Since the tragic assassination of Jauvernell Moïse in 2021, the Haitian country in the Caribbean, which has long been regarded as a strategic location by the United States, has once again been in turmoil.
On March 2 and 3, gangsters launched a fierce attack on two prisons in Haiti, resulting in the escape of nearly 4,000 prisoners. Just a day later, the gangsters tried to take control of the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, sparking widespread social panic.
Currently, a state of emergency has been declared in the western provinces of Haiti. Although Haiti has not yet established diplomatic relations with China, the evolution of the situation in the international arena is still under the watch. As a GDP of only 205Haiti, a $400 million country, has long been among the world's least developed countries, and the mafia has been rampant for many years. Since Moïse's assassination, the security situation in Haiti has deteriorated, with nearly 80 percent of Port-au-Prince already in the hands of gangsters. In order to assist Haiti in its fight against gangsters, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution in 2023 to support the formation of a multinational police force to carry out peacekeeping missions in Haiti. The multinational police force is led by Kenya and the United States has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support.
However, just last week, when Haitian Prime Minister and Ariel Henry visited Kenya to sign an agreement to send police forces, Haitian gangs launched a large-scale *** operation. The complexity of the situation also lies in the fact that Henry's delay in holding the event has provoked a backlash from Haitian opposition parties.
Since Moïse's assassination, Henry has held the position of ***, which was originally scheduled for February 7 this year and has been postponed until next year. The gang leader accused the multinational police force of being intended to help Henry stay in power, announcing that he would overthrow Henry ** and liberate "Haiti." On 4 March, Haitian gangs launched an armed attack on Port-au-Prince's Toussaint-Louverdur International Airport.
Attacking from different directions, they tried to storm the airfield, but were met with stubborn resistance from Haiti** and the armed forces. During the exchange of fire, the airport was forced to close and all flights were suspended. Last week, the gang also targeted three planes on the tarmac**, which, while not attempting to capture the airport, have shown their powerful destructive power. At present, Haiti** has sent armed forces to key facilities such as airports, seaports, and national palaces to assist ** in resisting the attacks of the gangs. According to the United Nations, Haiti, a country with a population of more than 11.5 million, has fewer than 10,000 police officers. Last year, 1,600 police officers left the police force because they were killed, fled and other reasons.
Tensions in Haiti have been rising since last Thursday, the day Haiti's acting prime minister, Henry, traveled to Kenya to sign the agreement. The battle between the gangs and the ** is becoming more and more intense, and the future of Haiti is full of uncertainty. The international community is paying close attention to this and expects all parties to work together to bring peace and stability to Haiti. Gangsters incite violence in Port-au-Prince, not only attacking public facilities such as the national football stadium, but also setting up barricades to prevent ** from entering their sphere of influence. Schools and most shops in Port-au-Prince had to be closed due to gang threats, and some neighborhoods were subjected to violence such as smashing and looting. Last Saturday and Sunday, the gangs escalated further, attacking not only the National Prison in Port-au-Prince, but also a prison in the nearby Croix-de-Bouquet area. According to Haiti's Civil Protection Office, the National Penitentiary originally held 3,798 prisoners, but most of them managed to escape during the attack, leaving only 98 still in prison. Prisons in the Croix-Debouquet region also had 1,033 escapes. It is worth noting that among the prisoners who voluntarily chose to stay in the national prison were 18 former Colombian soldiers who had participated in the assassination of Haiti's former ** Moïse.
They sent out a distress signal on social **, saying that there was a big ** in the prison. In response, Colombia*** has requested Haiti** to provide special security measures for these 18 people. Haitian officials have not released the exact number of people killed in the attack, but local human rights groups have counted at least 12 people killed in the attack. In response to the situation, Haiti** declared a 72-hour state of emergency last Sunday in the Ouest department, where Port-au-Prince is located, and imposed a curfew. Since last Friday, there have been 150,000 people fled from Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area.
