Blackwater founder to deploy nearly 200 personnel to Haiti as gang
violence soars
[August 15, 2025]
By DÁNICA COTO
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The security firm of former U.S. Navy Seal
Erik Prince will soon deploy nearly 200 personnel from various countries
to Haiti as part of a one-year deal to quell gang violence there, a
person with knowledge of the plans said Thursday.
The deployment by Vectus Global is meant to help the government of Haiti
recover vast swaths of territory seized in the past year and now
controlled by heavily armed gangs, said the person, speaking to The
Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.
The company, which provides logistics, infrastructure, security and
defense, is run by Prince, a major donor to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Prince previously founded the controversial security firm Blackwater.
The deployment was first reported by Reuters.
Vectus Global also will assume a long-term role in advising Haiti’s
government on how to restore revenue collection capabilities once the
violence subsides, the person said.
In June, Fritz Alphonse Jean, then-leader of Haiti’s transitional
presidential council, confirmed that the government was using foreign
contractors. He declined to identify the firm or say how much the deal
was worth.
Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, head of Haiti Observatory at the Global
Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said the operations
would violate U.S. law unless the U.S.-based private military company
had permission from the U.S. government to work in Haiti.
“In the absence of a coherent, jointly led Haitian and international
strategy, the use of private firms is more likely to fragment authority
and sovereignty than to advance resolution of the crisis,” he said.
A Trump administration official said the U.S. government has no
involvement with the hiring of Vectus Global by the Haitian government.
The U.S. government is not funding this contract or exercising any
oversight, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss the
situation.
The office of Haiti's prime minister did not return a message for
comment, nor did members of Haiti's transitional presidential council.
The private contractors, which will come from the United States, Europe
and other regions, are expected to advise and support Haiti’s National
Police and a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police officers that is
struggling to suppress gang violence.
The U.N.-backed mission has 991 personnel, far less than the 2,500
envisioned, and some $112 million in its trust fund — about 14% of the
estimated $800 million needed a year, according to a recent U.N. report.
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The upcoming deployment of private contractors comes after the
recent appointment of André Jonas Vladimir Paraison as the country’s
new police director general.
Paraison once served as head of security for Haiti’s National Palace
and was involved in a new task forced created earlier this year made
up of certain police units and private contractors. The task force
has operated outside the oversight of Haiti’s National Police and
employed the use of explosive drones, which some human rights
activists have criticized.
Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said
that while there’s an obvious need for more anti-gang operations,
“there is a risk of escalating the conflict without having enough
personnel to extinguish the fires that Viv Ansanm can ignite in many
places.”
Viv Ansanm is a powerful gang federation created in September 2023
that saw the merging of gangs, including G-9 and G-Pèp — once bitter
enemies. The United States designated it as a foreign terrorist
organization earlier this year.
The gang federation was responsible for coordinating a series of
large-scale attacks early last year that included raids on Haiti’s
two biggest prisons that led to the release of some 4,000 inmates.
Viv Ansanm also forced the closure of Haiti’s main international
airport for nearly three months, with the violence eventually
prompting then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign.
Jimmy Chérizier, a leader of Viv Ansanm and best known as Barbecue,
recently threatened Paraison.
“Viv Ansanm has a military might that they don’t always show,” said
Da Rin, the analyst.
At least 1,520 people were killed and more than 600 injured from
April to the end of June across Haiti. More than 60% of the killings
and injuries occurred during operations by security forces against
gangs, with another 12% blamed on self-defense groups, according to
the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti.
Gang violence also has displaced some 1.3 million people in recent
years.
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Associated Press writer Joshua Boak in Washington contributed to
this report.
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