How did Haiti become the land of gang violence?

Haiti is in a state of emergency.

The country has seen an explosion of violence as armed gangs battle police and soldiers for control of the streets, prisoners break out en masse from its major prisons and authorities desperately trying to reimpose order through curfews.

Meanwhile, an armed gang leader and former police officer named Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier has vowed to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is travelling abroad to gather support for a UN-backed security force to restore order in Haiti.

But how did Haiti become the land of gang violence?

Let’s take a closer look:

A history of violence

Haiti’s political leaders have been using criminal elements for their own purposes for decades.

Vox quoted an October 2022 report from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime as showing that several of its political leaders including François “Papa Doc” Duvalier used criminal gangs to aid their rule.

The outlet said the scenario of political leaders relying on gangs truly kicked into high gear under ex-leader Jean-Bertrande Aristide.

Daniel Foote, the former US special envoy to Haiti, told Vox, “Aristide started them on purpose in the early 1980s, as a voice, as a way to get some power” for ordinary Haitians.

“And they morphed over the years,” Foote added.

These groups, known as the Chimères,  basically carried out protection rackets.

Since then, many ex-military soldiers joined such gangs.

More recently, Jovenel Moïse, who took power in Haiti in 2017, was allegedly in cahoots with gangs particularly G9 — which handled his security.

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said also said members in Moïse’s government “allegedly assisted in massacres by providing gangs with government support in attacks in Port-au-Prince."

According to Sky News, Moïse cancelled Haiti’s elections in 2019.

Things came to a head in March 2021 when thousands took to the street to condemn Moïse’s ‘dictatorship.’

Then, in July 2021, Moïse was assassinated at his private home near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

According to BBC, Moïse was murdered by a band of Colombian mercenaries.

Claude Joseph then took over as interim prime minister of Haiti.

But after losing the support of the international community, Joseph stepped aside in favour of Henry in a matter of weeks.

Henry, after taking over, also postponed plans to hold parliamentary and presidential elections.

Haiti still hasn’t had an election since 2016.

But since Henry took over, all hell has broken loose.

According to BBC, gang violence has worsened with groups fighting to take over more and more territory.

The country particularly its capital is being ravaged by two major gangs — the G9 and allies led by Barbecue which has links to Moïse’s party and G-Pèp.

The gangs are thought to control up to 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince.

Chérizier and his gang alliance in 2022 blocked the free movement of fuel from the Haiti’s Varreux fuel terminal – the largest in the country.

The UN says Chérizier’s actions ‘have directly contributed to the economic paralysis and humanitarian crisis in Haiti.’

The Red Cross has said it cannot deliver supplies without getting the go-ahead from gangs.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it — a complete disintegration of the state,”  Robert Fatton, a Haitian American professor of politics at the University of Virginia told Rolling Stone in November. “And I don’t see an exit from the situation, frankly. I’m at a loss.”

The police, meanwhile, are outgunned and outmanned.

Haiti’s National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the UN.

Part of the larger problem is that the gangs simply don’t respect Henry.

An incident that occurred in October 2021 is instructive.

According to BBC, Henry was stopped from laying a wreath on a monument by members of the G9 and allies.

Barbecue then turned up wearing a white suit and laid the wreath himself — sending a clear message.

“He doesn’t have a great relationship with the gangs, because he’s kind of a clown,” Foote told Vox about Henry. “They in several instances have made him pay them a bunch of money in order for him to attend an event or hold a ceremony — and then they won’t let him do it.”

“Now, [the gangs] have more autonomy, more power, and more weapons, so they are a threat to any constituted government,”  Fatton told Rolling Stone. “They have become a power unto themselves.”

Barbecue has insisted he is a revolutionary — and that his people are different than the other gangs.

We don’t kidnap, and we don’t rape. We are all fathers, we have sisters, aunts, we have kids. I have a daughter myself - I could never allow rape to happen around me," he told Sky News.

“We don’t kill for money, but we have guns to defend ourselves, because we can’t let others kill us.”

Dire economic situation

Haiti is also grappling with a dire economic situation.

According to Rolling Stone, the country remains the most impoverished nation in all of the Western Hemisphere.

Natural disasters have combined with the rapacity of the elected representatives to tear the country apart.

After the 2010 earthquake in which 200,000 were left dead, the country witnessed billions in aid pouring in.

Nearly all of it was spent via NGOs to ensure those in government couldn’t siphon it off.

Still, $2 billion was allegedly stolen from a Venezuelan-sponsored oil-loan program between 2008 and 2016.

Several officials including two prime ministers and a former president are charged with corruption, money-laundering, arms-smuggling, and drug-trafficking schemes.

The country remains a hub for cocaine heading for the United States.

The rise of living costs have forced people into the streets, according to Rolling Stone.

Little wonder then that thousands of Haitians are simply giving up and leaving their country.

BBC quoted the International Organization for Migration as saying that over 100,00 Haitians fled their homes last year amid school and hospitals shutting down.

Many of those leaving are heading to the United States.

“When we get there, hopefully we will be able to work to help our families and children who live in misery. I’m leaving to work to help my family,” a man identifying himself as Ramon told Sky News.

But don’t look for the US to get involved — beyond deporting migrants back to Haiti.

“Haiti is not a strategic country for the US,”  Fatton told Rolling Stone. “Only insofar as it’s next door with the problem of migration.”

Henry, meanwhile, is still attempting to rally international support.

The prime minister on Friday signed reciprocal agreements with Kenyan president William Ruto to try and salvage the plan to deploy Kenyan police to Haiti.

This came months after Kenya’s High Court in January ruled that the proposed deployment was unconstitutional, in part because the original deal lacked reciprocal agreements between the two countries.

But he may be too late.

‘Too many gangsters now’

On Monday, heavily armed gangs tried to seize control of Haiti’s main international airport exchanging gunfire with police and soldiers in the latest attack on key government sites in an explosion of violence that includes a mass escape from the country’s two biggest prisons.

The attack occurred just hours after authorities in Haiti ordered a nighttime curfew following violence in which armed gang members overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend.

“The secretary-general is deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Port-au-Prince, where armed gangs have intensified their attacks on critical infrastructure over the weekend,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Barbecue, meanwhile, has warned other nations to stay out of Haiti’s affairs.

“The international community is understanding enough to sit down and have a decent conversation with everyone,” he told Sky News.

“But if they try to resolve it with guns, many people in the slums could die. They will kill mostly innocent people.”

Many Haitians have seemingly given up hope of a better future.

“As long as this country exists, nothing will change,” 17-year-old Taina Jean told Rolling Stone. “There are too many gangsters now — you cannot kill them all.”

With inputs from agencies