When Security, Haitians' Absolute Priority, Is Compromised, the State Must Act

Since the creation of the criminal coalition, Viv Ansanm, gangs have strengthened to coordinate and launch their attacks, thus multiplying the number of deaths and gunshot injuries. Meanwhile, the lack of conclusive results highlights the disorganization and disharmony among state officials. This article deeply analyzes the causes of the Haitian State's failure to confront organized crime and explores some potential solutions.

Insecurity, characterized by the violence of armed gangs, has become a major obstacle to the social and economic progress of communities. For over a decade, gangs have spread into previously free areas, forcing residents to flee their homes.

Port-au-Prince, the capital, and its periphery have become lost territories. Gangs, in some cases outnumbering or overpowering law enforcement, seize key infrastructure and impose their rule. They rape, loot, burn, and kill ordinary people; brutally punishing those who dare to defy their rules or are suspected of collaborating with the police or self-defense groups, according to local media reports.

This situation sets the country back on the human rights scale, regrets Jemps Meralus, Executive Director of the Haitian League for Human Rights. The State is losing its capacity in the face of the ferocity of armed gangs, and even the right to live is no longer guaranteed, he asserts.

*Authorities are overwhelmed by the situation and let politics take over*

Gang violence has reached unprecedented proportions in Haiti's contemporary history, noted Colonel Hymmler Rebu, former minister, former member of the Haitian Armed Forces (FAD'H). “Too much laxity has led us to the bottom of the abyss… they are losing control of the situation,” he analyzed during his participation in a show on a capital radio station.

According to Rebu, it is necessary to start by removing the Haitian National Police (PNH) from the political influence of the CSPN to achieve its depoliticization and regain public trust. “The police should be 70% technical and 30% political, whereas we are observing the opposite,” he argued, regretting such a state of affairs. Rebu also deplores that it takes up too much space and overwhelms the institution.

“Too many political considerations when officers must intervene in crucial situations,” he stated. For him, there aren't 36 solutions: remove the police from the oversight of the Ministry of Justice and place it under the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior. “In all serious countries worldwide, the police are placed under the authority of the Ministry of Interior,” he emphasized.

*The State must preserve its harmony in the face of criminal gang organization*

Several police officers killed and at least 3 members of the MMSS are victims in clashes, and the national police still struggle to find the gangs' weak point. It's a problem of coordination and organization of operational strategy, criticizes Hymmler Rebu.