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Miami Herald
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Haiti's presidential council confirms use of mercenaries in anti-gang fight
The head of Haiti's presidential transition panel acknowledged for the first time the government's use of foreign contractors to help in the fight against armed gangs. But Fritz Alphonse Jean, in an interview he afforded a group of five local Haitian journalists on Friday, declined to provide details on the private security firm including how much Haiti's dysfunctional transitional government is paying for the service and the group's obligations under the contract. The presence of foreign mercenaries in Haiti's anti-gang fight and the lack of transparency around the players, most notably the former head of Blackwater, Erik Prince, and the rules of engagement, have been raising concerns both inside the country and in international circles since the group was first tied to the dropping of weaponized, explosive drones into gangs' strongholds by an equally opaque government task force. 'When there is a weakness, we look for other people to support the national police,' Jean said. 'The money that is being spent, the resources that are being poured in, are that of the population.' Last month, after the government's private security firm deal went public, the Port-au-Prince-based human rights group Fondasyon Je Klere/Eyes Wide Open Foundation demanded that authorities inform 'the population about the duration and amount of the contract' and the mercenaries' obligations to limit the collateral damage against innocent civilians. On Friday, while Jean assumed his and the government's role in seeking out international support 'to help the security forces move forward,' he would neither confirm nor deny reports that the government was paying $44 million. 'I cannot answer that question,' he told Radio Kiskeya's Marvel Dandin when he opened the questioning about the contract and reports that the government had employed Blackwater, the controversial private military contractor that was involved in a deadly civilian massacre in Iraq in 2007, in its gang fight. 'Blackwater hasn't existed for a long time, but there is someone who was with Blackwater whom they've seen in Haiti,' Jean said, declining to cite Prince's name or that of his new firm, which is overseeing the dropping of explosive drones by a Haitian government task force. 'What I can assure everyone is with this level of violence compounded by what they call transnational criminality .... it is simply not true that our security forces can confront these challenges alone.' Jean's interview comes at a pivotal time. More than year into its existence, the nine-member Presidential Transitional Council, which is tasked with governing the country and leading it back to democratic order, is consumed by infighting and dysfunction. Their public bickering and lack of cohesion is fueling frustrations and disappointment both inside and out of Haiti at a moment when any solution to the security crisis on the international front appears to be stalled. U.S. officials, outside of saying they cannot keep shouldering the cost of an international armed mission led by Kenya, have yet to say what their policy on Haiti will be and a U.N. Security Council, presented with a proposal by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres back in February, has yet to make a decision. Meanwhile, armed gangs continue to escalate their violence, leading to 1.3 million people now being displaced. Demanding government action after gangs recently took over their town, angry residents in the city of Mirebalais decided to plunge Port-au-Prince into blackout this week by dismantling a transmission tower at the main power plant in central Haiti. The sabotage of the Péligre hydroelectric plant, its second in weeks, is just one action in a list of crises that has Haiti on edge. Jean acknowledged the frustrations and said soon the people will see a scale up in the security response. He did not go into details, but several people close to the government have pointed to the increased use of weaponized drones. Such use has raised concerns both inside and out of the country about the legality of their use and the possible collateral damages. Already, armed gangs have tried to either create their own or purchase them. Three Haitians were recently arrested in the Dominican Republic and turned over to the Haitian police authorities after they were caught trying to purchase drones in the neighboring country, the Haitian police recently confirmed. Weeks earlier, the Miami Herald confirmed that a gang member had died at a hospital after he arrived with over 90% burns after he tried to create his own weaponized drones. Fate of Kenyan-led mission remains unknown Though Haitians only recently learned about the mercenaries' presence after armed gangs began confirming the use of weaponized, kamikaze drones against them, the Herald was informed in February about Prince's presence. He had an initial contract, a source said with the government but didn't sign a more extensive one until last month. State Department officials have said they have no involvement in the company's hiring, though sources with knowledge say given the aversion of U.S. officials in the past to the use of private security firms in the fight, they do not see how Prince's involvement in Haiti could have happened without an OK from Washington. Either way, Prince's arrival on the scene in Haiti coincides with both escalating violence by armed gangs that now control up to 90% of Port-au-Prince while extending to other regions, and ongoing uncertainty about the fate of the armed international security response being led by Kenya. None of the journalists during the hour-and-a-half interview later broadcast by Jean's team asked about the Multinational Security Support mission. Wednesday will mark a year since the first contingent of about 200 Kenyan police officers first arrived in Haiti, and according to Kenyan authorities are due to be rotated out. What is unclear is whether the Kenyan police will be replaced. At issue is the U.S.-built military base where the approximately 1,000 members of the MSS are housed, and whether Washington will continue funding its operations. The U.S. had a deadline of this month for informing the contractor whether they will extend operations until at least March of next year. Neither the State Department, Pentagon nor MSS has responded to Herald inquiries about whether the payment, reportedly $200 million for six months, was made. Jeans pushes back on reports about 'unjustified privileges' Jean, a U.S.