ran kidnappings and extortion rackets. The incident involves the 2021 abduction of 16 U.S. citizens and a Canadian national with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries. Missionaries working in Haiti, the group was taken at gunpoint after returning from visiting an orphanage on the outskirts of Haiti's capital. At the time, Joly was leader of 400 Mawozo, a post he held from August 2020 through May 2022. Unfolding three months after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, the brazen abduction thrust 400 Mawozo into the global spotlight and showed how even foreigners, long isolated from Haiti's vexing crises, were no longer immune from the violence. The gang demanded $1 million per hostage before they were eventually let go after an undisclosed ransom amount was paid. Their release was made to look like an escape by 400 Mawozo co-leader Lanmò Sanjou, aka Joseph Wilson. The decision caused a rift between Lanmò Sanjou and Joly, and temporarily weakened the gang, which has since emerged as a powerful force inside the Viv Ansanm coalition that has been wreaking havoc across Port-au-Prince. In the run-up to the trial, Joly tried to get the kidnapping charges dismissed, arguing that he was illegally extradited to the U.S. by Haitian authorities and the kidnapping accusations were not part of the extradition request. He also tried to suppress information at his trial, including his previous role in the kidnapping of several U.S. citizens in the summer of 2021, his leadership role in 400 Mawozo's kidnapping-for-guns scheme and his imprisonment in Haiti. The kidnappings, prosecutors say, were part of a conspiracy by Joly and 400 Mawozo that 'provided the gang with proceeds that they transferred to the United States in order to purchase weapons,' which the gang then used to take more hostages. As part of the scheme, prosecutors say Joly instructed Lanmò Sanjou on the gangs' hostage-taking operations, and ransoms paid to Lanmò Sanjou were eventually sent to Joly. He then directed the gang's bookkeepers on how to disburse the proceeds. Bates, who presided over Joly's previous trial, agreed to keep the jury from hearing the exact count — 48 — of Joly's previous charges. However, he declined to dismiss the case and agreed to allow the government to admit evidence related to 400 Mawozo's structure, organization and 2021 hostage takings. Bates also allowed the government to present evidence showing how Joly was the 'primary facilitator' of the gang's kidnappings-for-guns scheme: Joly not only chose which weapons that associates in Florida bought, he oversaw the purchase of at least 24 semi-automatic firearms in Florida between March and November 2021 for shipment to 400 Mawozo In the case of the missionaries, federal prosecutors contend that during the two months most of them were being held hostage, 400 Mawozo members 'made ransom demands or negotiated ransom with representatives' of the 16 Americans on at least 18 occasions. 'The gang also made repeated threats about the necessity of the ransom payments, claiming they would kill or stop feeding the hostages absent payment,' the court document says. The idea that the hostages were a bargaining chip for Joly's release from prison was also repeated throughout the two-month ordeal, prosecutors say. For example, after Joly had authorized the release of two hostages for medical reasons, he instructed the gang that 'no additional hostages would be released unless (he) was released from prison.' Joly has argued that the U.S. tricked the Haitian government into extraditing him and that its 'outrageous conduct' violated his due process. He also argued that there is no evidence that the Haitian government held a hearing or other judicial inquiry to ensure his extradition was in line with any treaty with the U.S. U.S. authorities said Joly wasn't extradited under a treaty and instead was transferred by Haitian authorities through 'deportation, expulsion, or any other lawful means.' ___ © 2025 Miami Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
LeMonde
16-05-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
Haiti's capital without power since Tuesday after protest halts hydroelectric plant
A protest that forced the total shutdown of Haiti's largest hydroelectric plant has resulted in an ongoing power outage in Port-au-Prince and the country's central region, utility operators said. Denouncing the outage as "heinous" sabotage, state-owned Electricity of Haiti said in a statement Thursday, May 15, that the closure of the Peligre power plant since Tuesday's protest has caused "a total blackout" in areas it serves. Over 85% of the Haitian capital is controlled by powerful gangs who have repeatedly waged attacks against law enforcement and locals. Lawyer and activist Robenson Mazarin, who represents the civil society protesters who shut down the plant, told AFP the action came in response to the central towns of Mirebalais and Saut d'Eau being left unprotected from gang activity. "We decided to shut down the hydroelectric plant because the government has abandoned these two towns to the hands of criminal gangs. Authorities refuse to deploy the necessary force to drive out the bandits and restore peace," said Mazarin, coordinator of the central region's Engaged Citizens Movement. "As long as this situation persists, the production plant will remain closed." Since March 31, the Viv Ansanm gang coalition has been in control of Mirebalais, and has facilitated the escape of 515 prisoners from a jail. Viv Ansanm also forced the closure and evacuation of patients at the Mirebalais University Hospital, one of the country's largest health providers, on April 23 until further notice. Haiti is the poorest country of the Americas, and its political instability has given way to the rise of violent criminal gangs, who have been accused of murder, rape, looting and kidnapping. The country is run by a transitional government, and has experienced a fresh surge of violence since February, with gangs pressing into previously safe areas. This, despite the partial deployment of a multi-national security mission led by Kenya to assist local law enforcement. The United Nations has warned that Haiti is approaching a "point of no return" that threatens to plunge the country into "total chaos."
