Fear, violence and chaos grip Haiti as gangs seize control

weekdays in pbs. The island nation of Haiti is approaching the brink of collapse. Since early January, the country has been left without a single elected official, leaving

control

to heavily armed

gangs

. Much of Port-au-Prince is under the

control

of

gangs

who have been attacking police. The patients live... Haitians live in

fear

and

chaos

. Families cried as they greeted each other's coffins. In the last month, gangs have killed nearly 20 officers. They mourned the lives lost and the turmoil that has engulfed the country. Are they killing the police again? We will not accept that bandits govern and say that the government is theirs.

Elsewhere, rage. Armed protesters set fires in the streets, broke through airport gates and lowered flags to half-mast to commemorate the deaths. There has to be a revolution. There has to be a bloodbath. All these police officers have been murdered. The prime minister has not reacted. Violent protests have persisted for months. Many are angry that the government cannot keep them safe. We have been suffering for a long time. People are dying from bullets. My mother, my daughter, my sister. We will not be able to continue. The term of the prime minister, who was appointed to the position, expired in February 2022.

But he has yet to schedule new elections. Nobody voted for him. He was not chosen. He has no legitimacy. He has no rights. He is not the president. Without a president, without a legislative quorum and with a dysfunctional high court, he rains anarchy. --Queen. The UN imposed sanctions on one of the most powerful gang leaders, a former police officer known as BBQ. He is accused of numerous atrocities, including massacres and sexual

violence

. But he considers himself the lesser evil. You and your country, if you lived in these conditions, if you saw the conditions, wouldn't you rebel?

Haiti and the UN have called for international peacekeepers to reinforce the beleaguered police force. It is our obligation to act quickly. If we defeat the gangs, we will restore order and peace. But so far, only Jamaica has offered to help, which makes 80 two fall even further: Haiti sinks further into

chaos

. I spoke with the Caribbean correspondent of the Miami Herald. I asked him what he saw in relation to his recent trip to the country. I had two very different trips. The first trip I went to the northern part of the country to see the historic capital.

I went to the international jazz festival. A couple of days later, this time I'm in Port-au-Prince. It's chaos. Police who are protesting. They are armed. They are putting up barricades, blocking roads. We were coming from the latest murders of police officers. There have been 14 in the month of January. 78 since July, when the interim prime minister came to power. The police officers are enraged. According to sources, these protests were joined by police, firefighters and gang members. All of this speaks of the volatility of this country. One minute you could be walking into the city and enjoying beautiful jazz and the next minute the streets were exploding because those protests also took place in the north, the same places where I was walking freely a few days before.

Who is in charge of Port-au-Prince? That depends on who you asked. The UN will tell you that today the gangs control more than 60% of the capital. Where is the United States Embassy located. It's between two gang strongholds. They do not have an elected official. As your audience will remember, the president was assassinated in July 2021. In January, the last 10 remaining elected officials of parliament were fired. They really couldn't do anything. Symbolically, there were at least 10 people elected. Today there are none. There has been ongoing debate and differences in terms of who should be in charge, who should take control of this country and what it should look like.

Should there be a long transition or rush to elections? Transmit the objective to the police? You have a country with a police force that is a quarter the size of the NYPD. 9000 police officers active and ready to act at any time. Not everyone is in Port-au-Prince. They have to try to fight them. But it is very difficult to sustain. Kidnappings last year increased by 104%, according to the UN. That was a kidnapping every six hours. The homicide rate also rose 35.2%. This is the reality that Haitians live. Your main concern is security. We have seen the agitation of the Haitians; try to escape from this turmoil.

Actually they are doing it. The Biden administration recently announced a two-year parole program for poor countries, including Haiti. As long as someone has a sponsor in the US and that sponsor can prove that he has the financial ability to care for someone and passes a background check and has a valid passport, he will be granted parole. We are seeing long lines of people, including hundreds of police officers who have applied for passports in order to qualify for this program. Everyone wants to leave the country. They are saying, who will help us rebuild? For them this chaos cannot last forever.

What is needed to restore order? Is that in sight? The interim government has requested the deployment of an international force to help the national police combat gangs. Everyone I spoke to says this is a police force that is very well trained but they don't have the equipment. Something as basic as ballistic vests. I traveled with the police shortly after a massacre. They took me out and saw young men fresh out of the police academy standing guard a mile from the US embassy. They didn't have a vest. Or a bulletproof plate. They are poorly paid. They really need help.

It's becoming very political. The United States supports this request but does not want to give support. They are asking the candidate to take the lead, for Canada to take the lead. Jamaica said it was willing to participate. In fact, they have the experience. Its military conducts raids and anti-gang operations alongside the police. That's what everyone is waiting for. When you talk about Haiti, people say: what will it take? They ask that question too. What is bottoming out? How bad must things get? When I tell you right now that things are bad, they really are. Thank you very much.

Thank you.