By Brian Ellsworth
(Portal) – As the humanitarian crisis caused by Haiti’s gangs deepened in October, a group of looters looted a supermarket in an affluent suburb of the capital Port-au-Prince, prompting police to arrest over a dozen people and take them to a nearby located police station.
They weren’t there long.
Within hours, the station known as Thomassin was under a hail of bullets from gang members led by a man named Carlo Petithomme, whose brother was among those arrested, according to two security sources.
Petithomme goes by the alias Ti Makak and leads a gang of the same name. They overpowered officers and released the looters, as well as others who had previously been arrested, the sources said.
Portal was unable to contact Petithomme for security reasons.
The brazen October 10 attack, reported here in detail for the first time, shocked residents in an area largely shielded from Haitian gangs, one group of which has created a humanitarian crisis by blocking fuel distribution.
Though Ti Makak isn’t directly linked to the fuel blockade, his rise is a sign of how Haitian gangs can quickly evolve from a ragtag band of thieves into powerful warlords capable of undermining the rule of law in even the most stable regions of the country.
It’s further evidence of how gangs have increased their power since the shocking 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise and the difficulties Prime Minister Ariel Henry is facing in restoring order to the country.
Most gangs first sprang up in the slums near the capital, but residents and traders left those areas in response, said James Boyard, security expert and professor of international relations at the State University of Haiti.
“With the aim of gaining access to new sources of income, the gangs are now trying to establish themselves in the former ‘green zones’ to conduct kidnapping and extortion,” Boyard said.
Haiti is now being held hostage by a coalition of gangs known as the G9, led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, a former police officer who began a blockade of Varreux’s fuel terminal in September, an action Cherizier called in protest at a plan to cut public transport called fuel subsidies.
The story goes on
Many Haitians, as well as a growing number of US politicians, believe that wealthy Haitians fund the gangs to further their own economic interests.
The blockade has left Haiti without fuel, leading to shortages of food and clean water just as the country faces a cholera outbreak. The United Nations has discussed a possible task force to clear the blockade and resume fuel distribution, although it remains unclear who would lead it.
The last major foreign force in Haiti, a 13-year UN mission called MINUSTAH, was deeply unpopular until it ended in 2017 amid credible evidence its troops caused a cholera epidemic in 2010, as well as allegations of sexual abuse Abuse of underage girls.
Gangs also have deep ties with civilian populations, meaning that a normal military attack against them would risk significant civilian casualties.
Haiti’s National Police did not respond to requests for comment about the incident involving the police commissioner or Ti Makak in general.
“THREATS ARE NOT EMPTY”
Ti Makak now has a firm grip on Laboule, an area of steep, green hills south of Port-au-Prince, according to local residents and security experts.
Since the 1990s, Laboule has been populated by wealthy families drawn by the fresh air and stunning views, some of whom have built villas and luxury homes. Laboule’s sub-districts are demarcated by numbers, and Laboule 12 has suffered a significant surge in gang activity. Its streets, which for years were teeming with drivers, vendors and diners, are increasingly empty.
When gangs took control of the main road from Port-au-Prince to Haiti’s southern peninsula in 2021, drivers began using Laboule as an alternative route.
According to local media reports and a tweet by Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Saturday, prominent politician Eric Jean Baptiste was killed in what appeared to be a gang attack on Friday night while returning to his home at Laboule 12.
Ti Makak’s early activities are difficult to ascertain.
The group drew attention when a police officer was killed in an anti-gang operation in Laboule 12 in January. Local media reported that Ti Makak was responsible.
Around mid-year, a local entrepreneur received calls from unidentified men asking him to release some of his store’s merchandise at the request of a man with lofty titles like “the commander.”
The entrepreneur, who asked that neither he nor the specifics of his business be identified for security reasons, initially thought the calls were coming from neighborhood thugs pretending to have ties to criminal groups.
But calls continued, he said, and a group later came in person and said they were linked to Ti Makak. They became agitated when their requests for goods and cash payments were turned down.
Due to months of threats and the overall situation in the country, the company has now severely restricted its activities, the entrepreneur said.
“Nothing can stop them except for God or the angels to change their minds,” he said. “If they come, they come. In Haiti, threats are not empty.”
LAND CONFLICTS
Petithomme has remained relatively discreet compared to other gang leaders like Cherizier, who likes to appear in public in tailored suits and has even invited foreign correspondents to press conferences.
In an interview broadcast by a little-known YouTube channel called RL Media Pro, a man wearing a cowboy hat and bandana over his face posing as Ti Makak was asked about the attack on Thomassin police station.
He did not respond to direct questions about the attack, instead describing the day’s events as trying to protect peaceful protesters from police attacks.
“I’m not going to lie to you, if I hadn’t[protected]my boys quickly, the majority of my boys would have been victims,” the man said without elaborating.
Petithomme has said in the past that his family hails from Laboule 12 and that the farmers’ land was taken over by a man named Jean Mossanto Petit, a Haitian entrepreneur who ran a successful lottery business for decades and owns land in the area.
Portal could not get any comment from Petit.
Disputes over land titles, a chronic problem dating back to Haiti’s independence in 1804, erupted in bloody clashes near Laboule 12 about two years ago, according to Fenel Pelissier, a journalist writing for Haitian online media portal Ayibopost in October published research into the dispute.
“(Petithomme) did not live in the area, but he returned when he heard that people living there had sold land to (Petit),” said Pelissier, who spoke to residents in the area but said it was unclear whether there were any land transactions had actually taken place.
Pelissier said an official told him about 60 people had been killed and 100 homes burned as a result of the conflict.
Ricardo Germain, an independent security adviser, said Ti Makak’s rhetorical support for the weak signals that the group, like many Haitian gangs, is trying to win over a population suffering from a grave crisis.
“We can easily conclude that the Ti Makak band is trying to win people’s hearts, especially those involved in looting during the recent protests,” Germain said.
(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth in Miami; Editing by Claudia Parsons)