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Haiti Earthquake: Will Criminal Gangs Exploit Chaos? (Time)
When darkness fell over earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, residents reported hearing gunfire. That was hardly a surprise: in Haiti, during emergencies — natural or political — gunshots can be as ubiquitous a sound at night as barking dogs, with armed gangs taking over the streets. One of their favorite chants is “Rat pa kaka” — Creole for, “Not even the rats shit here without our permission.”
As Haitian and international officials try to coordinate an effective relief response to what is probably the worst disaster to ever hit the western hemisphere’s poorest country, they’ll need to be mindful of the human rats that come out of the capital’s woodwork at times like these. Before the Jan. 12 quake, a revived Haitian police force and the U.N.’s Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) were finally confronting the violent gangs of Port-au-Prince. But with so many Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers either killed or injured in the temblor — and with some 1,000 prisoners reportedly on the loose after the Port-au-Prince prison crumbled — criminal bands from poor neighborhood nests like Cité Soleil and La Saline are almost certain to try to exploit the security void. “It has to be in the back of everyone’s minds right now,” says Robert Perito, an expert on Haitian gangs at the Washington-based nonprofit United States Institute of Peace. “It’s surely why the U.S. military deployment is adding a security component.”
Posted by Man In The Middle
on Jan 15th, 2010 and filed under Crime, Latest News, News.
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