A gang truce offers light for Haiti

The persistence of gang violence in much of Latin America has boosted support for some heavy-handed remedies. Several leaders look with admiration to El Salvador, where dragnet arrests and mass incarceration have cut the homicide rate in half in recent years, despite raising concerns about human rights.

A different approach may be emerging in Haiti. After weeks of dialogue, the leaders of four of Haiti’s most violent gangs have pledged to cooperate for peace. That may not sound like much in a country where some 200 criminal groups control as much as 90% of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, and vital national transport corridors. Yet the text of the pledge holds a sliver of light. “We promise our loving God to work hard to end violence, to bring peace to all people,” it states.

Such an appeal to divinity fits the findings of a 2020 study by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The study found that a desire to draw closer to God was a key reason that many gang members cited for leaving that violent lifestyle behind.

“Some recalled the need for transformation as coming from inside,” the study stated. “Others described it as an experience prompted by their relationship with other people who found God and served as models for [gang] disengagement.”

The four gang leaders in Haiti are “not saying, ‘We’re going to stop shooting or we’re going to stop doing this,’” Tom Hagan, a Catholic priest based in Haiti who facilitated the peace dialogue, told the Miami Herald. “But they are saying, they are more for peace and forgiveness.”

To be sure, the root causes of gang activity in Haiti remain unaddressed. Nurtured for decades by politicians seeking leverage during elections, gangs now thrive amid Haiti’s political and economic collapse. The last elections were seven years ago. The Caribbean nation doesn’t have a single elected official serving a current term. Nearly half of the population lives in acute hunger. Kidnapping is now a key revenue source for rival criminal groups.

The United Nations has backed calls by Haiti’s unelected leadership for a foreign force to help stabilize the country and prepare for elections. But there is little enthusiasm among potential contributing nations.

While gangs compete for economic control, often violently, they have also shown a softer side during humanitarian crises. Tending the public good in the absence of government services during times of distress may be attempts at whitewashing, writes Amalendu Misra, a professor of international politics at Lancaster University, but “there is no denying the fact these are indeed deep and honourable deeds.”

The truce in Haiti may offer an opening to build trust and to focus on helping young people create a post-gang society. As Haiti’s former Education Minister Nesmy Manigat told The New Humanitarian last year, “The urgency is to train a new generation of citizens.”