Inside Haiti's capital city taken hostage by brutal gangs
By Orla GuerinIn Port-au-Prince you cannot see the boundaries, but you must know where they are. Your life may depend on it. Competing gangs are carving up the Haitian capital, kidnapping, raping, and killing at will. They demarcate their territory in blood. Cross from one gang's turf to another, and you may not make it back.
They set the clock here. Morning rush hour - between 06:00 and 09:00 - is peak kidnapping time. Many are snatched from the streets on their way to work. Others are targeted in the evening rush hour - from 15:00 to 18:00. Kidnappers belong to competing gangs - which are mainly grouped into two large coalitions - G9 and GPeP.
"There was a battle between an officer and the bad guys. One of them died," says a police veteran of 27 years, who didn't want to be named. "My mom and I went out to get something to eat," she says. "While we were ordering I felt something. That's when I fell and screamed in agony. I didn't expect to survive. I usually hear gunshots further away from my house. On that day they drove closer."
Rights campaigners say there are about 200 armed groups across the country, more than half of them in the capital. Some current and former police officers actually have their own gang, called Baz Pilate. Rights campaigners say it controls part of the main street in downtown Port-au-Prince. Soon men entered the house, hitting his wife, and demanding information on local gang members. When his nephew tried to run, they shot and killed him. The husband remained in hiding, and in torment.
"What I endured was nothing," he says. "There is a lady who had only one child. They cut his throat in front of her. The young man who was not in a gang." Most of Cité Soleil is controlled by the most powerful gang federation in Port-au-Prince - the G-9 family and allies. Local sources say it had close ties to the assassinated president and his ruling party, and its speciality is extortion.
Sources here say the sanctions are having some impact because politicians who use the gangs now want to lie low.When Jean Simson Desanclos reached the deserted street at the edge of a gang-ridden suburb, he found nothing of his family except the burnt-out shell of the family's Black Suzuki. The charred remains of his wife and two daughters had already been taken to the morgue.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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