Kidnapping

Worsening Gang Violence and Kidnappings in Port au Prince

  • Posted on: 13 July 2022
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

Gang violence in Haiti's largest city continues to have a pervasive negative impact that reverberates throughout the country, affecting security, the economy, food security, education, and health care.  According to Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald, dozens of people have been killed and more than a hundred injured in a new round of deadly violence  "aggravating fuel shortages, raising transportation costs and making an already troubling humanitarian crisis even worse."  Further, 20,000 residents of the densely populated slums have been displaced by gang violence since May.  A July 8 article about gang violence in Port au Prince is copied below and linked is an update by Charles.

Strikes, Violence Overwhelm Haiti's Crumbling Judiciary

  • Posted on: 29 January 2021
  • By: Bryan Schaaf

There is no justice without a functioning judicial system and Haiti's is broken.  Prisons are sorely over-crowded in part due to 80% of inmates being held for years with no trial.  In addition, activists report a distrubing increase in illegal preventive detentions.  Judges are few, overwhelmed, and often threatened.  Haiti remains a fragile democracy and will remain so without justice and the rule of law.  If the judicial system improves, then we will know that Haiti is, at last, changing for better.  The full article by AP journalists Evens Sanon and Danica Coto is linked and follows below.