Desperate Haitians suffocate under growing power of street gangs

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The video shows more than 30 men lined up in front of a crumbling structure in silence. Their heads are bowed as a man walks between them and swigs from a small bottle. Someone exclaims, “There will be trouble in Port-au-Prince!”

Nearby, assault weapons are lined up against a wall, and two dozen handguns are scattered on the ground. Two large buckets are filled with bullets.

The men appear to be fresh recruits for one of Haiti’s most notorious street gangs, and the footage records their induction into the criminal underworld that increasingly rules the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. The video is emblazoned with the name “400 Mawozo” and “400 good for nothings,” both references to the gang police say is responsible for multiple killings and kidnappings, including the recent abduction of 17 people from a U.S.-based religious group.

The footage posted earlier this year is a gritty online brag that demonstrates the startling power of Haitian gangs as they seize control of more land and commit more crimes than ever before — all without a care. Their tightening grip on society threatens the country’s social fabric and its fragile, anemic economy.

“The situation is out of control,” said James Boyard, professor of political science at Haiti State University, who, like other experts, accused some politicians and business owners of funding gangs. “They made them too powerful. Now they are terrorized.

They didn’t know things would go out of control the way they did.”

Gangs control up to 40 percent of Port-au-Prince, a city of more than 2.8 million people where gangs fight over territory daily. The street that belonged to one group yesterday may belong to a rival group the next day. Two leaders who previously shot at each other may form a brief alliance against a third before becoming enemies again.

Gang violence waxes and wanes depending on the state of Haiti’s economy, its political situation and, at one point, the presence of United Nations peacekeepers. Currently, the country is still spinning from the July 7 killing of President

Jovenel Moise and a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people in August.

Those two events temporarily halted some gang activity, but kidnappings have surged in recent weeks. At least 328 kidnappings were reported to Haiti’s National Police in the first eight months of 2021, compared with a total of 234 for all of 2020, according to a report issued last month by the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti.

Until recent years, turf wars were usually between gangs, with civilians sometimes caught in the crossfire. Then in November 2018, more than 70 people were killed in La Saline, a seaside slum in Port-auPrince currently controlled by the G9 federation, whose leader was implicated in the massacre.

“Retaliation started escalating … so they started going after civilians,” said a top international official who was not authorized to speak to the media. “Now gang confrontations make no distinction between gangs and civilians.”

The country’s GDP dropped to -3.3 percent last year, the biggest decrease since the -5.7 drop that followed a devastating 2010 earthquake. In addition, the Haitian gourde depreciated more than 50 percent in the past year, and inflation remains above 10 percent , which has reduced purchasing power, said Haitian economist Enomy Germain.

Odelyn Joseph / Associated Press Police work to remove road blocks set by anti-government protesters near a closed gas station amid fuel shortages in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday. Haiti is struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings after President Jovenel Moïse was fatally shot at his residence on July 7 and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in August.