SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. envoy to the United Nations said Monday that the U.S. government soon will move to stop violent gangs in Haiti from making money off social media posts.
Gang leaders in the troubled Caribbean country are prolific users of social media and have celebrated killings, issued threats and posted musings on various sites. Younger gang members also post music videos and wave cash they've earned in an effort to recruit children in the impoverished nation.
Mike Waltz, who recently visited Haiti, called the practice “incredibly disturbing” and warned the U.S. would “shut that down” in the near future. He didn’t provide further details while speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting in New York.
He spoke as the U.S. prepares this week to strip the temporary protected status of some 350,000 Haitians who live in the United States, exposing them to deportation, a move largely criticized by lawyers and human rights experts.
Efforts to crack down on the gangs' use of social media are not new. In 2023, YouTube banned Johnson André, considered Haiti's most powerful gang leader and also known as Izo, following heavy criticism after he received an award for surpassing more than 100,000 subscribers.
The U.S. envoy also called on countries with aircraft capacity to help with the deployment of foreign troops joining the latest U.N.-backed mission in Haiti to fight gangs, including Sri Lanka and Ivory Coast. He said sea lifts take too long and that Haitians need help now.
Gang violence surges as Haitians in US brace for deportation
Gang violence has displaced a record almost 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than half of the country's nearly 12 million inhabitants need humanitarian aid.
More than 2,300 people have been killed and more than 1,100 injured since January, according to the U.N. Earlier this year, clashes in the Cite Soleil slum in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, led to 542 killings and 355 injuries. In addition, at least 176 women and girls were raped, the U.N. found.
Waltz shared how gangs recently surrounded an armored vehicle that got stuck in a ditch and lit a fire underneath, forcing Haitian police officers to flee.
“They were flayed alive on the streets,” Waltz said, adding that their bodies were pinned to the side of the vehicle to send a message.
“I want everyone to understand the fight ahead,” he added.
Waltz noted that Haiti needs equipment including heavy bulldozers to clear streets and gang-controlled checkpoints, adding that armed men have taken over roads, ports, hospitals, prisons and other state infrastructure.
“Haiti’s just a few hundred miles from Florida,” he said. “In that regard, it’s a critical interest to the United States.”
Gangs control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince, and about half of gang members are children, according to the U.N. Poverty and hunger are deepening.
“The situation of children in Haiti is among the most alarming anywhere in the world,” said Vanessa Frazier, the U.N.’s special representative for children and armed conflict. “Children are being killed, maimed, abducted, recruited and used by armed gangs, displaced from their homes, denied access to education and deprived of basic protection and legal identity.”
Jack Christofides, special representative of the U.N.-backed gang suppression force operating in Haiti, said it has established its headquarters, deployed its first forward operating base and recently began cracking down on gang infrastructure.
“The political and humanitarian environment nevertheless remains extremely challenging,” he said. “Armed gangs are likely to adapt their tactics to stay in control.”
Haiti is under pressure to hold elections
The international community has been pressuring Haiti to hold general elections, which would be the first in more than a decade.
While the country is led by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who was appointed, it hasn’t had a president since President Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021. Gang violence has surged since then.
Seven of Haiti’s 10 provinces are ready for electoral activities, while the gang suppression force is vital to restoring security in the remaining three, said Raina Forbin, Haiti’s foreign affairs minister.
The three provinces include Port-au-Prince, and overall they account for more than half of all voters, noted Carlos Ruiz Massieu, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Haiti. He noted the displacement caused by gang violence and said the voter registration that began on Monday “will give us a new reality of where the voters are currently.”
Forbin said that by year’s end, an additional 4,000 officers are expected to join Haiti’s National Police, which remains understaffed and underfunded. Meanwhile, an additional 1,500 recruits are expected to join Haiti’s revived Armed Forces.
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