HomeNewsWhy Haiti’s Gang War Keeps On Getting Worse
NEWS

Why Haiti’s Gang War Keeps On Getting Worse

HAITI / 20 MAY 2022 BY ALESSANDRO FORD EN

After the vicious 12-day gang war that rocked the northern communes of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, a new report has emerged that details the full extent of the violence.

From April 24 to May 5, the vast Cul-de-Sac plain became a battleground as Haiti’s single largest gang, 400 Mawozo, swept south and west from their stronghold of Croix-des-Bouquets to brutally invade several neighboring areas controlled by the rival Chen Mechan gang.

Chen Mechan, a member of Haiti’s largest gang federation, the “G9 and Family” (G9 an famni – G9), retaliated by calling in heavily armed G9 reinforcements, as well as conducting a homicidal purge of anyone suspected of aiding the invaders.

At least 148 people were killed and 132 homes torched, with 400 Mawozo’s scorched earth tactics resulting in several gang rapes, nearly a dozen decapitations and the burning alive of many civilians, according to the analysis by Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network (Réseau National de Défense des Droits de l'Homme – RNDDH).

Despite making significant territorial gains, 400 Mawozo staged a tactical withdrawal on May 5, and while this has since restored a modicum of calm to Cul-de-Sac plain, RNDDH warns the situation remains fragile. Below, InSight Crime provides three major takeaways from this latest episode in Haiti’s escalating gang war. 

400 Mawozo: Ruthless and Unbroken

To many, 400 Mawozo’s continued existence defies belief. In October 2021, the group appeared to overstep when it abducted 16 US missionaries, prompting US authorities to get involved, targeting its US-based arms suppliers and pushing for the extradition of its founder Joly Germine, alias “Yonyon.”

Similarly, this year Haitian police have conducted systematic operations in the group’s home base of Croix-des-Bouquets, weakening the organization to the point that its share of national kidnappings dropped from 80 percent in the first half of 2021 to 20 percent in the first quarter of 2022.

SEE ALSO: How a Haiti Suburb Fuelled The Rise of a Formidable Street Gang

Yet somehow the group retains a high-level of operational capacity. Not only is it believed responsible for the much-publicized kidnappings of both a Dominican diplomat and 17 Turkish aid workers in April and May respectively, but it has spent the last few months taking small bites of territory in Butte-Boyer, Croix-des-Missions and Tabarre, notes the RNDDH report.

That approach changed dramatically on April 24, when a fleet of vehicles transported scores of 400 Mawozo fighters deep into enemy terrain. RNDDH details how they then began a deliberate two-step process: massacring the friends and families of Chen Mechan members and instilling terror in the civilian population by robbery, rape and murder.

“If you look at the tactics, it’s obvious that 400 Mawozo have well-trained people: it might be ex-military, it might be Haitian National Police,” said Eric Calpas, a Haitian gang researcher. “They definitely have advisors who are people with a background in this kind of training.”

In fact, 400 Mawozo’s blitzkrieg would likely have annihilated Chen Mechan had it not been for one external actor: the G9.

The G9: Barbecue Is Back

Though still Haiti’s dominant criminal entity, both the G9 and its infamous leader Jimmy Chérizier, alias “Barbecue,” appears to have been laying low in recent months, perhaps becoming more cautious after the excessive noise they generated in late 2021.

If so, that discretion ended dramatically on the afternoon 400 Mawozo pushed across Cul-de-Sac plain. Hours after Chen Mechan’s call to arms, Barbecue, his closest lieutenants and a small army of G9 shooters were rolling into the warring communes inside police armored vehicles, according to the RNDDH report.

Allegations of police support for Barbecue, who is a former police officer, are not new. During his participation in both the 2017 Grande Ravine massacre and 2018 La Saline massacre, he is alleged to have received police weapons, vehicles, uniforms and money to carry out the attacks.

Just as in those cases, his presence in Cul-de-Sac was vigorous, said Eric Calpas. “They were very active in the fight. For instance, some of the G9 leaders, like Ti Junior from La Saline, didn't go to the plain, but sent soldiers, weapons and ammunition, [whereas] Barbecue went there physically.”

SEE ALSO: GameChangers 2021: Barbecue, Gangs and Political Power in Haiti

“[Barbecue’s G9 ally] Micanor went there with 100 guys, all heavily armed with a backpack full of ammunitions, long rifles, small arms, helmets and bulletproof vests…just imagine, with all G9 soldiers [there might’ve been] close to 200 guys moving through the place,” Calpas told InSight Crime.

This was not all to protect Chen Mechan though. It was also about the broader conflict between G9 and Haiti’s second biggest gang federation: the G-PEP of Cité Soleil. 

400 Mawozo Join G-PEP

The criminal federalization of Port-au-Prince’s gangs means that today most gangs in the capital belong to either the G9 or the G-PEP alliances. 400 Mawozo were the largest holdout left, but according to Eric Calpas, that non-alignment ended sometime in the last year.

“So now it's not so much 400 Mawozo against G9: it's really G-PEP against G9,” he claimed. Calpas therefore argues the simultaneous intensification of fighting on May 2 in the communes of Cité Soleil, Martissant and Bas-Delmas was not random.

“This was a very tactical move to have more than one war front…so when [400 Mawozo] attack the allies of G9, like Chen Mechan, G-PEP can also attack G9 in the Boston section of Cité Soleil to weaken the capacity of G9 to be able to respond in [Cul-de-Sac] plain,” he told InSight Crime.

Besides the strategic advantages in uniting against a common enemy, 400 Mawozo’s integration into the G-PEP may represent the former’s attempt at dealing with the loss of its founder, Yonyon, who was indicted by a US federal grand jury on May 10.

“The leader of G-PEP, [alias] Gabriel, is a very clever guy…and I have the feeling [400 Mawozo] are maybe looking for [new] leadership,” explained Calpas.

If this new criminal partnership holds, it may truly challenge the G9’s dominance of the Haitian underworld. “G-PEP has weakened a lot, in Cité Soleil in particular, but now with this alliance with 400 Mawozo…we might be coming to a sort of equilibrium between G9 and G-PEP,” Calpas said.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BAGDAD / 3 NOV 2021

Two attacks in recent days against gang members in Panama City have raised alarm bells that acts of shocking violence…

CARIBBEAN / 18 OCT 2022

What would the impact be of proposed United Nation sanctions on Barbecue, leader of Haiti's G9 gang?…

HAITI / 9 MAY 2023

Vigilantes in Haiti have killed around 100 people in an explosive response to the lack of progress against rampant organized…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…