PORT-AU-PRINCE, DECEMBER 28 (PRINSA LATINA) Co-Director of the human rights organization Defender Plus, Antonal Morteme, described the day 2021 as horrific for Haiti, ending with assassinations, several massacres and growing insecurity.
Mortimeh pointed out that the assassination of a president has not occurred in the country during the past century, while up to 10 people are kidnapped every day in the capital, and seven others are violently killed.
In an interview with Radio Metropole, the human rights defender estimated that 2022 could be worse, while Parliament is dysfunctional, there is no elected president and most judges’ terms are over.
In this context, the courts are practically paralyzed by the lack of security, and about a thousand people have been kidnapped this year.
The director calls for the awakening of the citizen who forces the authorities to guarantee the right to free movement of people and goods, currently restricted by the control of armed gangs in strategic areas of the country.
According to the National Center for the Defense of Human Rights, during 2021 the gangs expanded their areas of influence, and controlled 60 percent of the national territory, due to the inaction of the police.
Raids on vulnerable neighborhoods such as Bel Air also increased, and in late June a shooting in Delmas claimed 32 lives, including about two dozen people, including a journalist, feminist and political activist.
In addition, since the beginning of that month, about 20,000 people have been forced from their homes in Martissant, at the southern exit of Port-au-Prince, and after six months gang attacks continue in that area.
The most recent was the shooting of two public transportation buses the day before, leaving four dead and the same number of serious injuries.
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