A massive jail break in Haiti has led to the escape of hundreds of prisoners and the death of at least 25 people, including the director of the prison and a notorious Haitian gang leader named Arnel Joseph.
The jail break took place on Thursday in the civil prison Croix-des-Bouquets in the capital of Port-au-Prince. By the end of Friday, authorities had recovered about 60 detainees and were still searching for more than 200 others, according to Haiti’s Minister of Communications. Frantz Exantus.
Gang violence in Haiti has escalated over the past few years, and Joseph, the gang leader, was one of the country’s most wanted refugees before his arrest in 2019. He was awaiting trial on charges of murder, rape and kidnapping.
Joseph was killed during a shootout with police after escaping, Exantus told a news conference. Joseph was riding a motorcycle through the city, according to Exantus, when police tried to flag him off. He was killed by police after firing.
Several of the 25 people killed were bystanders, according to authorities, attacked by prisoners when they escaped.
In a statement sent to the NPR, Helen La Lime, a UN special envoy for Haiti, wrote that she was “deeply concerned” about the jail term.
“I urge the police to expedite the investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident, to double the efforts to apprehend the escapees and to strengthen security around prisons across the country,” La Lime said.
President Jovenel Moise tweeted Friday condemned the outbreak and urged the Haitians to remain calm. The Haitian national police, he writes, “are being instructed to take all measures to bring the situation under control.”
Haiti is in the midst of political unrest as Moise experiences increasing pressure to retire. He was elected at the end of 2015 to a term of five years, but allegations of fraud harmed the election to such an extent that a provisional government ruled for just over a year before taking office in February 2017. Moise argues that this means his five-year term does not. ends until 2022, and he has ruled by decision since the end of 2019. Widespread protests erupted this month over his refusal to leave office and after more than 20 political opponents accusing Moise of plotting a violent coup were arrested.
For everyday Haitians, especially those in Port-au-Prince, the prison break is only the latest chapter in a year of escalating violence.
A dramatic increase in ransoms for ransoms over the past year has prompted the closure of the school and a warning from the U.S. Embassy to urge U.S. citizens to be careful when traveling in Port-au-Prince. In recent months, the kidnapping of victims has included a nun, a surgeon, the five-year-old daughter of a peanut seller and two members of a film crew.
Meanwhile, the gang violence epidemic has left hundreds dead and even more displaced in recent years. In December, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a number of Haitian officials for participating in a plan to arm and fund gangs to create ‘instability’ and the demands of the Port-au-Prince population for improved to put an end to living conditions’.
And just this month, a United Nations report urged Haitian authorities to end “impunity” for violent gang members, adding that “the cycle of violence without a proper accountability process will result in more casualties.”
Copyright NPR 2021.