Protesters in Haiti demand new government and more security as anger
over gangs spreads
[May 05, 2025]
By EVENS SANON and DÁNICA COTO
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Dozens of protesters marched up the hills
of Haiti’s capital on Sunday demanding an end to persistent gang
violence as they called on the country’s prime minister and transitional
presidential council to resign.
It’s the latest protest to reflect growing anger and frustration over a
surge in violence as gangs try to seize full control of Port-au-Prince.
“The only thing the Haitian people are asking for is security,” said
Eric Jean, a 42-year-old bus driver with a large Haitian flag tied
around his neck. “We’re losing more neighborhoods, more people are
dying, more people are fleeing their homes.”
Also joining the protest was Marc Étienne, who blamed gangs for raiding
his small business and leaving him homeless. The 39-year-old now lives
in a squalid, makeshift camp like tens of thousands of others forced to
flee their homes after gangs razed their communities.
Étienne called for a new government as he blamed the current leaders for
the ongoing violence and an increase in the number of children joining
gangs.
“Haiti cannot be run among friends,” he said. “The city is dying because
the (council) is not doing anything to make it better.”
A vow to fight gangs
Sunday's demonstration comes a day after hundreds of people gathered in
Port-au-Prince to honor several community leaders killed in recent
clashes with gangs.
“Freedom or death!” the mourners shouted on Saturday as the leaders of
the Canapé-Vert neighborhood entered a small stadium where the memorial
was held.
Videos posted on social media showed the leaders carrying automatic
weapons and wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of those
killed. Many wore balaclavas to cover their faces and protect themselves
from possible retaliation by gangs.
Clad in white, the mourners raised their fists and clutched hands in the
air as a man on stage roared in Haitian Creole, “The blood is not going
to be shed in vain! The fight is what?”
“Just beginning!” the crowd answered in unison.
The unidentified man on stage said the community would never forget the
slain leaders as he condemned gang violence. “People are dying, and they
don’t even know why they’re dying,” he said.
Canapé-Vert is one of the few neighborhoods that has yet to fall to
gangs that control at least 85% of the capital. It also is known for
having one of Port-au-Prince’s most powerful neighborhood organizations,
led in part by frustrated police officers.
In early April, Canapé-Vert leaders organized a large protest that
became violent as they, too, demanded that Haiti’s prime minister and
its transitional presidential council resign.
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Attacks of ‘indiscriminate and brutal nature’
Sunday’s demonstration and other recent protests have decried the
country’s spiraling crisis, with more than 1,600 people killed and
another 580 injured from January to March.
In mid-March, hundreds of people armed with sticks and machetes,
accompanied by members of an armed environmental brigade,
successfully ousted more than 100 suspected gang members that had
seized control of a Catholic school, according to a new report
issued by the U.N. political mission in Haiti.
But the ouster is only one of a handful of successful fights against
powerful gangs backed by certain politicians and some of Haiti’s
elite.
Last year, more than 5,600 people across Haiti were killed,
according to the U.N.
Gang violence also has left more than one million people homeless in
recent years.
Gunmen in recent months have targeted once peaceful neighborhoods in
Port-au-Prince that would give them easy access to Pétion-Ville, a
residential area where banks, embassies and other institutions are
located.
In a February attack on Delmas 30, gunmen “indiscriminately fired on
the population in the neighborhood, killing 21 men and injuring
eight others,” according to the U.N. report.
In a separate attack on a nearby neighborhood where the French
embassy is located, at least 30 people were killed, many of whom
were traveling in small colorful buses known as tap taps, according
to the report.
Other victims include at least 15 people who were family members of
police officers.
Gangs also have attacked multiple communities in Haiti’s central
Artibonite region, killing adults and small children as they fled.
“The indiscriminate and brutal nature of some of these attacks shows
the gang’s strategy to spread panic and reduce the resistance of the
local population,” according to the BINUH report.
Meanwhile, Haiti’s National Police, bolstered by a U.N.-backed
mission led by Kenyan police, has struggled in its fight against
gangs as the mission remains underfunded and understaffed, with only
1,000 personnel of the 2,500 envisioned.
In a push to crack down on gangs, the U.S. government on Friday
officially designated Viv Ansanm, a powerful gang coalition, and
Gran Grif, the largest gang to operate in Haiti’s central region, as
foreign terror organizations.
Critics warn the move could affect aid organizations working in
Haiti at a critical time, since many are forced to negotiate with
gangs to supply people with basic goods including food and water.
___
Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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