A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including several from South Florida, are sounding the alarm about Haiti’s growing and paralyzing security crisis.
In a letter this month to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the lawmakers say gangs, including the Viv Ansanm coalition, control over 85% of the capital city of Port-au-Prince “and are rapidly expanding into previously stable areas.” Read the full letter here.
“Haiti is on the verge of collapse with violent gangs controlling the center of Port-au-Prince just blocks away from the National Palace,” said U.S. Rep. Maria Salazar, a Miami Republican. “It is time for the United States to take a real leadership role in addressing the crisis with hard security solutions capable of stopping the gangs’ advance and restoring peace to Haiti.”
On the other side of the congressional aisle, Democrat U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, of Miramar, echoed a similar warning to Rubio and the Trump administration. She is the only Haitian-American in Congress.
“Haiti continues to confront a dire political, security, and humanitarian crisis that has caused unimaginable amounts of human suffering,” she said. “A long-term solution to this crisis means that we must crack down on violent gangs and the elites who fund them, while simultaneously curtailing the flow of illicit firearms.”
READ MORE: A coalition of gangs is close to capturing the Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said Haitians “are enduring a vicious cycle of horrific violence at the hands of brutal gangs” and that U.S. must “urgently” back efforts to restore stability.
“I remain committed to working with bipartisan colleagues to equip Haiti's security forces to protect civilians—and to cut off the illicit flow of American weapons to the criminal organizations threatening their safety,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Boca Ratonl said the “heartbreaking reports out of Haiti are a call to action.”
“With nearly half a million Haitian Americans living in Florida, many with deep ties to loved ones still on the island, the United States should act urgently to protect American citizens and humanitarian workers and support the Haitian people in their fight to reclaim their country from lawlessness and despair,” she said.
The Associated Press reported this month that there is growing anger and frustration over a surge in violence as gangs try to seize full control of Port-au-Prince. One recent Sunday saw dozens of protesters marching up the hills of Haiti’s capital demanding the country’s prime minister and transitional presidential council to resign in the wake of widespread gang violence.
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 was 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.
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 this month 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.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
