Haiti preparing for new leadership; gangs want in
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Politicians across Haiti are scrambling for power after Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced Tuesday that he would resign once a transitional presidential council is created.
But elbowing their way into the race are powerful gangs that control 80% of Haiti’s capital and demand a say in the future of the troubled country under siege.
No one mentioned the armed groups as Caribbean leaders congratulated themselves Monday for setting Haiti on a new political path, and experts warned that nothing will change unless gangs become part of the conversation.
“Even if you have a different kind of government, the reality is that you need to talk to the gangs,” said Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, noting that gangs largely control the capital. “If they have that supremacy, and there is no countervailing force, it’s no longer a question if you want them at the table. They may just take the table.”
Gangs have deep ties to Haiti’s political and economic elite, but they have become more independent, financing their operations with kidnapping ransoms to buy smuggled weapons, including belt-fed machine guns and .50-caliber sniper rifles that allow them to overpower underfunded police.
More than 200 gangs are estimated to operate around Haiti, mostly in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. More than 20 of them are based in the capital and rally around two main coalitions: G9 Family and Allies led by Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as “Barbecue”; and G-Pep, led by Gabriel Jean-Pierre, who is allied with Johnson André, leader of the 5 Seconds gang and known as “Izo.”