Gangs Complicate Haiti Effort to Move On From Assassination

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - Gangs in Haiti have long been financed by powerful politicians and their allies — and many Haitians fear those backers may be losing control of the increasingly powerful armed groups who have driven thousands of people from their homes as they battle over territory, kill civilians and raid warehouses of food.

The escalation in gang violence threatens to complicate — and be aggravated by — political efforts to recover from last week's brazen slaying of President Jovenel Moïse. Haiti's government is in disarray: no parliament, no president, a dispute over who is prime minister, a weak police force. But the gangs seem more organized and powerful than ever. While the violence has been centered in the capital of Port-au-Prince, it has affected life across Haiti, paralyzing the fragile economy, shuttering schools, overwhelming police and disrupting efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. "The country is transformed into a vast desert where wild animals engulf us," said the Haitian Conference of the Religious in a recent statement about the spike in violent crime. "We are refugees and exiles in our own country."