Gangs expand territory in Haiti

NEWS that an armed Haitian gang has kidnapped 17 members of an Ohiobased missionary group has again pushed Haiti into the centre of an international crisis. But for Haitians rich and poor, gang violence and kidnappings for ransom have become a tragically common facet of life.

Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, holds the grim record of the world’s highest kidnapping rate per capita. One gang, 400 Mawozo, was responsible for 80% of abductions in Haiti from June through September, according to Gédéon Jean, director of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince.

When Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry attempted on Sunday to lead a ceremony commemorating the death of one of the country’s founding fathers, his delegation was met with a volley of gunfire that forced officials to withdraw. It was a further sign of the growing power of the Caribbean nation’s gangs.

Experts say the group is probably behind Saturday’s kidnapping, too.

The kidnappings escalated the convergence of challenges in a country that analysts increasingly describe as a failed state sitting less than 1 100 km from the Florida coast. A succession of US administrations has failed to stop its slide into chaos, and the abductions – part of a surge in kidnappings this year by armed gangs that rule large swaths of the country – ramped up pressure on the fragile and bitterly divided interim government that stepped in after the still-unsolved assassination in July of President Jovenel Moïse.

400 Mawozo is a notoriously violent gang that has taken control of roads and communities in and around the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. It controls part of Ganthier in Croix-desBouquets, the area outside the capital where the Christian Aid Ministries group was seized on Saturday.

From Creole, the name loosely translates to 400 simpletons, or inexperienced men. But the group is widely feared for using rape and assassinations to maintain its grip of Haitian streets, businesses and power players.

It has also been associated with a new trend rattling Haiti of mass kidnappings from cars and buses. And it has targeted clergy and churches – a red line for many in the Catholic-majority Caribbean nation.

Haitian police issued a wanted poster for the gang’s alleged leader, Wilson Joseph, nearly a year ago. He faces a litany of charges that include murder, attempted murder, auto theft, hijacking of goods and kidnapping.

Joseph goes by a Creole nickname “Lanmò Sanjou”, roughly meaning “death doesn’t know which day it’s coming”. Flaunting the warrant against him, he has posted videos describing in detail some of the crimes the gang is alleged to have committed.

The group’s reported second-in-command, Joly “Yonyon” Germine, is in jail. Haitian authorities are trying to negotiate with him.

In April, 400 Mawozo kidnapped five priests and two nuns, among them French nationals, and held them in harsh conditions for three weeks. Catholic universities and schools in Haiti shut down in protest. The group was ultimately released.

400 Mawozo targets run the gamut: It has fought with rival gangs; kidnapped businesspeople, police officers and street vendors; forced youths in areas it controls to beat up captives; and extorted communities for money.

Its use of violence on the young and old has further traumatised – and desensitised – another generation of Haitian youths. Many of the gang’s victims are not specific targets, but rather bystanders.

Haiti, a former French colony also once occupied by the United States, has been battling gang violence for decades. Saddled with weak political institutions and endemic poverty, Haitian politicians and businesspeople have long been accused of aligning with gangs to carry out their bidding.

As the country’s politics and economy continue to spiral, some gangs have become increasingly brutal and brazen. The situation became even more volatile in July, when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. The Biden administration has since backed Haiti’s embattled interim prime minister, Ariel Henry.

All the while, gangs profit by taxing communities they control for basics like electricity, water and bus stops, according to Haiti’s Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights.

They impose fees on small- and medium-size traders and vendors, and demand cuts from charities, public services and private companies operating in areas they control. They extort politicians and businesspeople by offering protection – or by kidnapping them for ransom. Gang networks reportedly reach into the top echelons of Haiti’s political and economic institutions.

Haitian police and politicians are too weak, or co-opted, to stop them. Journalists, human rights advocates and everyday Haitians who try to report these abuses risk putting themselves in grave danger by incurring the wrath of a gang or its patron.

Haiti has periodically faced waves of kidnappings, but analysts say that the current surge was the worst in years. In just the first six months of 2021, Haiti recorded at least 395 kidnappings, compared with 88 in that same period last year, according to the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights.

Unchecked by the government and police, gangs have brazenly kidnapped clergy in churches, as well as Haitian asylum seekers recently deported from the US. Those who can afford it have fled or travel with heavy security.

Haitian officials declined to discuss negotiations to free the kidnapped missionaries. Groups that follow kidnappings in Haiti believe they are being held in Croix-des-Bouquets just east of the capital.

Ransoms vary widely and sometimes can be negotiated down. Abductees are frequently in custody for 48 to 72 hours before a price is set.