Haiti is a nation that seems to be permanently at a crossroads between hope for some kind of stability and outright anarchy. It’s now the latter.
Just 700 nautical miles from the U.S., violent paramilitary gangs commit widespread and severe human rights atrocities to maintain their unprecedented power.
Scripps News’ international correspondent Jason Bellini traveled to Port-au-Prince to document the human toll of Haiti’s descent into anarchy.
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Brave Haitians shared with him detailed examples of how the gangs terrorize the population into submission. They recruit vulnerable children to fill their ranks. They use sexual violence as a means of instilling fear. They kidnap people and hold them for ransom to bankroll their arms purchases.
And their control of 80% of the country’s capital is resulting in a humanitarian catastrophe, which includes a growing number of babies suffering from severe malnutrition.
In this episode of “Scripps News Reports,” Bellini’s on-the-ground reporting exposes the violent, lived experiences of Haitians struggling to survive in an anarchic gangland.
