Police retake control of key area from powerful gangs

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP):

As the sun rose, a handful of women opened tattered beach umbrellas in the heart of Port-au-Prince and scanned the horizon before opening their fruit and vegetable stands.

It was unusually quiet in Carrefour Aéroport, a famed intersection in Haiti’s capital that once bustled with traffic and commerce until hundreds of gang members stormed the area in early March 2024 in an unprecedented wave of violence.

They smashed businesses, killed civilians and set fire to a police substation as officers fled.

For nearly two years after the attack, gangs drained the life out of Carrefour Aéroport.

Then in December, Haitian police officers launched a sustained attack against powerful gangs to drive them out of the area with the help of a private security firm and Kenyan police officers leading a UN-backed mission that is winding down.

The retaking of Carrefour Aéroport is “probably one of the very first tangible messages sent by the authorities that, ‘yes, we can take back the territory of ... no man’s land,’” said Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

It’s a hint of what could happen elsewhere in Port-au-Prince after a powerful gang federation known as Viv Ansanm began raiding neighbourhoods and targeting key government infrastructure in February 2024 in a series of attacks that forced the closure of the country’s main international airport and eventually led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

“It is a sign of hope,” Le Cour said. “It sends the message that this is doable.”

A glimmer of life

On February 7, Haitian authorities reopened a renovated police substation in Carrefour Aéroport to much fanfare in a capital that is 90 per cent controlled by gangs.

Curious onlookers watched and one of them clapped as heavily guarded police officers entered their restored building nearly two years after gangs had torched it.

“Life is timidly returning to normal,” Jacques Ader, a police commissioner, told reporters.

Since the reopening, street vendors and the drivers of colourful buses, known as tap taps, have reinserted themselves in the area.

“Small businesses are recovering,” said Jean-Remy Laveau, a 35-year-old motorcycle taxi driver who used to work in the area before gangs seized control.

“It will be good for me, more activities, more money more work. I’ll be able to better feed my two kids and my wife,” he said.