Haitian Gangs Are Moving On To Take The Last Neighborhood They Don't Control In The Capital

Haitian gangs are increasingly closing in on the last neighborhood they don't control, with only a band of self-defense groups led by a police officer standing between them and the country's transitional government.

The Financial Times reported that remaining fighters are engaging gang members in the street. However, as police and private contractors have begun using drones with explosives, gangs are now blasting through houses' walls to move around the neighborhoods.

Finance Minister Alfred Métellus told the outlet that drones could help efforts to fight gangs but only if thousands of additional security personnel are deployed on the ground. FT reporter Joe Daniels, who spent four days in the country, said he didn't see a single patrol of the Kenya-led multinational mission that has sent some 1,000 officers to support local police and troops.

The journalist also quoted Diego Da Rin, an analyst at International Crisis Group, who said gangs now appear to not want to just overthrow the government. Top gang leader Jimmy "barbecue" Cherizier said the government must work with them. "We demand to be at the negotiating table," he said months ago, warning they would continue with their actions otherwise.

The transitional government has hired U.S. military contractor Erik Prince to help its forces, largely to deploy drones aimed at killing gang members. The Washington Post reported in April about the effort to deploy weaponized drones, detailing that they are commercial models modified with improvised explosives. Authorities have yet to report a high-profile killing as a result from the strategy.

Prince has also been scouting Haitian American military veterans to hire and send to Port-au-Prince to aid forces there. He expects to send up to 150 mercenaries to the country over the summer and has already shipped a large amount of weapons there.

The development comes after Dorothy Camille Shea, interim chargé d'affaires at the U.S. mission at the UN, signaled the Trump administration could be close to cutting aid to the country.

"America cannot continue shouldering such a significant burden," she said. Shea then requested other countries to increase their support for the Caribbean country, going through a deep crisis that has no perspective of improving.

Moreover, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested the Organization of American States (OAS) could provide a "force" to battle against gangs. Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio mentioned the regional organization, saying that "if ever there was a regional crisis that you would think an organization like this could step forward and provide a force or a group of countries that, working together, could help solve it, it would be the OAS."

Rubio went on to say the Trump administration is "prepared to play a leading role" should the OAS decide to take action in the country, "but we do need buy-in from other partners in the region who are as affected, if not more so, by what's happening there."

The Miami Herald quoted sources saying the OAS option was not on the table, but Rubio discussed it publicly at the hearing, saying "We have a catastrophe in our own hemisphere right now in Haiti that we are seeking to come up with an alternative strategy, because the one in place right now isn't working and Haiti is headed in a very bad direction very quickly."