America (U.S.) and the United Nations (U.N.) on Friday introduced sanctions in opposition to two distinguished Haitian figures accused of backing Haiti’s strongest gang coalition, Viv Ansanm, in actions which have deepened the nation’s ongoing safety disaster.
The U.S. Treasury Division mentioned the sanctions goal Dimitri Hérard, the previous head of presidential safety underneath late President Jovenel Moïse, and Kempes Sanon, chief of the Bel Air gang in Port-au-Prince. Hours later, the U.N. Safety Council unanimously handed a decision reinforcing the measures, ordering all 193 member nations to freeze the lads’s belongings, impose a journey ban, and implement an arms embargo.
The U.S. and U.N. accuse each males of offering materials and logistical assist to Viv Ansanm, a unfastened federation of felony teams liable for a lot of the violence and lawlessness gripping the capital. Hérard, a former police officer who was jailed in reference to Moïse’s 2021 assassination, reportedly escaped custody in 2024 and “colluded” with the gang alliance, in keeping with the Treasury Division.
“Hérard straight backs Viv Ansanm’s coordinated assaults in opposition to state establishments,” the Treasury’s assertion mentioned. The division added that he provided firearms and coaching to gang leaders working throughout Port-au-Prince.
Sanon, in the meantime, is accused of utilizing his affect inside Bel Air—a stronghold within the coronary heart of the capital—to extort residents, kidnap civilians, and impose unlawful taxes. The U.N. described him as sustaining “a community of people inside governmental establishments, together with safety companies, which permits him to evade arrest and proceed his felony actions.” Sanon additionally escaped from jail in 2021, the place he had been detained for kidnapping and theft, in keeping with the U.N. decision.
Bradley T. Smith, director of the Treasury Division’s Workplace of International Property Management, mentioned in an announcement that the sanctions “underscore the crucial position of gang leaders and facilitators like Hérard and Sanon, whose assist permits Viv Ansanm’s marketing campaign of violence, extortion, and terrorism in Haiti.”
Gangs now management roughly 90% of Port-au-Prince, in keeping with U.N. estimates, and have expanded their actions—together with looting, sexual assaults, and kidnappings, into rural areas. The nation has been with out an elected president since Moïse’s assassination, and establishments stay largely paralyzed regardless of the institution of a Transitional Presidential Council earlier this yr.
The U.N. Workplace on Medication and Crime has additionally reported that weapons trafficked largely from the USA, particularly Florida, proceed to arm Haitian gangs. Hérard is accused of facilitating the smuggling of arms and ammunition into the nation, additional fueling the violence.
Worldwide observers say the sanctions symbolize a rising willingness by world powers to confront Haiti’s gang disaster by way of monetary and diplomatic means, however many within the Haitian diaspora argue that actual progress would require accountability inside Haiti’s political and policing techniques, lengthy accused of corruption and complicity.
What’s Viv Ansanm?
Viv Ansanm, Creole for “Stay Collectively”, is a robust alliance of armed teams that emerged in 2023, uniting a few of Haiti’s most infamous gangs underneath one unfastened coalition. The group controls giant sections of Port-au-Prince, together with neighborhoods reminiscent of Bel Air, Cité Soleil, and Carrefour-Feuilles, in addition to key roadways connecting the capital to the remainder of the nation.
The coalition operates with the acknowledged purpose of opposing Haiti’s political elite and international intervention, however in observe, it has turn into a felony syndicate engaged in kidnapping, extortion, and violent assaults in opposition to police and civilians. The alliance is essentially blamed for the wave of coordinated assaults that paralyzed Port-au-Prince in early 2024 and displaced tens of 1000’s of residents.
In accordance with the U.N. Workplace on Medication and Crime, Viv Ansanm’s rise has been fueled by a gentle inflow of firearms trafficked from the USA, particularly by way of Florida, and by the absence of functioning state establishments. The group’s leaders, together with figures like Kempes Sanon and Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, function with close to impunity as Haiti’s safety forces stay underfunded and outgunned.
Consultants and activists throughout the Haitian diaspora have warned that until root causes like poverty, corruption, and political instability are addressed, Viv Ansanm will proceed to evolve right into a parallel energy construction that challenges any transitional authorities’s authority.