How Haiti’s gangs grew into ‘Frankenstein’ monsters

WASHINGTON: The latest violence in Haiti underscores the powerful sway of armed gangs, which have profited from collusion with the authorities, institutional negligence and political chaos since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021.

The gangs sowing terror in the impoverished Caribbean island have morphed into de facto overlords. Now they are demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whose successor would have been sworn in on February 7 if elections scheduled for 2023 had taken place.

Here is a look at the chokehold the gangs have on this country of 11 million inhabitants.

How did gangs grow so powerful?

Gangs have existed in Haiti for decades, and have been particularly active since the mid1990s, when the government disbanded the army, fearing military coups.

But a tipping point came in 2018, experts say, when the government turned to the gangs to quell a vast popular uprising demanding political change and an end to corruption.

Subsequent massacres by the gangs revealed their ‘instrumentation by the powers that be,’ Frederic Thomas, a researcher at the Tricontinental Centre (CETRI) in Belgium, told AFP.

Haiti has become a ‘narcostate,’ said Jean-Marie Theodat, a geographer at the PantheonSorbonne University in Paris. He believes Henry has been ‘objectively complicit in the takeover of the country by bandits’ like influential gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, a former policeman who took the lead in the latest violence.

Why can’t they be controlled?

For Theodat, “’Barbecue’ is a Frankenstein who has broken free from his master.”

He said the gangs have become more powerful than the country’s political and security institutions, becoming ‘autonomous’ power centers.

Armed with weapons often smuggled from the United States, gangs have proliferated, thriving on drug trafficking, racketeering, kidnapping and extortion.

They now exercise control over 80 percent of capital city Port-au-Prince, and their nearly unchecked criminality led to “the collapse of public institutions, culminating in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.”

What do gangs want?

“Even if Jimmy Cherizier uses political — even revolutionary — rhetoric, (the gangs) don’t have a political or social plan,” Thomas said.

“What interests them is power and territorial control.”

They have no interest in ‘legitimate power’ under an institutional framework, he said.

The gangs want Henry gone but that doesn’t mean someone like ‘Barbecue’ aspires to political office, Theodat said.

Rather, the gangs want to ensure their domination while continuing to profit from their lucrative illegal activities. — AFP