Prisoners escape after an attack on Haiti’s largest prison

Gangs attacked Haiti’s largest prison on Saturday evening and allowed prisoners to escape, according to local police unions and a lawyer for some of the prisoners. than two years.

While details of the attack remained unclear, at least two of the country’s police unions took to social media on Saturday asking all police officers to report to the national prison in Port-au-Prince, the capital, to get the situation under control help keep and prevent the attack. prisoners cannot escape.

“If we let gangs take over the prison, we are done,” says the national police union SNPH-17 said in a post on X. “No one will be spared in the capital.”

Haiti’s national prison – with almost 4,000 prisoners built to hold just 800 – has several high-profile prisoners, such as the Colombian commandos accused of being part of the group that assassinated Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse in 2021.

A Haitian lawyer for some of the soldiers accused of the killing, Samuel Madistin, told The New York Times that he had spoken to his clients who said the national prison was nearly empty of inmates. Only those too old or disabled to flee and those accused of Moïse’s murder stayed behind, Mr. Madistin said, for fear of being hunted if they left prison.

Videos circulating on social media on Sunday appeared to show journalists wandering through parts of the national prison where virtually no inmates were present.

Lionel Lazarre, coordinator of the National Union of Haitian Police Officers, told The Times that both the prison and a second prison in Port-au-Prince, the Croix-des-Bouquets Civil Prison, were attacked on Saturday and that some prisoners had escaped. , but it was unclear how much.

Mr Lazarre added that heavy gunfire had broken out in the prison but that police had regained control on Sunday.

“The attack was obvious,” Mr. Lazarre said, adding that gang members did not try to hide their plans to lock down the prison. “There is a lack of concern among police authorities who have not taken these reports seriously or taken enough measures to strengthen security.”

Commissioner Ernst Dorfeuille, a senior police official responsible for operations in Port-au-Prince, said the internet was down and so it was difficult to get a situation assessment. Still, he thought most of the prisoners had escaped: “I don’t think there’s a prisoner down there anymore,” he said, adding: “The gangs came together so the attack force was in their favor.”

The Haitian government has not commented on the episode.

Haiti has entered a state of extreme unrest after Mr Moïse’s murder led to widespread gang violence and a near-complete collapse of security. According to police figures, out of a force of approximately 15,000 officers, almost 3,000 police officers have left their posts in the past two years.

The country has no president or other elected national officials, and gangs – who have taken control of much of Port-au-Prince – terrorize thousands of people every day. At least 5,000 people were murdered in Haiti last year, according to the United Nations.

Violence in the country escalated last week after Prime Minister Ariel Henry traveled to Kenya to finalize a deal under which that country would send a thousand police officers to help restore order in Haiti.

The attack on the prison is part of a wave of attacks carried out by armed gangs in recent days while Haiti’s prime minister was out of the country. The goal, according to Jimmy Chérizier, a gang leader known as Barbecue, is to overthrow what is left of the government.

On Thursday, Mr. Chérizier said in a video message: “With our weapons and with the Haitian people, we will liberate the country.”

It is unclear whether an international police force led by Kenya, which has drawn criticism from human rights groups, could help curb the violence. The recent attacks are a clear show of violence in the gang-ridden country, experts say.

“The gangs seem to be sending a message of intimidation to the troops about to be deployed in Haiti, saying, ‘Well, we’re a united front and we can attack at the same time,’” said Diego Da Rin, a Haiti expert at the International Crisis group.

Romain Le Cour, a security analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said: “It is, frankly, a situation where you have absolute absence and silence of the state,” adding that some of the violence was likely planned for weeks, while some were spontaneous.

Although authorities in Haiti have been losing ground for years, Mr. Le Cour said, recent days have shown that the armed gangs have achieved a “critical shift” in the balance of power.

“It’s probably one of the first times you’ve had these targeted, targeted attacks. It’s not like it used to be,” he added. “Now they just go for it.”

André Paultre reported from Port-au-Prince, Emiliano Rodriguez Mega from Mexico City and David C Adams from Miami.