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Miami Herald
14-05-2025
- Miami Herald
Haiti gang leader back on trial in U.S., this time for missionaries' 2021 kidnapping
The one-time 'king' of one of Haiti's most violent criminal gang, already looking at spending 35 years in a U.S. prison for his role in a gunrunning conspiracy that funneled high-powered weapons to gang members using kidnapping proceeds, will soon learn if he will face more prison time in the United States for his alleged role in the abduction of 17 Christian missionaries, including five children. Germine Joly, better known as 'Yonyon,' who served as leader of the 400 Mawozo gang in Port-au-Prince, was sentenced last year after pleading guilty to a 48-count indictment related to weapons smuggling and money laundering. For the last week, he's been back on trial in front of the same federal judge, John D. Bates, inside a Washington, D.C., courtroom, charged with 16 counts of hostage taking. On Wednesday, closing arguments are expected in the case where federal prosecutors accuse Joly of targeting the group in order to use them as a bargaining chip to win his release from a Haitian prison, from where he conducted arms purchases and ran kidnappings and extortion rackets. The incident involves the 2021 abduction of 16 U.S. citizens and a Canadian national with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries. Missionaries working in Haiti, the group was taken at gunpoint after returning from visiting an orphanage on the outskirts of Haiti's capital. At the time, Joly was leader of 400 Mawozo, a post he held from August 2020 through May 2022. Unfolding three months after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, the brazen abduction thrust 400 Mawozo into the global spotlight and showed how even foreigners, long isolated from Haiti's vexing crises, were no longer immune from the violence. The gang demanded $1 million per hostage before they were eventually let go after an undisclosed ransom amount was paid. Their release was made to look like an escape by 400 Mawozo co-leader Lanmò Sanjou, aka Joseph Wilson. The decision caused a rift between Lanmò Sanjou and Joly, and temporarily weakened the gang, which has since emerged as a powerful force inside the Viv Ansanm coalition that has been wreaking havoc across Port-au-Prince. In the run-up to the trial, Joly tried to get the kidnapping charges dismissed, arguing that he was illegally extradited to the U.S. by Haitian authorities and the kidnapping accusations were not part of the extradition request. He also tried to suppress information at his trial, including his previous role in the kidnapping of several U.S. citizens in the summer of 2021, his leadership role in 400 Mawozo's kidnapping-for-guns scheme and his imprisonment in Haiti. The kidnappings, prosecutors say, were part of a conspiracy by Joly and 400 Mawozo that 'provided the gang with proceeds that they transferred to the United States in order to purchase weapons,' which the gang then used to take more hostages. As part of the scheme, prosecutors say Joly instructed Lanmò Sanjou on the gangs' hostage-taking operations, and ransoms paid to Lanmò Sanjou were eventually sent to Joly. He then directed the gang's bookkeepers on how to disburse the proceeds. Bates, who presided over Joly's previous trial, agreed to keep the jury from hearing the exact count — 48 — of Joly's previous charges. However, he declined to dismiss the case and agreed to allow the government to admit evidence related to 400 Mawozo's structure, organization and 2021 hostage takings. Bates also allowed the government to present evidence showing how Joly was the 'primary facilitator' of the gang's kidnappings-for-guns scheme: Joly not only chose which weapons that associates in Florida bought, he oversaw the purchase of at least 24 semi-automatic firearms in Florida between March and November 2021 for shipment to 400 Mawozo In the case of the missionaries, federal prosecutors contend that during the two months most of them were being held hostage, 400 Mawozo members 'made ransom demands or negotiated ransom with representatives' of the 16 Americans on at least 18 occasions. 'The gang also made repeated threats about the necessity of the ransom payments, claiming they would kill or stop feeding the hostages absent payment,' the court document says. The idea that the hostages were a bargaining chip for Joly's release from prison was also repeated throughout the two-month ordeal, prosecutors say. For example, after Joly had authorized the release of two hostages for medical reasons, he instructed the gang that 'no additional hostages would be released unless [he] was released from prison.' Joly has argued that the U.S. tricked the Haitian government into extraditing him and that its 'outrageous conduct' violated his due process. He also argued that there is no evidence that the Haitian government held a hearing or other judicial inquiry to ensure his extradition was in line with any treaty with the U.S. U.S. authorities said Joly wasn't extradited under a treaty and instead was transferred by Haitian authorities through 'deportation expulsion, or any other lawful means.'
