PIERRE RICHARD LUXAMA and MEGAN JANETSKY
Thu, January 26, 2023 at 11:05 AM MST·3 min read
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Outraged rebel police officers paralyzed Port-au-Prince on Thursday, roaring through the streets on motorcycles in protest of a slew of killings of police officers by Haitian gangs.
More than a hundred protesters blocked roads, shot guns into the air, and broke through gates in the capital's airport and the Prime Minister's house, with tensions escalating throughout the day.
Gangs have killed at least 10 officers in the past week; another is missing and one more has severe bullet wounds, according to the Haitian National Police.
Video circulating social media — likely recorded by gangs — shows the naked and bloodied bodies of six men stretched out on the dirt, their guns laying on their chests. Another video shows two masked men who are smoking cigarettes from the dismembered hands and feet of the dead men.
The gang who killed them, known as Gan Grif, still has the bodies, police said.
The wave of grisly killings of police is only the latest example of escalating violence in the Caribbean nation, which has been gripped by gang wars and political chaos following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
His unelected successor as head of the government, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, has asked the United Nations to lead a military intervention, but no country has been willing to put boots on the ground.
The deaths enraged members of Fantom 509, an armed group of current and former police officers that has violently demanded better conditions for officers.
Dozens of these men wove through city on Thursday, many wearing hoods along with police uniforms, flak jackets and rifles and automatic weapons. They seized buses to blockade roads and torched tires across the city, leaving smoke plummeting through the streets.
Many demanded tougher crackdowns on the gangs, and called for the end to Henry's administration, which many Haitians view as illegitimate. Demonstrators broke down one of the gates outside Henry’s home and a barrier at the Port-au-Prince airport, where he planned to make an appearance later in the day.
“We need a revolution,” screamed one protester dressed in a bullet proof vest, helmet and gas mask. “We are in the streets to fight, for our brothers and sisters who are victims of the bandits. We have to take to the streets every day to get what we want.”
A video recorded by local Haitian media shows empty streets and closed businesses on a key road of Port-au-Prince where the rebel group passed through.
In addition to the bodies displayed by the gang, a number of officers were killed last week in a firefight with gangs in a neighborhood that was once considered relatively safe.
Since Henry took the reins of the country, 78 police officers have been killed, according to a Thursday report by Haitian human rights group, National Network of the Defense of Human Rights.
The Haitian National Police expressed condolences to the slain officers' families and colleagues, and said it's "calling for peace and invites police officers to come together to bring forward an institutional response to the different criminal organizations that terrorize the Haitian people.”
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti also tweeted Thursday afternoon asking for calm.
The United Nations estimates that 60% of Port-au-Prince is controlled by the gangs. On the streets of the capital, Haitians say it's more like 100%.
This week, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti urged the American and Canadian governments to lead an international armed force to help Haiti combat the gangs. Haitian police, meanwhile, are pleading for more resources.
“The movement will continue, we can’t let police get killed like this,” said one masked man in a police uniform carrying a pistol who did not want to be identified. “We can do the job if they give us ammunition."
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Associated Press journalist Evens Sanon contributed to this report.
Haiti police block streets, break into airport to protest officer killings
Thu, January 26, 2023
By Steven Aristil and Harold Isaac
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -Haitian police officers on Thursday blocked streets and forced their way into the country's main airport to protest the recent killing of officers by armed gangs expanding their grip on the Caribbean nation.
Protesters in civilian clothes who identified themselves as police first attacked Prime Minister Ariel Henry's official residence, according to a Reuters witness, and then flooded the airport as Henry was arriving from a trip to Argentina.
Henry was temporarily stuck in the airport, but returned to his residence in Port-au-Prince later on Thursday, followed by police protesters. A Reuters witness heard heavy gunfire near his home.
Haiti's National Police and the Prime Minister's Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Roads around Port-au-Prince and in several cities to the north were blocked by protesters.
A group of U.S. government officials were visiting Haiti at the time, and a U.S. State Department spokesperson said all Washington's personnel were accounted for and they had moved some meetings as a precaution.
Haitian human rights group RNDDH said in a statement that 78 police officers had been killed since Henry came to power in July 2021, averaging five each month, saying the prime minister and the head of the national police Frantz Elbe were "responsible for each of the 78 lives lost during their reign."
"History will remember they did nothing to protect and preserve the lives of these agents who chose to serve their country," it added.
Late on Thursday, The Bahamas' foreign ministry said the country's prime minister had ordered all Bahamians, including its diplomatic personnel, to leave Haiti as soon as security conditions permit.
Haitian police had earlier in the day stopped the neighboring country's local charge d'affaires and taken their vehicle and weapons, it added, saying all its diplomats were safe, as well as five citizens who had been trapped around the airport.
Last week, four police officers near the capital were killed by the Vitelhomme gang, while shootouts on Wednesday with the Savien gang in the town of Liancourt left another seven officers dead, according to Haiti's National Police and local media reports.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols expressed condolences to the families of police officers killed in the latest violence, and said the United States would continue to "impose costs on those responsible for this heinous violence."
Asked how the developments could affect efforts to craft an international armed intervention, the U.S. State Department spokesperson told Reuters the United States was still working with international partners to develop "a framework" for a security mission to "provide security and stability."
The United Nations is discussing sending a foreign strike force to confront the criminal groups. The proposal was originally made three months ago but no country has offered to lead such a force.
(Reporting by Steven Aristil, Harold Isaac and Ralph Tedy Erol in Port-au-Prince, Brian Ellsworth in Caracas, Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Additional reporting by Sarah Morland; Editing by Sandra Maler and Christopher Cushing)
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