Haitian Government Declares State of Emergency as Popular Rebellion Spreads

Report on the unfolding situation in Haitian as the government declares a state of emergency and unrest grows.

Haiti’s government declared a state of emergency and nighttime curfew late Sunday in an effort to regain control of the streets after a huge popular uprising over the weekend saw armed fighters storm the country’s two biggest prisons.

The 72-hour state of emergency took effect immediately. The government said it would set out to find the escapees from prison. “The police were ordered to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and apprehend all offenders,” said a statement from Finance Minister Patrick Boivert, acting prime minister.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry traveled abroad last week to try to salvage international bourgeois support for bringing in a US-backed security force to pacify the country in its conflict with increasingly militant organizations countrywide.

Thousands of Prisoners Fled During Jailbreak

The decree capped a deadly weekend that marked a new point in the corrupt, Western dominated Haitian states collapse. At least nine people had been killed since Thursday − four of them police officers − as coordinated attacks on state institutions in Port-au-Prince escalated. Targets included police stations, the country’s international airport, and the national soccer stadium.

But the siege Saturday night of the National Penitentiary came as a shock even to Haitians accustomed to living under the constant pressure due to colonial misrule. Almost all of the estimated 4,000 inmates fled in the jailbreak, leaving the usually criminally overcrowded facility empty Sunday with no prison guards in sight and plastic sandals, clothing and furniture strewn across the concrete patio. Three bodies with gunshot wounds lay at the prison entrance.

Colombian Soldiers Remain in Haiti Prison

Among the few dozen who chose to stay in the prison are 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of working as mercenaries in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. Amid the clashes Saturday night, several of the Colombians shared a video pleading for their lives.

“Please, please help us,” one of the men, Francisco Uribe, said in the message widely shared on social media. “They are massacring people indiscriminately inside the cells.”

Colombia’s foreign ministry called on Haiti to provide “special protection” for the men.

The violence Saturday night appeared to be widespread, with several neighborhoods reporting gunfire.

Second Port-au-Prince Prison Overtaken by Gangs

A second Port-au-Prince prison containing about 1,400 inmates was also overrun. Gunmen also occupied the nation’s top soccer stadium in a highly symbolic display of defiance Internet service for many residents was down as Haiti’s top mobile network said a fiber-optic cable connection was slashed during the rebellion.

In the space of less than two weeks, several state institutions have been attacked in increasingly coordinated actions, while choosing once unthinkable targets like the Central Bank. As part of coordinated attacks, four police officers were killed Thursday.

The rebellion is significant since the president, who is US-backed and unelected, has been organizing an international occupation force to impose its will on the country. There has been no notable progress on social issues, economic issues, or reparations for US and French destruction of the country.

The violence must be understood in this context.

Photo by Issy Bailey on Unsplash