Thousands of prisoners escape Haiti’s main prison after attack by criminal gangs

A night of violence in Port-au-Prince allowed 3,696 inmates to escape from a civil prison in Haiti’s capital after criminal gangs raided the facility. The attack by armed groups ended with the escape of 97% of prisoners from the city’s largest prison, as reported this Sunday by the Collective of Lawyers for the Defense of Human Rights (CADDHO). There are no official statistics, but at least fifteen of the escaping prisoners have been murdered, as the EFE agency was able to verify when counting the bodies scattered in different parts of the capital. Most were found around the penitentiary. The prison where the attack took place is known for its overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Also because its most prominent prisoners include several gang leaders and 18 former Colombian soldiers accused of assassinating President Jovenel Moise in 2021.

Armed clashes between local police and criminal gangs escalated on Saturday after days of deadly attacks and protests against interim President Ariel Henry. Four police officers were killed in the capital on Thursday, while another group of gunmen opened fire at Port-au-Prince international airport. According to the AP agency, gang members had taken over two police stations, and spread panic among the civilian population, forcing the closure of schools and businesses. Meanwhile, President Henry was visiting Kenya in an effort to revive a proposed security mission to deploy Kenyan police officers to Haiti with UN support. The Haitian National Police has approximately 9,000 agents in the country of more than 11 million inhabitants. Agents are often overwhelmed by the number and firepower of the gangs, which are estimated to control 80% of Port-au-Prince.

The attack has been attributed to Jimmy Charizier, a former elite police officer who has become the leader of a gang syndicate that controls Port-au-Prince under the alias Barbecue. Charizier claimed that his goal was to capture Haiti’s police chief and government ministers, as well as to prevent Henry’s return.

Neurosurgeon Ariel Henry, 74, has been Haiti’s interim ruler since July 2021, when President Moise was assassinated. Henry is ruling amid increasing instability and violence, but he has repeatedly delayed calling parliamentary and presidential elections. Caribbean leaders said Wednesday that Henry had agreed to hold the vote in mid-2025, a distant date that is raising tensions in the country.

Prisoners who have not escaped spoke to the press about poor living conditions in the civil prison of Port-au-Prince, where at least three-quarters of the prisoners are awaiting trial. “We are given bad food in jail. They give you white (moldy) food,” said a 60-year-old inmate who, having already been in prison 12 times, did not get the opportunity to attend his mother’s funeral, as he told EFE .

“We cannot buy water. The water we use for bathing is the same water we drink. “Dirty water is the water we drink,” said the man, who added that he feels troubled because he is going through many difficulties in jail.

Another prisoner, who identified himself as Jameson Rafael, 30, said that “many people died. The attack also resulted in the death of several prisoners around the prison.

The prisoners who decided not to leave the prison complex also included a Colombian mercenary accused of participating in the assassination of President Moises in 2021, who sent messages on social networks recalling the situation he experienced during the attack last night Were.

One of them explained to media that had access to the interior of the facility, including EFE, why he did not flee: “I did not flee because I am not owed anything. I am living by doing work, only God knows what I am living and what I have had to live. “I didn’t blow up because I’m not owed anything and here I am showing my face because I’m innocent, I’m innocent before the world, so I’m not owed anything.”

“I am here in this prison, right now the press can tell what this place is like. I am innocent, I came to Haiti with a job offer,” Francisco Eladio Uribe, a former Colombian soldier, told the media. The Government of Colombia this Sunday asked for special protection for 17 of its citizens from Haiti and asked the government to evaluate the possibility of transferring them to another prison that offers greater security.

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