US guns flood Caribbean island rife with gang rape and murder | World | News

The gangs in Haiti rape, burn and kill people as a flood of US weapons and arms. It is sent to severe militias on the Caribbean island. The seriousness of the situation was clearly shown in the early this year, when members of Viv Ansanm, the coalition of Haiti’s most brutal gangs, started a wild attack on Delmas 30 neighborhoods packaged in Port-Au-Prince on Tuesday, February 25th.

When they used their attack rifles, pistols and machete, they stole gunfire while looting the houses and flaming them. Some victims were burned alive in front of their children, women were raped, and two soldiers of the soldiers were killed. Johnise Grisaule and his three -year -old son fled the massacre, and now the shelter in a clinic turned the refugee camp as well as more than 4,800 displaced neighborhoods.

He said Financial times: “The police could not do anything. There were much more bandits with much larger weapons.”

Haiti, the poorest country of the Western Hemisphere, has become a political, economic and security collapse since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. Today, the gangs are roughly controlling 90% of Port-Aau-Prince, surrounding the last holder of the transition government in Pétion-Ville.

Basic Services – Health, Electricity, Garbage Collection – collapsed. Wages on the goods by checking the ports of gangs and all roads to capital. They were stuck in the so -called safe zones, living in the middle of bullets full of bullets.

Haiti’s Finance Minister Alfred Métellus warned: “Things will only get worse.

Violence outside the capital is increasing. Last year, Haiti recorded 5,626 murders – 1,000 more than 2023.

The UN reported only 2,700 murders in the first five months of 2025. More than 1.3 million people have been displaced and almost half of the population is faced with food scarcity.

An important driving force of this violence is the growing arsenal of the military class weapons of the gangs of the gangs, many of which are caused by US arms shops and made human trafficking through Miami.

Métellus said: “The problem is that everyone in the US can buy a weapon. Then they referred to [cargo] Boxes from the Miami River. “

The origins of the gangs have been stretched to the paramilitary tonton macouts under the Duvalier dictatorships for decades. However, their current dominance is linked to the power gap formed after 2021. Viv Ansanm, established at the beginning of 2024 and competing gangs in a coalition that overthrew the transition government of Haiti.

The President of the Transition Presidential Council, Fritz Jean, described it as the coalition of the interest groups that build the chaos we live in ”.

Analyst Diego said: “Viv Ansanm aims to reach the offices of the Prime Minister and the Presidential Council and to overthrow the government without offering an open plan for following.”

Gangs now work like armed paramilitary militias with AR-15s, sniper rifles and body armor. The videos on social media show them the SUVs in the camouflage and military equipment.

Robert Muggah of the Institute of Igarapé explained: “Even 100 high -power guns are greatly increasing the firepower of the gangs.”

The US court documents and shipping records reveal how these weapons come to Haiti. In February, a 90 -meter cargo ship from Miami to the Dominican Republic carried a weapon cache to Haiti, not a container full of second -hand goods.

At the beginning of 2022, the Haiti officials seized more than 112,000 firearms and ammunition units in Dominican Port – most of them were sent from Miami.

Between July 2020 and March 2023, at least 34 shipments from US ports to haiti individuals, including a former deputy accused of arming gangs, went to at least 34 shipments.

US Army War College professor Evan Ellis said: “73% of the weapons gathered in Caribbean crimes come from the USA, mostly from Florida, Georgia and Texas.” Haiti’s gangs also receive body armor and equipment from China.

Miami is the main center for weapon trade to Haiti due to the Great Haiti Diaspora, loose arms laws and export enterprises that send goods home.

Florida allows unlimited weapons to purchase without permission or background controls for hidden weapons. “80 to 85% of the weapons in Haiti come from the US-and directly from the Miami River, Süz

Joseph Lestrange, a former US internal security official, explained: “The gangs use ‘straw buyers’ with clean records to buy weapons legally in Florida. They are later sent to Haiti hidden among legitimate goods.”

A bad case included 400 Mawozo gang leader Joly Germine, coordinating arms recruitment through WhatsApp from prison. Florida buyers bought 24 military -style rifles, hidden in barrels and sent to Haiti, including BARRETTT. The money came from the abduction of Americans, who ransomed for tens of thousands of dollars.

Germine was found guilty of charges of arms trade and hostage in 2024.

A small Miami pledge, Lucky Pawn was a source of weapons, but the employee underestimated the flow and rejected the US as insignificant compared to Israel’s military aid.

Fruit orientation companies make the shipping and combining the cargo and unintentionally facilitating shipments that cannot control all containers in terms of hidden weapons.

A container seized in the Dominican Republic contained 26 firearms hidden among household goods. A customs officer was arrested for complexity.

US customs agents control less than 5% of exports. Exports below $ 2,500 usually do not require any documents, it creates large gaps.

Haiti’s gang crisis is fueled by this flood of weapons from the United States by strengthening the violent militias who crippled the country’s government and terrorizing its people.

British Foreign Affairs, Nations Community and Development Office (FCDO) is currently advising Haiti against all trips because of a highly variable security situation marked with widespread gang, kidnapping, armed robbery and civil unrest.

British visitors may find that when they oppose this advice, the travel insurance is invalid and the consular support is seriously limited – British citizens cannot expect the assistance in Haiti and rely on the British diplomatic mission if necessary.