Gangs Attack Prisons in Haiti, Allowing Prisoners to Escape
In a brazen display of violence and disorder, gangs attacked two prisons in Haiti on Saturday night, including the country’s largest penitentiary, allowing prisoners to escape, according to Haitian officials. This latest incident highlights the escalating violence and chaos in the country’s capital, which has been plagued by gang violence for over two years.
The government of Haiti released a statement on Sunday, revealing that police officers were unable to prevent gang members from releasing “a large number of prisoners.” Several inmates and prison staff were injured during the attacks.
The national penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, which was designed to hold only 800 inmates, housed nearly 4,000 prisoners at the time of the attack. The Croix-des-Bouquets Civil Prison, the other facility targeted by the gangs, held approximately 1,400 inmates, according to local human rights groups.
Videos circulating on social media on Sunday showed parts of the penitentiary mostly empty of prisoners, indicating the scale of the escape.
Haiti’s national penitentiary is home to several high-profile inmates, including the Colombian commandos accused of being involved in the assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, in 2021. A Haitian lawyer representing some of the accused soldiers stated that the prison was nearly emptied of inmates, with only those too old or disabled to flee and those implicated in the Moïse killing remaining behind.
The government vowed to track down the escaped prisoners and apprehend those responsible for the attacks. The country has been in a state of extreme unrest since Moïse’s assassination, with widespread gang violence and a collapse of security.
The recent attacks on prisons are part of a wave of violence orchestrated by armed gangs while Haiti’s prime minister was out of the country. The goal, according to gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, known as Barbecue, is to overthrow what remains of the government.
In response to the escalating violence, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti issued a security alert advising American citizens to leave the country as soon as possible. The situation in Haiti remains volatile, with experts warning of a crucial shift in the balance of power as armed gangs continue to assert their dominance.
As the country grapples with the aftermath of the prison attacks and ongoing violence, the international community closely monitors the situation, unsure of the effectiveness of potential interventions to restore order in the gang-ravaged nation.
