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The Guardian
02-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘The ground shook': drone attacks help Haitian government wrest control of capital from criminal gangs
The earth beneath Jimmy Antoine's apartment shuddered and for a split second he feared another natural disaster had struck, like the 2010 cataclysm that brought Port-au-Prince to its knees. 'The ground shook like it does during an earthquake. You tremble like everything might collapse,' said the 23-year-old trainee mechanic, recalling how he and his panicked neighbours raced out on to the street. This time, though, the jolt had come not from deep below, but from high above: it was the detonation of a weaponized drone of the sort being used to hunt Haitian gang members who have hijacked most of the country's capital since the start of a coordinated criminal insurrection early last year. 'People had told me about drones … but this one caught me off guard … It felt like it exploded right where I was standing,' said Antoine of the 6am attack last month near Sico, the working-class neighbourhood where he lives. As Haiti's beleaguered government struggles to reconquer a sprawling seaside city now almost entirely controlled by the gangs, armed drones have become a key part of their arsenal. Since the drone campaign began in March, at least 300 people have been killed by the remote-control devices and almost 400 injured, according to a local human rights group called RNDDH. Videos of those attacks have spread rapidly on social media, painting a terrifying portrait of the drone warfare unfolding on the streets of one of the Caribbean's largest cities. One such video, which the Guardian identified as having taken place in a gang-run area called Fort National, shows four people – at least two of them armed – moving through an alley before being hit from above by an explosion. Blue and white smoke fills the backstreet as the men scatter. Another clip, posted on social media by a US missionary, shows an attack on an evangelical theological seminary about 2 miles south-west of Fort National, not far from Jimmy Antoine's home. At least one person can be seen sprinting for cover as the drone swoops towards its second-floor target and explodes. 'I have fond memories of teaching in the very classroom it struck,' Luke Perkins, the president of the missionary group Crossworld, tweeted in mid-June. Trevor Ball, a former US army explosive ordnance disposal technician, said the drones used in Port-au-Prince appeared to be first-person-view (FPV) drones. Images of one such improvised weapon were shared on social media in March, reputedly from the aftermath of a police raid on a gang stronghold in the Lower Delmas area. The Guardian was able to identify this model of FPV drone, and found it being sold on Chinese e-commerce sites for about $200, making them relatively cheap and expendable. Ball said it was not possible to determine from the images the exact munitions being used but it was likely the drones had either been fitted with explosives intended for commercial mining, or black powder – a homemade mix of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulfur that is used in fireworks. 'These tactics are used in other parts of the world, especially in the Ukraine-Russia war. Using first-person-view drones to deliver explosive devices has become extremely common there, and has been seen in other conflicts as well,' Bell added. One other video that surfaced earlier this year showed a targeted drone strike on a moving car less than 500 metres (547 yards) away from the compound believed to belong to Johnson André, a notorious gang boss known by the nickname 'Izo' whose gang is called 5 Segonn ('Five Seconds'). The car was driving near waterways reportedly used for drug and gun trafficking by the gangs. The provenance of the online drone videos remains unclear but many suspect at least some of them are being produced and released by a shadowy government-recruited armed group which has been enlisted to bolster the counterattack against the gangs. The aerial videos generally depict 'action shots' or the moment the drone strikes on a target, often edited and set to energetic music. Last month the New York Times, citing senior Haitian and US government officials, reported that the controversial Blackwater founder Erik Prince had been working with the Haitian government 'to carry out deadly operations against gangs that are terrorizing the nation and threatening to take over its capital'. The newspaper claimed American contractors, including Prince, had been hired 'to work on a secret taskforce to deploy drones meant to kill gang members'. Two experts said Prince had recently shipped 'a large cache of weapons' to Haiti and was seeking to recruit Haitian American military veterans to send to Port-au-Prince as part of a 150-strong mercenary force over the coming months. Earlier this month, Fritz Alphonse Jean, the head of the transitional council that has attempted to govern Haiti since its prime minister, Ariel Henry, was toppled early in the gang rebellion, confirmed that a private security firm had been engaged by the government. But he declined to name it or say how it was being paid. Jean argued it was impossible for Haiti's underequipped and underfunded police to 'face these challenges alone'. Perhaps surprisingly, Haitian human rights activists have backed the use of drone warfare to target criminal groups who have forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes and killed thousands. A UN-backed international security force, led by Kenyan police officers, has so far failed to repel the criminal advance. 'For us … drones are entirely proportionate to the level of weaponry the gangs possess,' said Rosy Auguste Ducéna, a respected human rights advocate who works for RNDDH in Port-au-Prince. Ducéna said her group supported such strikes against gang strongholds. 'Why? Because we consider the sophistication of the weapons in the gangs' hands, how those weapons are used to inflict suffering on the rest of the population – the crimes we know about: killings, thefts, rape, gang-rape, the burning of people's entire belongings,' she said. Ducéna thought drones were 'instilling fear' in heavily armed gang members and appeared to have such criminals on the back foot. 'We cannot dismiss the fact that these operations are having an impact on them. The element of uncertainty is also very important. The gangs don't necessarily know when or where a strike will happen, and we believe that's one reason for the drop in gang activity we're currently seeing,' she said, describing how the fear that has gripped her city's streets was gradually subsiding. 