Some 150 new foreign officers arrived in Haiti this weekend to strengthen international security forces tasked with controlling powerful, well-armed gangs that have inflicted so much misery on the country for months.
But if history is any guide, this injection is unlikely to make much of a difference.
The series of massacres that left more than 300 people dead, followed by the attack on Haiti's worst public hospital on Christmas Eve, highlighted the Haitian government's lack of control over the country's deepening crisis.
A press conference announcing the reopening of a public hospital after being closed for nine months due to gang violence was attacked again by gangs, leaving two journalists and a police officer dead.
More than 20 journalists caught in the ambush were trapped for two hours until seven injured colleagues were rescued. Witnesses said several doctors at the hospital ran for their lives and they tore their clothes to make tourniquets and used tampons to stop the bleeding. The reporters escaped by climbing the rear wall.
“There were bloodstains on the floor and on clothes,” said Jephte Basil, a reporter for the online news agency Machan Zen Haiti, adding that the hospital had nothing “available to treat the victims.” Ta.
The hospital shooting came on the heels of two massacres in separate parts of the country that left more than 350 people dead, with local authorities dispatched to protect innocent civilians and It shines a harsh spotlight on the failures and shortcomings of international security forces.
One of the massacres took place last month in an impoverished, sprawling and gang-controlled area of Port-au-Prince. There was no police presence there, so elderly people were dismembered and thrown into the sea for three days without the authorities noticing. According to the United Nations, at least 207 people were killed between December 6 and December 11.
Around the same time, another three-day murder spree occurred 110 miles north in Petit Rivière. Community leaders said 150 people were killed when gang members and vigilantes attacked each other.
The violence is part of a series of relentless bloodshed that has hit Haiti over the past two months, exposing the weaknesses of the transitional government and raising concerns about the viability of the U.S.-brokered security mission. leaving behind a planned electoral transition and a more stable regime. Leadership on the verge of collapse.
Haiti's future has never looked bleaker as President-elect Donald J. Trump looks to take over the reins of an international expansion that has been criticized as ineffective and underfunded.
Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier said he believed the 150 soldiers, mostly from Guatemala, should help turn the tide. He stressed that some gang-controlled areas have been retaken and the government is trying to evacuate people.
“The state has not collapsed,” Pelissier said. “The state is there. The state is functioning.”
But many experts say the transitional government's various factions are embroiled in political strife, with no clear strategy to deal with the worsening violence and pave the way for elections that were supposed to be held this year. considers Haiti to be a failed state.
“Political conflict leads to violence,” said Diego Da Rin, a Haiti analyst at the International Crisis Group. “Gangsters are very aware of when is the right time to go from defense mode to attack mode. They flex their muscles when necessary.”
The gang attack also draws attention to the vulnerabilities of the U.S.-backed multinational security assistance mission. The mission is a detachment of several hundred mostly Kenyan police officers that began arriving in Haiti last June.
The mission was supposed to involve up to 2,500 police officers, but with little international funding, the number of troops is far smaller and there is less manpower to deal with the many areas where gangs are entrenched. It's missing.
Several experts said the Christmas Eve killings gave the impression that the government was incompetent. The event announcing the hospital's reopening took place in the gang's stronghold, with virtually no security. When people were attacked, it took police at least an hour to respond, even though police headquarters were nearby.
The country's health minister, Dr Duckenson Rothe Brema, was late due to illness and believes he was the intended target.
Dr. Brema, who was fired in the aftermath of the attack, said in an interview: “I'm not crazy. I wanted to do well, but it didn't work out.” “It's become a huge failure. I'm the scapegoat.”
Dr Brema said he requested police presence at the event, but claimed he did not know why there was less protection. He defended the hospital's lack of supplies and said he intended to open the facility “in phases” as an outpatient clinic and not to treat gunshot wounds.
The Minister of Justice admitted that there was no coordination between the Ministry of Health and the police, and that no proper safety assessment had been carried out beforehand.
“Neighborhoods are dominated by gangs and police are working to restore them,” he said, adding that while the crisis was severe in the capital and the rural Artibonite Valley, much of the country remained normal. He pointed out that it was run according to the rules.
Haiti's descent into chaos was largely caused by the assassination of the last elected president, Juvenel Moïse, in July 2021. The gangs, which derived income from illegal checkpoints, extortion, and kidnappings, took advantage of the political vacuum to expand their territory.
The country, which has no elected national leader, is ruled by a transitional council made up of rival political parties, whose members appoint an interim president on a rotating basis.
The recent surge in violence began on November 11, when the council replaced the prime minister, and gangs took advantage of the political upheaval to escalate their brutality, opening fire on US commercial airliners. Since then, Haiti's main airport has been closed.
More than 5,300 people were killed in Haiti last year, and the total number of people displaced now exceeds 700,000, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Gang checkpoints and ambushes have disrupted food supplies, and the nonprofit organization Mercy Corps estimates that nearly 5 million people, half the country's population, face severe food insecurity.
In her only press conference since taking office nearly two months ago, new Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé announced pay increases for police officers and said she was committed to restoring the rule of law.
The Prime Minister and members of the Presidential Council declined to comment for this article.
In a speech on New Year's Day, the council's president, Leslie Voltaire, insisted that elections would still be held this year, but likened the current situation to a war. A police spokesperson said they had no comment.
The Kenyan-led mission's commander, Godfrey Otunge, also did not respond to a request for comment, but complained that the mission's successes were not being adequately publicized.
“Haiti's future is bright,” he said in a recent message posted online.
The US State Department, which spent $600 million on the Kenya mission, defended its record, noting that recent operations with police led to the death of a prominent gang member.
According to the State Department, two police stations have recently been reopened and Kenyan missions are now stationed near major ports that have long been dominated by gangs.
The U.S. government sent several shipments of supplies in December, the agency said.
But experts say Haiti's downward trajectory is unlikely to be reversed without significant outside aid.
“The Haitian government is not really clear about what it is doing,” said Sophie Rutenbar, a visiting scholar at New York University who helped run the U.N. mission in Haiti until 2023. That's a worse choice. ”
Some of the injured journalists blamed gangs and the government for the fiasco that claimed precious lives.
Verondi Miracle, who was shot seven times in the leg, temple and mouth, said, “If the state had fulfilled its responsibility, this would not have happened.'' “The state is a legal force and should not allow bandits to enter places where the state cannot respond.”
Andre Poultre contributed reporting from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