-educated economist and former head of Haiti's Central Bank, assumed the helm of the presidential council in March as part of the rotation presidency. He is due to be replaced in August by Laurent Saint-Cyr, who represents the private sector. Behind the scenes, the group has been engaged in a political battle over the strong possibility that the panel's mandate will come to an end without them realizing their primary mission: a newly elected president in office on Feb. 7, 2026, or a new constitution. A report by the National Human Rights Defense Network on the panel's one-year anniversary back in April, accused the transition of failing to fulfill any of its commitments regarding governance, 'systematically draining the state's coffers,' by among other things, appointing members to positions without regard for their qualifications, and receiving 'unjustified privileges.' The report cited at least 15 foreign trips by council members and government officials. In addition to noting the unresolved bank bribery corruption scandal involving three of the council's members, who continue to assert their innocence, the human rights report said there have been at least 13 massacres and armed attacks recorded in Haiti since the council was installed on April 25, 2024. 'The human and material losses recorded during these episodes of violence are immense,' the report said, noting that 4,405 people were murdered between April 2024 and March 2025 including 805 people the first three months of this year. The reporting period also saw at least 3,792 women and girls who were victims of sexual and gender-based violence, according to the combined data from the National Human Rights Defense Network and the feminine organizations, Nègès Mawon and the Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn, SOFA; and the deaths of 31 Haiti National Police officers, eight soldiers from the Haitian Armed Forces, and two agents of the Multinational Security Support Mission. The period also saw the deaths of two journalists after armed gangs opened on them ahead of a government press conference, and multiple attacks against media companies. Jean didn't address the report directly, but said reports about members' privileges were a manipulation of figures. 'Since we are in a political campaign, they are utilizing this file as, what the Americans call, a 'smear campaign,' ' he said, without providing precision on the actual figures each of the nine presidential-counters are drawing. He also dismissed assertions that since the council has come into power, more territories have been lost to gangs. When challenged by Frantz Duval, the editor of the Nouvelliste, on his assessment that there was no political will to combat gangs before November, he doubled down despite his reading contradicting that of others, including foreign diplomats. They have repeatedly credited Haiti's national police force with preventing Port-au-Prince and the government from collapsing in March of 2024 when the country's most powerful gangs joined forces under the Viv Ansanm banner and carried out coordinated attacks across the capital in order to bring down the government. 'Everyone has to admit there are serious operations that the police is carrying out,' he said. 'They are fighting in Mirebalais, they are fighting in Kenscoff, they are in Delmas 30.'
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Haiti human rights groups criticize plan to tap members of rogue force to fight gangs
Human-rights groups are pushing back against a proposal by Haiti authorities to enlist members of a rogue force into the fight against a powerful gang alliance carrying out a deadly siege in three of the country's 10 regional departments. 'It's scandalous,' said Samuel Madistin, an attorney and president of the Fondasyon Je Klere/ Eyes Wide Open Foundation. 'If they want to expand the ranks of the security forces they need to recruit for the army and the police, not from an armed gang.' The plan to enlist members of the Brigade for the Security of Protected Areas was made public on Thursday in a national address by the head of Haiti's ruling Transitional Presidential Council, Fritz Alphonse Jean. The brigade, which is part of the Ministry of Environment, is supposed to be in charge of protecting Haiti's natural resources. But since its founding in 2017, it has been a controversial force implicated in criminal activities, human rights abuses and last year in an attempt to topple the government of then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry. 'It's grave, it's dangerous,' Pierre Esperance of the National Human Rights Defense Network said. The brigade, he added, 'is not a structured corps and the environmental ministry has never had control' over them. 'A lot of them are in gangs,' he said. 'If they want to expand the security forces then the government needs to accelerate recruitment and training.' The move to tap the brigade comes as gangs continue to force people to flee their homes, set fire to houses and businesses and burn armored troop carriers from Haitian police and the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission. As they continue to tighten their grip on Port-au-Prince, the gangs have also moved north to capture more territories. On Friday, members of a self-defense group joined police and the Kenya-led mission in the central Haitian city of Mirebalais in an effort to stop it from falling into gang hands. It's estimated that as much as 80% of the town is under the control of gangs after they stormed the community on Monday, freed over 500 prison inmates and killed two nuns. Haitian police spokesman Lionel Lazarre said he could not yet confirm whether Mirebalais had fallen. However, he said police had arrested a former lawmaker, Alfredo Antoine, who was the police's wanted list. Antoine represented Kenscoff in the hills above the capital and had taken to the radio earlier this year to denounce the attacks while asking for more police. He is accused of plotting to undermine national security, financing criminal organizations and participating in murder plots. He is among three high-profile individuals who have been arrested in recent months by Haitian police, whose failure to provide specifics on how the individuals are tied to the current gang insurgency have raised questions about the detentions' legality. Gangs' continued inroads outside of the capital are raising fears that more cities could fall to the powerful gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm, Living Together. Madistin and Esperance said any attempt to recruit brigade members demonstrates a lack of political will on the part of the authorities to tackle the crisis. 'The police is already full of people affiliated with gangs,' Madistin said. 