Gangs return to Haiti slum after quake prison break

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

Heavily armed gang members who once ran Haiti's largest slum like warlords have returned with a vengeance since Tuesday's earthquake damaged the National Penitentiary allowing 3,000 inmates to break out.

The pacification of Cite Soleil had been one of President Rene Prevail's few undisputed achievements since taking office in 2006, until the quake devastated Port-au-Prince.

"It's only natural that they would come back here. This has always been their stronghold," said a Haitian police officer in the teeming warren of shacks, alleys and open sewers that is home to more than 300,000 people. He and other policemen, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the volatile situation in Cite Soleil, said notorious armed gangs had been making their presence felt here since the quake.

Cite Sole's gang leaders are larger-than-life criminals. The stuff of urban legend and popular Haitian rap songs, they are now seen as a breed apart from other Haitians in that they alone benefited from the Tuesday's disaster. Mounted on motorcycles, and brandishing assault rifles and guns thought to have been stripped from prison guards during the quake, the gang members include one stone-cold killer known only by the street name "Blade."

=snip=

Word on the street is that they swept down on the rubble of Haiti's collapsed Justice Ministry on Saturday morning and set it ablaze to destroy any records of their incarceration or criminal history.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60G0CO20100117

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Air filled with the stench of rotting corpses and 3,000 hardcore criminals prowling the streets, it's hardly surprising there's a huge exodus from the city into the countryside.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. I can't imagine there is a whole lot of "countryside" on a carribean island. n/t

[Turborama]

2. Of course there is

What's your definition of countryside?

Just found this in Google images...


http://www.flickr.com/photos/erin_coughlin/363000209/

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Video of Haiti's countryside: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0TDUZOUAWQ

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Article on the exodus: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703959804575007263211022480.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories">Haitians Flee Ruined Capital for Shelter in Countryside

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[cali]

3. say what? never been there, huh?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

4. Been on the smaller islands...

barbados, st thomas, st marteen, bahamas... maybe they all were too small to really have a large countryside.
Some spots were excluded and exotic, but nowhere I could image 100s of thousands seeking refuge.

[Chulanowa]

7. Hispaniola is by no means a "small island"

Haiti's a rather small country, but it still has PLENTY of land.

[bertman]

5. countryside = out of the urbanized areas.

[Renew Deal]

6. Any guesses who's going to have to clean that up?

:patriot:

[setfreetruth]

8. Oh, and let me guess

his will hinder the $11M+ in aid getting to the people, right? So the GREEDY shadow elite will have to sit on all that aid until hundreds of thousands of victims die off, at which time, they will sell it all to the people on the black market for a hefty profit, claim title to all the land and resources and start their sweat shops all over again.

Nobody's buying this crap. I say reinstate President Aristide, the duly elected president and his officials, and drive out the real thugs and henchmen who have been preying on Haiti's people for far too long.

For background concerning Haiti, refer to this article:

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/15/bush_was_responsible_for_destroying_haitian

I THINK THAT PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD SHOULD STOP GIVING UNTIL WE SEE HELP BEING DELIVERED TO THE PEOPLE THAT IS COMMENSURATE WITH WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN GIVEN! THIS IS MADNESS! THERE MUST BE SOME ACCOUNTABILITY!

[Moosepoop]

12. "PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD SHOULD STOP GIVING" ???

Rush must love you.

[setfreetruth]

15. Continuing to give to those who have no intention of helping the

Haitian people is just plain dumb. Since the aid does not appear to be reaching its intended targets, why continue to pour it down the drain. Charity without accountability accomplishes nothing. This has nothing to do with Rush; it's just the truth, like it or not.

[Moosepoop]

18. Well, you certainly seem compelled to spread your version

of the "truth" all over this forum. Your 12 posts so far are on 9 different Haiti threads, and all of those posts are in the same vein as in this one. You've been exhorting people to stop donations to the relief effort in the name of "accountability," and pimping that article you linked to in posts #8 and #11 repeatedly as well. Some of your posts are not much more than cut-and-pastes of each other.

It's all well and good that you are concerned with the "accountability" of the relief funds, but badgering all of DU that "people throughout the world should stop giving" to the relief effort (and screaming it in all caps, no less) seems a bit... much.

I don't think you have much of a clue as to what should or shouldn't have arrived and been distributed or done in Haiti by now, regardless of the dollar amount of donations so far. You're screaming a talking point of some sort, for some reason.

