The violence of the gangs that fight for the territory in Haiti is often linked to state actors in alleged collusion with these armed groups, affirms this Thursday the annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is based on information from groups of the civil society.
The document, which compiles the most relevant events in the country during 2021, exposes the situation of violence caused by some 95 armed gangs in conflict for the control of different areas of Port-au-Prince, where 1.5 million people live.
Insecurity forced the displacement of 19,100 people from their homes in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in 2021, the report said.
This situation of violence would have been exacerbated by the alleged complicity between politicians and gangs operating in some troubled neighborhoods in the capital, the NGO report states.
"In Cité Soleil a minor was killed in clashes between gangs in which 10 of their members also died and in Delmas 32 and other neighborhoods, armed men killed 19 people", according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
At the time of writing this report, no one had been charged or convicted of these massacres, denounced HRW, which in the document mentions former police officer Jimmy Chérizier, alias "Barbecue", leader of the G9 an Fanmi e Alye gang federation.
Chérizier is allegedly involved in most of the massacres perpetrated in the most troubled neighborhoods of the capital and remains at large, the report denounces.
The socio-political crisis that had been dragging Haiti worsened in 2021 after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, perpetrated on July 7, an event that was followed by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that shook the southern peninsula of the country, leaving 2,246 dead more than 12,700 wounded, 329 missing and 26,000 displaced, recalls the report.
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