'When you take [the brigade] you are reinforcing the gangs already inside.' Hours after Jean announced the decision, Haitian authorities in the northeast region announced that they had seized 20 fake badges and uniforms carrying the brigade's name. The seizures were promoted as part of an effort to clean up the institution. Madistin said they underscore the lack of control over the force. Esperance said tapping private security firms to help would be a better solution. He said there are too many conflicts within the police and a lack of leadership. Another problem is lack of equipment and the slow distribution of gear by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, which funds both the police and the Kenya-led security mission. The two forces have to work together, Esperance added. Last week, during Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to the region, Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness called for more resources to Haiti's police force. Earlier this week as France assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, its U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said his country will pay particular attention to the situation in Haiti. Kenya President William Ruto said Thursday that he had a telephone conversation with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in which the two discussed the agency's continued support for the security mission in Haiti. Ruto faces pressure at home to bring his troops back after a second officer was recently killed by gangs. The Kenya president supports the transformation of the mission into a traditional U.N. peacekeeping mission, which Guterres has declined to endorse
Miami Herald
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Haiti human rights groups criticize plan to tap members of rogue force to fight gangs
Human-rights groups are pushing back against a proposal by Haiti authorities to enlist members of a rogue force into the fight against a powerful gang alliance carrying out a deadly siege in three of the country's 10 regional departments. 'It's scandalous,' said Samuel Madistin, an attorney and president of the Fondasyon Je Klere/ Eyes Wide Open Foundation. 'If they want to expand the ranks of the security forces they need to recruit for the army and the police, not from an armed gang.' The plan to enlist members of the Brigade for the Security of Protected Areas was made public on Thursday in a national address by the head of Haiti's ruling Transitional Presidential Council, Fritz Alphonse Jean. The brigade, which is part of the Ministry of Environment, is supposed to be in charge of protecting Haiti's natural resources. But since its founding in 2017, it has been a controversial force implicated in criminal activities, human rights abuses and last year in an attempt to topple the government of then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry. 'It's grave, it's dangerous,' Pierre Esperance of the National Human Rights Defense Network said. The brigade, he added, 'is not a structured corps and the environmental ministry has never had control' over them. 'A lot of them are in gangs,' he said. 'If they want to expand the security forces then the government needs to accelerate recruitment and training.' The move to tap the brigade comes as gangs continue to force people to flee their homes, set fire to houses and businesses and burn armored troop carriers from Haitian police and the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission. As they continue to tighten their grip on Port-au-Prince, the gangs have also moved north to capture more territories. On Friday, members of a self-defense group joined police and the Kenya-led mission in the central Haitian city of Mirebalais in an effort to stop it from falling into gang hands. It's estimated that as much as 80% of the town is under the control of gangs after they stormed the community on Monday, freed over 500 prison inmates and killed two nuns. Haitian police spokesman Lionel Lazarre said he could not yet confirm whether Mirebalais had fallen. However, he said police had arrested a former lawmaker, Alfredo Antoine, who was the police's wanted list. Antoine represented Kenscoff in the hills above the capital and had taken to the radio earlier this year to denounce the attacks while asking for more police. He is accused of plotting to undermine national security, financing criminal organizations and participating in murder plots. He is among three high-profile individuals who have been arrested in recent months by Haitian police, whose failure to provide specifics on how the individuals are tied to the current gang insurgency have raised questions about the detentions' legality. Gangs' continued inroads outside of the capital are raising fears that more cities could fall to the powerful gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm, Living Together. Madistin and Esperance said any attempt to recruit brigade members demonstrates a lack of political will on the part of the authorities to tackle the crisis. 'The police is already full of people affiliated with gangs,' Madistin said. 'When you take [the brigade] you are reinforcing the gangs already inside.' Hours after Jean announced the decision, Haitian authorities in the northeast region announced that they had seized 20 fake badges and uniforms carrying the brigade's name. The seizures were promoted as part of an effort to clean up the institution. Madistin said they underscore the lack of control over the force. Esperance said tapping private security firms to help would be a better solution. He said there are too many conflicts within the police and a lack of leadership. Another problem is lack of equipment and the slow distribution of gear by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, which funds both the police and the Kenya-led security mission. The two forces have to work together, Esperance added. Last week, during Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to the region, Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness called for more resources to Haiti's police force. Earlier this week as France assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, its U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said his country will pay particular attention to the situation in Haiti. Kenya President William Ruto said Thursday that he had a telephone conversation with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in which the two discussed the agency's continued support for the security mission in Haiti. Ruto faces pressure at home to bring his troops back after a second officer was recently killed by gangs. The Kenya president supports the transformation of the mission into a traditional U.N. peacekeeping mission, which Guterres has declined to endorse
