A night of violence in Port-au-Prince allowed 3,696 prisoners to escape from the civil prison in Haiti's capital after criminal gangs raided the facility. The attack by armed groups ended with the escape of 97% of inmates from the city's largest prison, as reported this Sunday by the Collective of Lawyers for the Defense of Human Rights (CADDHO). There are no official figures, but at least fifteen of the escaped prisoners were murdered, as the EFE agency was able to determine by counting the bodies scattered in different parts of the capital. Most were found near the prison. The prison under attack is known for its overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Also because the most prominent prisoners include several gang leaders and the 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
Armed clashes between local police and criminal gangs escalated on Saturday after days of deadly attacks and protests against interim President Ariel Henry. On Thursday, four police officers were killed in the capital, while another group of gunmen fired on targets at Port-au-Prince International Airport. According to the AP agency, the gang members took control of two police stations and caused panic among the civilian population, which led to the closure of schools and shops. Meanwhile, President Henry traveled to Kenya to revive a planned security mission to send Kenyan police officers to Haiti with support from the United Nations. The Haitian National Police has around 9,000 agents in a country of more than 11 million people. Agents are often overwhelmed in numbers and firepower by the gangs, which are estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince.
The attack is attributed to Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer who has become the leader of the gang association that controls Port-au-Prince under the pseudonym Barbecue. Chérizier has claimed that his goal was to capture the police chief and Haitian government ministers and prevent Henry's return.
Ariel Henry, a 74-year-old neurosurgeon, has been interim ruler of Haiti since the assassination of President Moïse in July 2021. Henry governs amid growing instability and violence but has repeatedly delayed calling parliamentary and presidential elections. Caribbean leaders said Wednesday that Henry had agreed to set the vote for mid-2025, a distant date that is raising tensions in the country.
Detainees who failed to escape spoke to the press about the poor living conditions in the civil prison in Port-au-Prince, where at least three-quarters of the inmates are awaiting trial. “We are poorly fed in prison. They give you white (moldy) food,” said a prisoner in his 60s who has already spent twelve of them in prison without having the opportunity to attend his mother's funeral, as he told EFE.
“We can’t buy water. The water we bathe with is the water we drink. “Dirty water is the water we drink,” added this man, who said he felt troubled because he was going through many difficulties in prison.
Another inmate, who identified himself as Jameson Raphael, 30, said: “Many people died.” “Many prisoners died even in the area around the prison” as a result of the attack.
Among the prisoners who have decided not to leave the prison grounds are the Colombian mercenaries accused of participating in the assassination of President Moise in 2021, who last night sent messages on social networks reporting the situation during reported the attack.
One of them explained to the media who had access inside the facility, including EFE, why he did not flee: “I didn't fly because I don't owe anything. I live a karma, only God knows what I live and what I had to live. “I didn't fly because I don't owe anything, and here I show my face because I'm innocent, I'm innocent before the world, so I don't owe anything.”
“I am here in this prison, at this moment the press can report what this place is like. I am innocent, I came to this place, Haiti, with a job offer,” Francisco Eladio Uribe, a former Colombian soldier, told the media. The Colombian government asked Haiti on Sunday for special protection for these 17 citizens and asked the government to explore the possibility of transferring them to another prison with greater security.
Follow all the information from El PAÍS América on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.