I'll just keep on being "dumb" and giving to whatever charities I damn well please, if that's all right with you (and Rush), like it or not.

[setfreetruth]

21. Am I supposed to be intimidated by your detective work on my posts?

I make no apology for the fact that I am passionate about disseminating the truth, although I never considered myself a "pimp" for the truth. I have merely been exhorting people to stop donations until it is demonstrated that the donations already provided are translating to immediate life-saving and life-sustaining help for the Haitian people, and not simply to continue the status quo. The objective of such action would be to put pressure on those handling the effort to actually give the people water and food, instead of continuously passing them by in trucks. Once that is demonstrated, donations could easly resume.

Your criticism of such wisdom and your agitation at my posts also screams of your own (and Rush's) agenda; you're not in the least concerned about getting help to the Haitian people--you just want to continue the status quo, and perhaps you are one of the beneficiaries of the lack of accountability you are criticizing me for pointing out. The article I cited provides the background for the exercise of wisdom when donating to causes in Haiti, and caution before accepting every negative story offered as justification for the inaction of those responsible. In case you missed it before, here it is again:

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/15/bush_was_responsible_for_destroying_haitian

And if I feel the need to post the message a million times in ALL CAPS, what is that to you? If you don't want to read it, move on! I will also do what I please, if that's all right with you (and Rush), like it or not.

[Moosepoop]

22. You are just too cute...

I'm going to miss you when you're gone. :evilgrin:

[Robb]

13. LOL

It's irony night on DU. :D

[Codeine]

19. 14 posts and a hidden profile?

Not suspicious at all.

[Moosepoop]

23. Nope, not a bit!

:evilgrin:

[MJJP21]

9. Now would be

the time to clean house as the leader of Haiti appears to have left the building. Haiti is the result of policies enacted by major superpowers over the years. Nothing was done since Babydoc left years ago.
The US needs to squash any semblance of gangs and thugs in short order and with the US troops in place what better time than the present. Otherwise this will turn out worse for Obama than Katrina and Bush.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

10. The U.S. would be a benevolent occupying force

just like we are in afghanistan and iraq. Welcomed by all, winning hearts and minds.

With enough practice, we might even be able to squash the gangs and thugs in our own urban areas.

:hi:

[Jamastiene]

16. Don't forget the flowers.

We'll be greeted with flowers.

[setfreetruth]

11. Just keep in mind the gangs and thugs are the ones running the relief effort

and hindering aid getting to the people, the ones the U.S. and France have propped up in leadership. U.S. credibility, therefore, is nonexistence. Obama needs to take a personal role in this effort. Noone else is trustworthy, especially not Clinton and Bush.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/15/bush_was_responsible_for_destroying_haitian

[bemildred]

14. So the government has collapsed again, and we are going to prop it up again. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

17. Scary stuff, in an already unbearable situation... K&R.

;( :hi:

[Peace Patriot]

20. I'm very suspicious of this Rotters report. For one thing, I've found Rotters to be viciously biased

against the left and the poor majority in Latin America. Their reporting on this subject is unreliable and often even factually wrong. They are as bad as the Wall Street Urinal and the Miami Hairball, which is why I call them Rotters.

Secondly, there were a lot of political prisoners in Haiti, and the U.S. State Department and corpo-fascist 'news' monopolies like this one are highly selective in how they designate dissidents. Gangs? Terrorists? "Stone cold killers"? Hm.

I don't know much about this current situation, but I do know this: After the illegal removal of President Aristide by the Bushwhacks in 2004, rightwing death squads went after his supporters in the poor areas of Port-au-Prince. Leftist activists were murdered, tortured and imprisoned. Political groups were called "gangs." And community organizers were called "gang leaders."

"The pacification of Cite Soleil had been one of President Rene Prevail's few undisputed achievements since taking office in 2006...".

Undisputed achievement? Says who? There is no quote, no attribution. Prevail is a Bushwhack-installed U.S. puppet. And "pacification" is a word that I associate with burning down villages "to save them."

What they did was destroy the leftist movement in Haiti.

This Rotters report also seems too "colorful," if you know what I mean. Both overwritten and racist. ("The stuff of urban legend and popular Haitian rap songs"? "A breed apart"?)

I've learned to be skeptical of every word that Rotters writes. I would urge everyone else to be skeptical of this report until we know more.