Haiti’s Neighbors Beef Up Border Defenses as Gangs Battle Police for Control of Airport

Haiti’s neighbors scrambled to increase patrols, build border fences, and recall their diplomatic missions as violence in the tormented Caribbean nation escalated on Monday.

Heavily armed gangs defied a nationwide curfew to battle police and soldiers for control of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport as the government of Prime Minister Ariel Henry tottered, while social media was filled with videos of gangsters torturing their prisoners.

The attack on Haiti’s main international airport was a bold escalation, a move the gangs were seemingly hesitant to make until now. Associated  Press (AP) reporters witnessed “an armored truck on the tarmac shooting at gangs to try and prevent them from entering airport grounds as scores of employees and other workers fled from whizzing bullets.”

“It wasn’t immediately clear as of late Monday whether the attack, which was the biggest one in Haiti’s history involving the airport, was successful,” the AP said.

“The police were ordered to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and apprehend all offenders,” said Patrick Boivert, the Haitian finance minister, who is serving as acting prime minister while Henry is out of the country.

Henry seems to have disappeared after signing a bilateral agreement with Kenyan President William Ruto to arrange a paramilitary intervention by 1,000 Kenyan police officers, who would be the vanguard of a United Nations peacekeeping force. 

Ruto said the agreement paved the way for “a mission for humanity” and “a mission for solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Haiti.”

However, critics called the signing ceremony a hollow political stunt because Kenyan courts previously ruled out a Haitian intervention as unconstitutional. They also pointed out that Ruto lacks the authority to commit Kenyan forces to such a mission without parliamentary approval.

Henry has not been seen in public since signing the agreement with Ruto on Friday and the Kenyan government refused to comment on his whereabouts.

“It’s our understanding that the prime minister is returning to the country,” a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Tuesday, without providing further details.

Nairobi professor of history and international relations Macharia Munene told Voice of America News (VOA) on Monday that Henry might be afraid to return to Haiti.

“We don’t know whether he is still in the country or has gone to another country. We don’t know for now where he is but it’s clear that in Port-au-Prince, the Barbecue has said he wants to barbecue the prime minister once he gets there. That may not be a good indicator,” Munene said.

Munene was referring to gang boss Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, who openly announced his intention to topple the Henry government on Friday. 

Cherizier and his allies apparently took Henry’s foreign trip as their opportunity to launch a full-blown insurrection. One of the objectives of the bloody chaos Cherizier has unleashed could be intimidating Henry out of returning to the country and making allies like Ruto think twice about sending their forces into the bullet-riddled hell of Port-au-Prince.

Many Haitians outside the gangs view Henry as an illegitimate leader desperate to retain his grip on power, so they might not be eager to cooperate with peacekeepers even if the gangs are making their lives unbearable.

“[Peacekeepers] will not be given tea and coffee to welcome them; instead they might have to defend themselves in a very rough way. So, the developments are not very flattering for the countries that are supposed to send police officers to keep the peace,” Munene said, adding that most Kenyans did not support sending troops to Haiti.

The gangs have stepped up their efforts to create an atmosphere of terror in Port-au-Prince. As CNN observed on Monday, everything of value has been stripped from the thug-controlled capital city, so the only resource left for gangsters to steal is human beings:

In this city, the most-shared online videos are often torture footage, recorded and posted by gangs to spread horror and hasten ransom payments for thousands of kidnapping victims. Last month, within hours of landing at the city’s Toussaint L’Ouverture airport, a CNN team began to receive forwarded messages from contacts sharing the latest cruel footage – a bound woman twisting away from flames as her kidnappers jeered.

[…]

In an impoverished country with little to exploit, the gangs are treating human beings like commodities, snatching at least 2,490 people off the street last year to trade in a fast-growing kidnapping business, per UN figures.

Victims whose families cannot pay for their release are often killed, adding to the thousands of others who have lost their lives to indiscriminate gunfire, waves of arson, and other abuses. Haiti’s national homicide rate doubled last year, reaching 41 murders for every 100,000 people, the UN says – one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Civilians blame Henry for much of the chaos, accusing him of pulling dwindling police resources out of the worst neighborhoods to protect the assets in Port-au-Prince he still controls. Almost 800 police officers took advantage of the Biden administration’s escape visas last year to flee the country.

Added to officers who quit their jobs without leaving Haiti, and those who have been killed, the national police force lost 1,663 officers in 2023. When gangs stormed the National Penitentiary over the weekend and released thousands of dangerous prisoners, the police pleaded for reinforcements on social media, warning “no one will be spared in the capital” if they did not get enough manpower to defend the prison.

A spokesman said on Monday that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Port-au-Prince, where armed gangs have intensified their attacks on critical infrastructure.”

Haiti’s neighbors are also deeply concerned. The Dominican Republic on Monday sent its defense minister to tour the border with Haiti and supervise the construction of a border fence. President Luis Abinader told reporters on Monday that he would never allow refugee camps for Haitians in his country.

The Bahamas recalled most of its embassy staff on Monday, while Mexico joined the United States and Canada in advising citizens to avoid traveling to Haiti. The International Rescue Committee said many aid groups have been forced to pause operations in Haiti due to the deteriorating security situation.

The Organization of American States (OAS) on Tuesday blasted the international community for not acting sooner.

“Without security, there will be no democracy,” OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro said. “It is more necessary than ever to promote cooperation efforts in the United Nations to restore security in the country. It is irresponsible that the necessary measures and actions continue to be delayed.”