She had barely been rewarded by the French Academy when she returned to Haiti, at the end of 2021, to join the government of Ariel Henry as Minister of Culture and Communication of Haiti. It was a shock for many when Emmelie Prophète accepted, in November 2022, the portfolios of Justice and Public Security while the gangs she describes in her latest novel (Les Villages de Dieu, ed. Mémoire d’ inkwell) were already infesting the city.
At the rate the terrorists are going, there is reason to shudder. In the Carrefour-Feuilles district, their abuses have been brought to light, thanks to the speaking out of writers and artists, and the staggering situation of insecurity in and around the capital suggests that the gangs have not spoken out. last word. While everyone is sorry for the government’s inability to cope and faces the silence of the authorities in the face of this daily growing threat, Emmelie Prophet has agreed to answer three questions from Le Point.
Emmelie Prophète: The gangs are very armed. They pillage, rape, steal. Haiti has been facing a serious political crisis since 2018 which worsened with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. The current government did not create this situation. He is trying to repair the damage that was caused by the radicalism of everyone, radicalism which persists and manifests itself in a refusal to sit around the same table to find a solution to the crisis. In Haiti, alas, we can destroy everything, together in one day; but together we fail to build anything. Since 1804, when the native army chased out the French Army, we have not joined together to make other conquests.
Why does a state charged with serving and protecting the people not give the police the means to tackle gangs when they so easily obtain weapons and ammunition?
The national police, when it was created twenty-eight years ago, was not designed to deal with situations like those we are experiencing today. We are facing urban guerrillas. In addition, because of the American TPS programs [Temporary Protected Status granted by the United States to Haitians since the 2021 earthquake, Editor’s note] and Humanitarian Parole [initiated by President Biden, it allows people living in the United States -United to act as guarantors to allow Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to come and work in the United States, Editor’s note]. Our administrations have been decimated. Some lost more than 15% of their staff, like public television. The police lost many members. The government saw the problem coming and last October asked for help for the police. What some have called “foreign intervention.” This aid would allow the police to professionalize to become the appropriate body for new forms of crime. It turns out, unfortunately, and this is one of the major problems we have, that there are gaps between the police and the gangs. There are many efforts that have been made to control the arrival of weapons and ammunition on the territory. Particularly at the customs of Port-au-Prince. The weapons come from the United States and invade the Caribbean market. The subject is recurring in meetings of the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
Haiti’s army was demobilized after the return of President Aristide in 1994. It was notably responsible for several coups and accused of human rights violations. President Michel Martelly, in 2011, launched the idea of ??a remobilization. He went down in flames. President Jovenel Moise, despite fierce opposition from all sides, still remobilized the corps. Which is so far only an embryo. The army has neither weapons nor equipment. God only knows we wish it was operational! The police, since its existence, have never had as many resources as they do today. It has had 18 large armored vehicles in the last 9 months, 30 light armored vehicles, 40 patrol vehicles donated by the United States, 500 automatic weapons. In Carrefour-Feuilles, the gangs mainly burned the police officers’ houses. It’s a terrible situation. If the government left today, whoever was installed in its place would suffer the same fate. We are like that.