The United States has urged its citizens to leave Haiti as soon as possible, while the embassies of the United States, France and Canada have announced the suspension of consular services. At the same time, Dominica, which shares Haiti, the second-largest island in the Caribbean, with Haiti, is speeding up the construction of its border wall and has made it clear that it will not establish camps on its territory to accommodate Haitian refugees. Brazil** called on the international community to implement the UN resolution as soon as possible and send a multinational police force to Haiti to maintain order.
Although Haiti and China do not yet have diplomatic relations, there is a development office between the two countries. In January this year, China's Haiti** Development Office issued a notice reminding Chinese citizens not to travel to Haiti in the near future. The problem of gangs has become a major problem in Haitian society.
In a briefing to the UN Security Council in January, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, noted that at least 8,400 people were killed last year as a result of gang-like violence in Haiti, 122% more than in 2022**, with most of the incidents taking place in the capital, Port-au-Prince. At present, more than 200 gangs in Haiti have taken control of about 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince, posing a serious threat to local social order and people's security.
Last year, gangs accounted for up to 83 percent of all deaths and injuries in Haiti. The influence of the gangs has not been confined to the capital, but has also penetrated into Haiti's main food producing region, the northern region of Artibonite. According to a report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime last year, although Haiti does not produce itself, gangs use it mainly in the United States.
These were smuggled into Haiti through the southern state of Florida, and despite the fact that the two places were about 1,000 kilometers apart, the gangs were able to obtain them. Among the many gangster leagues in Haiti, Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed "Barbecue", is an influential figure. He was a member of Haiti's leading gang, and now he is one of Haiti's most powerful gang leaders. In 2022, when Cherizier led his men to seal off a key fuel storage depot in Port-au-Prince for two months, his main appeal was to ask Prime Minister and Henry. In this round of operations, Cherizier made the same claim again and made it clear that his goal was to take control of Haiti's top police and ** ministers, while preventing Henry from returning to Haiti from Kenya. Currently, Henry's whereabouts remain unknown.
Cherizye also expressed opposition to the police force that many countries were preparing to send. At a press conference last year, he made it clear that if the multinational police force entered Haiti to arrest Henry or to provide security for Haiti, the gangsters would welcome it. But if their purpose is to "do evil", then the gangsters will resist to the death. In his speech, Cherizier called on the Haitian people to overthrow Henry** and called the fight between the gangs and the multinational police force a battle to "save Haitian dignity." Cherizier's remarks coincided with political infighting in Haiti.
Henry has come under fire from Haiti's opposition parties for his constant delays. Claude Joseph, the leader of the opposition party and a former chief of the Communist Party of China, said that it was precisely because Henry continued to hold power despite the people that the criminal syndicate began to use violent means to try to coerce him. Last month, Joseph, the wife of former ** Moïse, and the former Haitian police commissioner were charged with alleged involvement in the 2021 assassination of Moïse. This series of events has undoubtedly exacerbated the political crisis and social unrest in Haiti.
Joseph sharply criticized Henry, accusing him of using Haiti's judicial system as a tool for his political opponents. Faced with the political and security chaos in Haiti, the Russian mercenary group Wagner was at one time deliberately involved. According to classified documents leaked by the US Department of Defense last year, Wagner's representatives plan to secretly visit Haiti to cooperate with Haiti in the fight against gangsters.
However, since the United States and the European Union are Haiti's main partners, and the United States is also Haiti's main donor, Wagner's plan has caused great alarm in the United States. Last year, Kenya offered to lead a multinational police force to Haiti to fight gangsters. Subsequently, the United States submitted a resolution to the UN Security Council and pledged $200 million to support the operation. However, the Kenya High Court suspended the dispatch on the grounds that Kenya**'s unilateral agreement to send police forces to Haiti was unconstitutional.
Last Thursday, Henry visited Kenya and signed an agreement with Kenya** on the dispatch operation. Although the parties did not disclose the specifics of the agreement, Kenya's William Ruto only said that the agreement would speed up the dispatch of a multinational police force to Haiti. Kenya plans to send 1,000 police officers to the operation, along with the Bahamas, Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda. In addition, the West African country of Benin announced last week that it was willing to send 2,000 police officers to Haiti.