The attack was brutal, broadcast live on the Internet: heavily armed individuals stormed a Maundy Thursday mass and took the pastor and three parishioners with them while they were being filmed.
For Haitians, it was a fierce reminder of the kidnappings and deaths affecting poor people who are tired of years of street violence.
One of the kidnapping victims in the church, Steven Jérôme, spent the first night of imprisonment in a chair and was afraid to close his eyes. Meanwhile, parishioners and relatives of the victims, including Jérôme’s sister, Suze, were looking for money to pay her ransom.
Increasing violence caused businesses, banks and schools in Haiti to close this week in a protest they dubbed “Black Thursday.”Some schools were temporarily closed because of the dangers lurking in these neighborhoods.
“Haitian society has long been going to hell,” the office of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Port-au-Prince said in an April 12 statement. “The violence of the armed gangs has reached unprecedented proportions.”
The human rights organization Fondasyon Je Klere says that eMore than 150 gangs are active in Haiti, some of which are involved in kidnapping. The most recent victims include five priests, a hospital director, minors and a member of the presidential security force.
No exceptions are made for the poor.
Magdala Louis, 33, lives in a tin cabin with her young son. He manages to sell hot dogs and recruit students to become a beautician.
On January 6, five people with automatic weapons grabbed her by the neck while she waited for a friend in a car. The two were blindfolded and taken to a house, where they were asked who had money in their family. She replied that her mother and father had died.
The woman thought, “God, are you going to let me kill myself and leave my child alone?”
Her sister and her neighbors went to radio stations and insisted that she was a hot dog seller who couldn’t pay a ransom.
In the end, the friend’s family paid for both, but Louis says he now fears leaving his home to work. “I wish I had died in the (2010) earthquake so I didn’t have to go through this.”
Increasing violence prompted the U.S. Embassy in Haiti to issue a statement recently calling on the Haitian government to do so “Protect your citizens and increase your efforts to bring the culprits to justiceThe Organization of American States made a similar statement.
The government of current president Jovenel Moïse says it has arrested many criminals, increased police presence and set up a special unit to dismantle gangs.
Local police spokespersons did not call back to ask for comment, but Serge Therriault, Police Commissioner for the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, acknowledged that “today there is a greater sense of insecurity and violence” despite the number of street episodes. violent is comparable to that of previous years.
Therriault said the police it gathers information about gang leaders and blocks sectors where they operate.
“This has yielded a number of successes,” he said. “The police are still looking for different ways to solve this. We have to let them find the best solution for the country with what they have ”. The current situation, he emphasized, includes the growth of gangs “for political and socio-economic reasons.”
According to Pamela White, a former U.S. ambassador to Haiti, the increase in violence complicates efforts to distribute aid in a country that has not yet recovered from the devastating 2010 earthquake, a deadly cholera outbreak and now the coronavirus pandemic. .
“It takes a lot to do when the country is plagued with violence every day”, he pointed.
New Prime Minister Claude Joseph told the AP that he attributed the increase in violence to unpopular political sectors that he believed were trying to undermine the September general election.
Whatever the cause, violence is changing the lives of all Haitians.
Roselaine Belizaire, a fashion design student who sells handmade chin straps to pay for her tuition, said the shootings that take place when she returns home sometimes lead her to seek refuge with a friend.
“There are so many shots that I start running and lose my bag with chin straps,” he said.
Jean Paul, 26, who sells food, said he was attacked this month by armed individuals who falsely accused him of bringing food to a rival gang. Weeping, he recalled a man shouting “shoot him! Shoot him! , Although he was later released.
The danger of stray bullets caused the organization Doctors Without Borders to transfer 21 burn patients from its hospital in the Cite de Soleil neighborhood, said Aline Serin, the international group’s chief of mission.
Suze Jérôme, a kindergarten teacher, said she had to borrow “a lot of money” to pay her brother’s ransom. “Money that I don’t have, that I never will have.”
He says that now that his brother has been released, he should see how he can pay the debt.
“I’ve never experienced a situation like this,” he said. “You’re nowhere safe.”