Record gang violence in Haiti leaves at least 5,600 dead as Biden admin faces scathing criticism for not having clear strategy
Gangs in Haiti killed at least 5,600 people last year, according to a new United Nations report.The report from the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights said an additional 3,700 were injured or abducted, leading some to criticize the Biden administration for not doing enough.“The Biden administration has taken a piecemeal and politicized response to the crisis which focused on preventing it from blowing up ahead of the elections but not resolving it,” Andrés Martínez-Fernández, senior policy analyst for Latin America at The Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital.Biden gave $629 million in financial and equipment support to Haiti with $600 million already allocated, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
By comparison, Congress provided Ukraine with more than $113 billion. “At the end of the day, it is a similar issue in both Ukraine and Haiti that our involvement does not seem to have a clear strategy underlying it,” Martínez-Fernández added. In a horrific incident in early December, at least 207 people were massacred in the capital city Port-au-Prince by the Wharf Jérémie gang.The victims, many of them elderly, were accused of using voodoo to harm the gang leader’s son.
Their bodies were mutilated and burned, and others were thrown into the sea.Gangs now control approximately 85% of the capital, according to a recent VOA report.“These figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti, but they show the unremitting violence to which people are being subjected,” said the U.N.High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.Türk emphasized the urgent need to restore the rule of law in Haiti.
He called for strong logistical and financial backing for the U.N.-supported Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) to help it carry out its mandate effectively.The MSS pledged more than 2,500 personnel from several countries, yet only around 500 have been deployed so far.Many h...