Haitian gang leaders took to social media last weekend and promised trouble.
They delivered.
“If you are reckless in the streets, you will pay the consequences, as of tomorrow,” Joseph Wilson, a gang leader known as Lanmou Sanjou, said Sunday in a widely circulated recorded message.
He spoke for Viv Ansanm — a coalition of gangs with the euphemistic moniker “Living Together” — that has sowed terror in Haiti for the past several months, and vowed that they would be “in the streets.”
Within 48 hours, at least three U.S. aircraft had been shot at, forcing the closure of Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and stranding passengers all over the world.
The Federal Aviation Administration suspended all U.S. flights to Haiti for 30 days, and American Airlines said it wouldn’t return to the country until at least February. Even United Nations humanitarian flights were grounded.
The havoc was not limited to the airport: Dr. Deborah Pierre, a urologist, was shot and killed on Tuesday getting into her car in Port-au-Prince, and her father, a dentist, was wounded, her former boss in South Florida, Dr. Angelo Gousse, said.
Doctors Without Borders announced that its employees were pulled over by the police Monday and then tear-gassed by a vigilante mob. Wounded patients they were ferrying in an ambulance — suspected gang members — were killed.
In the middle of all that turmoil, a new prime minister was sworn in Monday afternoon to replace the one who was fired on Sunday after less than six months on the job.
Nearly six months after hundreds of Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti on a U.S.-sponsored mission to restore order, the crisis has suddenly worsened.
The country’s gangs, in stark fashion, have demonstrated that they are a force to be reckoned with and that the efforts to quash them have largely been futile.
With a new U.S. president who has made disparaging comments about Haiti about to take office, the situation is growing increasingly dire and uncertain.
“It’s not back to where we started — it’s worse,” said Sister Paésie Philippe, a French nun who runs schools for street children in Cité Soleil, a poor neighborhood in the capital. “More areas have been taken by gangs, more people had to leave and flee their homes and are homeless. It’s not any better.”
Nearly 4,500 people have been forced out of their homes over the past two days alone, according to the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency.
Sister Paésie was on her way back to Port-au-Prince from a trip to Boise, Idaho, when shots were fired at a Spirit Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince on Monday, and her connecting flight was canceled. She is now stranded in New York, but determined to make it home for a holy communion ceremony this weekend.
“I have my kids waiting there,” she said.
Haiti has been in a state of chaos for more than three years, since its last president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in his home. Gangs filled the power vacuum, taking over roads and ports, killing and kidnapping at will.
The crisis worsened this year, when rival gangs joined forces and attacked police stations, freed inmates from prisons and took over entire neighborhoods. The United Nations has said that gangs control 85 percent of the capital.
A nine-member transitional presidential council was created to rule the country until elections scheduled for the end of 2025 can be held, but the fragile coalition formed to govern has begun to fray.
The U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, released a statement that included a thinly veiled critique of the power plays widely blamed for the political upheaval.
“The acute and immediate needs of the Haitian people mandate that the transitional government prioritize governance over the competing personal interests of political actors,” Mr. Miller said.
Leslie Voltaire, the president of the transitional council, said the gangs had acted out in the wake of the firing of the prime minister, sensing a power vacuum, and an opportunity.
“They thought there was a void, so they tried to fill the void,” Mr. Voltaire said in an interview on Wednesday night. “But once they see that there is a new prime minister, that there is a new sheriff in town, I think they will get less aggressive.”
Mr. Voltaire added that he hopes to work with the F.A.A. to get the airport reopened and that the government plans “massive retaliation” against Haiti’s gangs.
In a statement on Tuesday, the council he leads issued a statement that “The perpetrators of these heinous acts will be hunted down and brought to justice,” referring to the shooting of the planes, the burning of property and recent murders in the capital.
“I think the gangs are flexing their muscles to see how far they can push without the U.S. doing anything about it,” said Wolf Pamphile, the founder of the Haiti Policy House, a research institute in Washington.
Underscoring the power that gangs wield in Haiti, analysts noted that even the U.S. ambassador, Dennis B. Hankins, acknowledged that the U.S. embassy is in communication with them.
“From time to time, there are contacts with the gangs, and for us it is to control the security in the region of the embassy,” Mr. Hankins told Haitian News TV Metropole recently.
In a statement, the U.S. State Department said the ambassador’s comments have been “subject to misinterpretation.”
“We certainly do not negotiate with gangs,” the statement said. “We are focused on combating gangs and promoting security in Haiti through logistical and financial support to the Haitian National Police and the Multinational Security Support mission.” (The mission is the formal name of the Kenyan-led force).
Because of the sharp rise in violence this week, the embassy is currently closed for business. The ambassador was out of the country when the airport closed, and has been unable to return.
The United States remains by far the largest funder of the international force brought in to help restore order. The force, largely made up of Kenyan police officers, has been underfunded and understaffed, leaving the populace underwhelmed by their results.
Experts say the multinational security force’s failure to demonstrate big wins right away, like retaking gang-controlled neighborhoods, gave the gangs the confidence to re-emerge, after a brief retreat.
Monday’s attacks on U.S. aircraft were likely the gang coalition’s effort to demonstrate their potency and to jockey for influence, experts said.
“I think they are essentially trying to get power or at least negotiate to get power,” said Robert Fatton Jr., a professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia. “Ultimately, if the situation deteriorates further, they’ll be in a position to negotiate, whether you like it or not.”
A spokesman for the policing mission did not respond to requests for comment. The mission’s commander, in a news release on Monday, said his forces were now transitioning out of its “deployment phase.”
The mission, according to its commander, can point to some successes, like taking back roads and disrupting gang activities.
“We are committed to seeing Haiti regain its glory,” Commander Godfrey Otunge wrote.
Another 600 police officers were expected in Haiti soon, but it is unclear whether their travel will be impeded by the closure of the airport.
Louis-Henri Mars, who runs a peace-building organization, Lakou Lapè, in Port-au-Prince, said that the Haitian National Police did not have the capacity to defeat the gangs, and agreed that the Kenyan mission had waited too long to start taking strong action.
“I am very worried,” Mr. Mars said. “We cannot leave the city by land or air. We are in an open-air prison right now.’’
With flights canceled for the foreseeable future, nonprofit organizations that deliver health care and food to millions of Haitians are worried that the security crisis could explode into a food and health emergency.
With 700,000 people forced out of their homes by violence in the last few years, the United Nations has already warned of pockets of “famine-like” conditions.
Following Monday’s attack on its staff and patients, Christophe Garnier, the head of the Doctors Without Borders mission in Haiti, said the organization was seriously evaluating its operations.
“Everyone is scared,” Mr. Garnier said. “If all the foreign countries like mine or yours decided to give the proper support, stability can work. This will depend on international policy.”
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