Chaos in Haiti: ‘Anti-Crime’ Protesters Burn U.S. Christian Group’s Plane

Haitians protesting against a recent spike in crime in the Haitian city of Les Cayes on Tuesday stormed a local airport and burned a small jet owned by a U.S.-based Christian missionary group, Reuters reported.

“The protesters entered the local airport in Les Cayes even though police fired tear gas at the group, according to a video of the incident filmed by online media group Cayes Infos,” Reuters relayed on March 29 after reviewing the footage.

“The video shows dozens of people approaching the plane and pushing it down the tarmac. The plane is later seen on a street, apparently near the airport, where it was set on fire,” the news agency detailed.

Agape Flights, the missionary group that owned the doomed airplane, confirmed the incident in a statement posted on its website March 29.

The press release read, in part:

Rioting broke out in the Les Cayes, Haiti area on March 29, 2022, including the airport.

Due to the rioting, Agape’s Chieftain aircraft has been destroyed, but our team on the ground is safe. We are preparing to bring them back to the U.S. safely.

Agape Flights is an organization based in Venice, Florida, that delivers mail and humanitarian aid to impoverished Caribbean island nations such as Haiti.

The organization attempted to provide some context for the attack on its airplane by a group of unidentified Haitians on March 29 in the statement shared by its website on Tuesday.

Agape Flights wrote:

Here is a quote from a missionary update that helps “explain” a bit: “People are mad that the roads are blocked by gangs, and the only way to travel to the Southern part of the country is via air. They assume the airlines control the gangs and are profiting off of the insecurities. Agape’s plane, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

We are also hearing that they thought it was a politician’s plane.

The background information provided by Agape Flights remains unconfirmed. Reuters reported on Tuesday it was “not immediately evident why the protesters had targeted the plane.”

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry condemned the incident in a March 29 social media post shared by his Twitter account.

An English translation of Henry’s original French statement read:

I strongly condemn the violence by demonstrators which resulted in the burning of a plane at Les Cayes airport. I have instructed the public authorities to put public action in motion against the perpetrators of these subversive acts so that they are severely punished.

At least one person was killed during the riot at Les Cayes airport on March 29, according to a March 30 report by the Associated Press (AP).

“At least one person died and five others were injured, including four police officers, in the confrontation between protesters and authorities in Les Cayes,” Gedeon Chery, a Haitian National Police inspector assigned to the city’s airport, told the news agency.

Chery said “the person killed was a protester who was shot” but did not clarify who was responsible for the death.

“A second small plane was burned at the local airport of the city of Jacmel, but it wasn’t clear if it was also part of an attack by some protesters,” Haitian National Police Spokesman Garry Desrosiers told the AP on Wednesday.

“The aircraft [in Jacmel city] was non-operational and had been stationed there for a while,” he added.

Haiti is currently suffering from a surge in crime, including kidnappings, caused by upticks in domestic gang violence. The small island nation’s overcrowded prison system has contributed to Haiti’s security deterioration in recent months, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Haiti is facing a protracted political, constitutional, humanitarian, and security crisis,” the organization states on its website.

Ariel Henry has ruled Haiti since July 20, 2021, when he was sworn in as prime minister less than two weeks after Haiti’s former president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated. Haitian government officials believe a foreign hit squad of at least 28 mercenaries, including former Colombian soldiers, were involved in the killing of Moïse, 53, though much about the incident remains unconfirmed. Haitian security forces discovered Moïse dead at his personal residence in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021, with “12 bullet wounds and a gouged eye.” A Haitian state-backed investigation into the death remains ongoing after encountering numerous roadblocks.

Haiti continues to lack a president since Moïse’s assassination. Henry was sworn in as prime minister of Haiti on July 20, 2021, to replace then-Interim Haiti Prime Minister Claude Joseph. Joseph led Haiti from July 7, 2021, the date of Moïse’s death, until his replacement by Henry.