'Many banks have reopened, and many schools are open again. There is no longer the same tension as during the height of the insecurity … There is a glimmer of hope,' said Ducéna, although she voiced concern that the taskforce coordinating the drone attacks was being led by the office of the prime minister, Alix Fils-Aimé, rather than security officials. 'We believe [this is] extremely dangerous for democracy. A political authority should not be leading a team conducting this type of operation,' Ducéna said. Foreign human rights activists and specialists question the efficacy – not to mention legality – of using weaponized drones in a country which, despite all the bloodshed, is not officially considered to be in a state of conflict. 'I don't think it works. They haven't killed a single gang leader after three, going on four months of doing this, and we don't know how many civilians have been harmed,' said one expert, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. 'It just shows how absolutely desperate the government and the police [are].' 'I think it's a sign of desperation … It shows how desperate people are to have some sign that … something can be done to stop [the gangs]. That's really what it is all about,' they added, fretting that gang leaders might adopt the same tactics, exacerbating an already dire situation. 'What if they [the gangs] start shooting off drones? The escalation factor is also very worrying.' Earlier this month there were signs that gangs were already seeking to build their own arsenal of drones when three alleged 'terrorists' were arrested in the neighbouring Dominican Republic trying to buy the devices. In recent years both Mexican cartels and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro have started using armed drones to launch attacks on authorities or rivals. On the ground in Port-au-Prince, many offer a more positive assessment of the aerial offensive. Last month, Belony Jassé, an 18-year-old high school student who said he heard drone explosions 'all the time', finally managed to return to the home that gangs once forced her to flee after security improved. The sound of drone attacks terrified the algebra-loving teenager. 'It makes you jump. It's scary. You don't expect the noise. You might drop whatever you're holding. The sound is very loud. It breaks your heart, it takes time to recover. It's heavy,' he said. But Jassé credited those attacks – coupled with an intensification of ground operations by police and vigilante groups – with the recent progress in his neighbourhood. 'I don't hear much gunfire any more. Last night I hardly heard any shots … This week I haven't heard any gunfire at all,' he said. The situation remained critical, Jassé admitted. 'But compared to how it was, I'm not scared any more.'
New York Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
A Desperate Haiti Turns to Erik Prince, Trump Ally, in Fight Against Gangs
Erik Prince, a private military contractor and prominent supporter of President Trump, is working with Haiti's government to conduct lethal operations against gangs that are terrorizing the nation and threatening to take over its capital. Mr. Prince, the founder of Blackwater Worldwide, signed a contract to take on the criminal groups that have been killing civilians and seizing control of vast areas of territory, according to senior Haitian and American government officials and several other security experts familiar with Mr. Prince's work in Haiti. Haiti's government has hired American contractors, including Mr. Prince, in recent months to work on a secret task force to deploy drones meant to kill gang members, security experts said. Mr. Prince's team has been operating the drones since March, but the authorities have yet to announce the death or capture of a single high-value target. Security experts said Mr. Prince has also been scouting Haitian American military veterans to hire to send to Port-au-Prince and is expected to send up to 150 mercenaries to Haiti over the summer. He recently shipped a large cache of weapons to the country, two experts said. The Haitian government is awaiting the arrival of arms shipments and more personnel to step up its fight against the gangs. American officials said they were aware of Mr. Prince's work with Haiti's government. But the full terms of the Haitian government's arrangement with Mr. Prince, including how much it is paying him, are unknown. This article is based on interviews with a dozen people who follow Haiti closely. All but one spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive security matters publicly. The State Department, which has provided millions of dollars in funding to equip and train Haiti's National Police, said it is not paying Mr. Prince or his company for any work in Haiti. Mr. Prince declined to comment for this article. Blackwater no longer exists, but Mr. Prince owns other private military entities. The involvement of civilian contractors like Mr. Prince, a Trump donor who has a long and checkered history in the private security industry, marks a pivotal moment in Haiti. Its crisis has deepened since its last president was assassinated in 2021, and the government now appears willing to take desperate measures to secure control. Armed groups escalated the violence last year by uniting and taking over prisons, burning down police stations and attacking hospitals. About 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes and hundreds of thousands are living in shelters. Gangs have captured so much territory in recent months that U.N. officials have warned that the capital is in danger of falling under complete criminal control. The situation is dire enough that officials and civilians alike say they are eager for any overseas help, particularly after a $600 million international police mission started by the Biden administration and largely staffed by Kenyan police officers failed to receive adequate international personnel and money. With Haiti's undermanned and underequipped police force struggling to contain the gangs, the government is turning to private military contractors equipped with high-powered weapons, helicopters and sophisticated surveillance and attack drones to take on the well-armed gangs. At least one other American security company is working in Haiti, though details of its role are secret. Since drone attacks targeting gangs started in March, they