There was an explosion of violence in Haiti as gang gunmen overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Heavily armed gangs tried to seize control of Haiti’s main international airport on Monday, exchanging gunfire with police and soldiers in the latest attack on key government sites in an explosion of violence that includes a mass escape from the country’s two biggest prisons.

The Toussaint Louverture International Airport was closed when the attack occurred, with no planes operating and no passengers on site.

Associated Press journalists saw an armored truck on the tarmac shooting at gangs to try and prevent them from entering airport grounds as scores of employees and other workers fled from whizzing bullets.

It wasn’t immediately clear as of late Monday whether the attack, which was the biggest one in Haiti’s history involving the airport, was successful.

Last week, the airport was struck briefly by bullets amid ongoing gang attacks, but gangs did not enter the airport nor seize control of it.

The attack occurred just hours after authorities in Haiti ordered a nighttime curfew following violence in which armed gang members overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend.

  • Pohl@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    7 months ago

    I really don’t have a deep knowledge of what is going on here but I am curious about the language we are using. Why “gangs” and not “rebels” or something similar? Seems like these groups are attempting to wrest control of the state. Anybody who has a richer perspective want to help me understand it better?

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      7 months ago

      I watched a video from some of their leaders yesterday. They definitely seemed to want to present themselves as a form of paramilitary/ revolutionary faction.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
      9·
      7 months ago

      There are a lot of smaller criminal street gang factions in Haiti. Their aims are to “do more crimes with fewer consequences.” My gut tells me that they’re not seeking to govern (even wrong-headedly), just to capture control of the state to enhance their criminal enterprises. “Rebels” carries a more neutral connotation; I don’t think that’s warranted here.

  • Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.worldEnglish
    62·
    7 months ago

    Was Kenya still going to intervene with police forces? There needs to be some effort to stabilize Haiti, but the last thing it needs is another direct US intervention.

      • Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.worldEnglish
        103·
        7 months ago

        No, it’s more that every time the US intervenes it results in an even worse clusterfuck.

          • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            32·
            7 months ago

            Why are you turning this into a racial thing? I think the prevalining thought is the US not only shouldn’t act as the world police, but we also have a history of being extremely terrible at it and only really looking out for how the US can benefit, often by setting up corruption in the government.

            • harderian729@lemmy.worldEnglish
              14·
              7 months ago

              I think the prevalining thought is the US not only shouldn’t act as the world police

              Unless it’s helping Ukraine or Israel.

              • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                31·
                7 months ago

                Slightly different meddling in a countries internal affairs vs helping prevent an invasion from an outside force. Still not great though, also there’s a lot of disagreement about Isreal in the US.

                • harderian729@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  11·
                  7 months ago

                  Please don’t pretend the situation would be any different if Haiti was being invaded by the Dominican Republic.