The 2022 Haitian crisis is a socioeconomic and political crisis in Haiti which began on 14 September 2022 in response to rising energy prices, the misuse of loans from Venezuela, anarchic gang violence, a cholera outbreak (and shortages in clean drinking water), widespread hunger, police brutality, and endemic political corruption.
Background[]
In Haiti, gangs developed a strong presence in municipalities with strategic electoral importance. The political class in Haiti was dominated by the Haitian Tet Kale Party (which brought together neo-Duvalierists and former Fanmi Lavalas officials), Prevalists (bringing together disaffected members of Fanmi Lavalas, left-wing and center-right parties associated with workers organizations and private sector groups involved in national production), and the Lavalas movement (predominantly drawn from the urban youth and marginalized urban poor). Haiti's gangs operated with impunity and claimed to belong to certain political groups, both in power and opposition. By 2023, the G9 Family and Allies gang controlled the town centers of Petion Ville and Port-au-Prince with 2 million voters, while the 400 Mawozo gang controlled 950,000 voters. These gangs distributed leaflets in their neighborhoods and polling stations during elections, lobbied door-to-door among the inhabitants and intimidate voters, bribed donors to vote for certain candidates, extorted businessmen and notables to raise money for certain candidates' campaigns, engaged in ballot-stuffing and the destruction of polling stations in areas where their political paymasters were set to lose, and organized protests for their candidates and suppressed the rallies of opponents. G9 was formed in 2020 by nine powerful gangs linked to the ruling PHTK party; its alliance included former and serving police officers, young ex-Lavalas members, PHTK's political base from working-class neighborhoods, deportees, and former soldiers. G9 called itself "Forces Revolutionnaires," promoting itself as a revolutionary movement; while it had strong links to the PHTK during Jovenel Moise's presidency, the group tried to use its power to remove Moise's replacement, Ariel Henry.
Meanwhile, the 400 Mawozo gang, the largest in Haiti, was based in the outskirts of Ganthier commune in eastern Croix des Bouquets arrondissement and in Port-au-Prince, and was made up of deportees, former leaders of popular opposition organizations, former low-level smugglers on the Haitian-Dominican border, and police officers. The group was responsible for up to 80% of kidnappings in Haiti from June to September 2021.
G-Pep, a second gang alliance based in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, was founded by Jean-Pierre Gabriel, leader of the Nan Brooklyn gang, and it was formed to counter G9. G-Pep was associated with the opposition, fighting G9-affiliated gangs in Cite Soleil from 2020.
The Grand Ravine and 5 Second gangs, based in Martissant, were made up of young people from the shanty towns of the metropolitan area, and the majority were former members of vigilante brigades and popular organizations close to Fanmi Lavalas. From 2014 onwards, with the support of certain parliamentarians close to the government and opposition, the two gangs amassed a fortune through kidnappings and hijacking goods vehicles.
The Baz Pilate gang was among the most powerful gangs in Haiti, composed of dismissed and serving police officers, including many SWAT and CIMO officers. The gang, one of the most important members of the G9 coalition, controlled the Champs de Mars administrative zone of Port-au-Prince, the neighborhood of Ti Bois, and other large cities in the north, and they specialized in drug trafficking, burglary, racketeering, and targeted killings, while joining forces with criminal gangs and politicians to control elections from 2015.
The Baz Galil gang, composed mainly of deportees frm the US who were easily recruited by politicians and other gangs, created an association with the support of drug lords in the PHTK party in 2013, and they inaugurated the phenomenon of kidnapping after the mass deportation of Haitian-Americans in the early 2000s. The gang had strong connections in drug circles, in the leadership of the PHTK itself, and with senior officials at the highest levels of the state.
Gang violence became increasingly common in the Cite Soleil suburb, Croix des Bouquets, and the neighborhoods of Martissant and Bel Air. La Saline, Bel-Air, and Cite Soleil, the site of gang-instigated massacres, were historical strongholds of the Fanmi Lavalas party, a key opposition party to the PHTK, and became rallying sites for broader alliances opposed to the PHTK. Residents of Cite Soleil were targeted because of their political affiliations with Fanmi Lavalas.
History[]
In September 2022, acting Prime Minister and President of Haiti Ariel Henry, who assumed power after allegedly orchestrating the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, announced that the government would be ending fuel subsidies, and that the price of petroleum products would be increasing. This announcement led to protests in Port-au-Prince, and these protests soon escalated into riots. In addition, Jimmy Cherizier's G9 Family and Allies gang federation (which had backed Moise's regime) blockaded the country's largest fuel terminal. Skyrocketing gang violence and social unrest resulted in the closure of foreign embassies in Haiti, as well as resource shortages, hospital service reductions, school closures, and the inability of workers to commute to their jobs. During this time, Haitian politicians Yvon Buissereth and Eric Jean Baptiste were assassinated.
On 11 October 2022, Henry and his cabinet appealed to the United Nations to deploy foreign troops to crackdown on the gangs and oppose the anti-government demonstrations in Port-au-Prince, and, on 15 October, the United States and Mexico sent armored vehicles and military equipment to aid the Haitian government. On 21 October, the UN Security Council approved sanctions against Haitian gangs by freezing their assets, banning their overseas travel, and enacting an arms embargo. On 6 November 2022, Cherizier announced an end to the blockade of the fuel terminal, calling on truck drivers to come and fill their tanks. Fuel distribution resumed on 9 November, and gas stations reopened in Port-au-Prince on 12 November. However, gang violence continued, and a US Embassy convoy was attacked by the 400 Mawozo gang on 14 November 2022.
By June 2023, 100 gangs controlled 60% of Port-au-Prince, using the rape of women and children to terrorize the city's civilian inhabitants. Several countries continued to call for a UN intervention in Haiti as lawlessness in the capital, kidnappings of both Haitians and foreigners for ransom, and starvation continued to grip the country in what Haitian human rights organizations warned was a "forgotten crisis." However, the United States and Canada were reluctant to intervene in Haiti, as their previous intervention was unpopular and resulted in violence and disease. The other problem with an international force was the fact that the gangs were politically affiliated; the UN soldiers would thus be intervening on the side of one political group against another.
On 2 October 2023, the United Nations Security Council approved sending a multinational force to Haiti at the request of Prime Minister Ariel Henry; Kenya pledged 1,000 police to spearhead the mission. Henry At the time, warring gangs controlled much of Port-au-Prince, choking off vital supply lines to the rest of the country and forcing 200,000 people to flee their homes amid waves of indiscriminate killing, kidnapping, arson, and rape. Inflation soared past 50%, leaving 4.9 million Haitians struggling to eat, leading to the US preparing to offer $100 million in financial and logistical assistance for Haiti. Many Haitians continued to question Henry's mandate, but Henry refused to hold long-overdue elections until the country reached a basic level of security.
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