have killed more than 200 people, according to Pierre Esperance, who runs a leading human rights organization in Port-au-Prince. After the U.S. occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq ended, security firms like those owned by Mr. Prince started seeing big streams of revenues dry up. Private military contractors are looking for new opportunities, and they see possibilities in Latin America. Before presidential elections in Ecuador this year, Mr. Prince toured the country with local police and promised to help security forces. The country has faced a wave of violence unleashed by gangs. Ecuadorean officials denied that they had signed any security deal with Mr. Prince. A person close to Mr. Prince said he hopes to expand the scope of his work in Haiti to include help with customs, transport, revenue collection and other government services that need to be restored for the country to stabilize. Rampant government corruption is a key reason Haiti's finances are in shambles. The Haitian prime minister's office and a presidential council, which was formed to run the country until presidential elections can be held, did not respond to several requests for comment. Mr. Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos was Secretary of Education during Mr. Trump's first term, donated more than $250,000 to help elect Mr. Trump in 2016, according to campaign finance records. He was often cited as an informal 'adviser' to Mr. Trump's first transition to office, a description he denied. Days before Mr. Trump took office in 2017, the United Arab Emirates organized a meeting between Mr. Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as part of an effort to set up a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and the incoming president, a meeting that later came under scrutiny. The House Intelligence Committee made a criminal referral to the Justice Department about Mr. Prince, saying he lied about the circumstances of the meeting, but no charges were ever filed. Mr. Prince has a decades-long history of military interventions overseas, some of which ended badly. Blackwater faced legal problems over its work for the U.S. military in places like Iraq, including an episode in 2007 in which its employees killed 17 civilians in Baghdad. (President Trump pardoned four Blackwater guards in 2020.) In 2011, Mr. Prince helped recruit and train an army of Colombian mercenaries for the United Arab Emirates to use in conflicts around the Middle East. In 2017, he proposed a plan to use contractors to take over Afghanistan. In 2020, The New York Times revealed that he had recruited former spies to help conservative activists infiltrate liberal groups in the United States. A year later, the United Nations accused him of violating an arms embargo in Libya, which he denied. 'My name has become click bait for people who like to weave conspiracy theories together,' Mr. Prince said in a 2021 interview with The Times. 'And if they throw my name in, it always attracts attention. And it's pretty damn sickening.' Haiti's experience with private military contractors goes back decades. When U.S. forces returned former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in 1994 after he was ousted in a bloody military coup, he was accompanied by a private security team from the San Francisco-based Steele Foundation. In recent years, military contractors in Haiti have had a more tainted record. Colombian mercenaries hired by an American security firm were accused of taking part in the 2021 assassination of the last elected president, Jovenel Moïse. Rod Joseph, a Haitian American U.S. Army veteran who owns a Florida-based security officer training company, said he had been in talks with Mr. Prince to help supply personnel for his contract since late last year. Mr. Joseph, who trained Haitian police on the use of surveillance drones, said Mr. Prince gave him the impression that his plans were under the auspices of the U.S. government but then shifted to be directly under the purview of the Haitian government. He said Mr. Prince told him that he planned to send private soldiers from El Salvador to Haiti along with three helicopters to engage in attacks against the gangs. Mr. Joseph said he was uncomfortable with the idea of contractors working directly with the Haitian government, without any American oversight. 'We should be very worried, because if he's from the U.S. government, at least he can have the semblance of having to answer to Congress,' he said. 'If it's him, his contract, he doesn't owe anybody an explanation.' 'It's just another payday,' he added. Mr. Prince texted him a few days ago, Mr. Joseph said, seeking a list of Haitian American veterans to send to Haiti, but he declined to provide names unless Mr. Prince could provide more precise details of their mission and would allow Mr. Joseph to lead them. U.S. military contractors doing defense work overseas are required to obtain a license from the State Department, but those licenses are not public record. Mr. Prince has been trying to expand his portfolio and has traveled overseas in search of new business, said Sean McFate, a professor at the National Defense University and author of 'The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order.' Mr. Prince is viewed skeptically by other members of the private military industry, Mr. McFate said, because of his showy nature and the negative publicity he generates for a security industry that prides itself on a 'sense of professionalism.' 'It's always worth noting where Prince is going, because it's sort of a barometer of where he thinks Trump world might end up, and he wants to make a buck from it,' Mr. McFate said. But experts stress that Haitians are desperate for solutions — regardless of where they come from. 'The doors are open. All possibilities must be on the table,' Haiti's Minister of Economy and Finance, Alfred Métellus, told Le Nouvelliste, a Haitian newspaper, last month. 'We are looking for all Haitians, all foreigners who have expertise in this field and who want to support us, want to support the police and the army to unblock the situation.' Mr. Joseph said he worried that outsourcing the work of fighting gangs to private military contractors would not do anything to improve the skills of the Haitian police and military. 'When you do it this way, it's trouble,' he said. 'Every time you parachute knowledge in and parachute out, the locals will always be in need of that knowledge. If you don't have knowledge of security, you will just have a bunch of dead people.'
