Foreign Agents Targeted in Port-au-Prince

Police officers are accused of opening fire on a vehicle carrying foreign agents. A child was injured in the incident, according to a witness

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A gray armored vehicle driven by foreign agents was struck by at least four rounds on its side and rear. Its right rear tire was also punctured on Saint-Cyr Street on April 11.

Police officers from an intervention brigade in Port-au-Prince are accused of shooting at the vehicle, which bore a Haitian Army license plate.

Placed in isolation, the officers were released this Tuesday after a violent protest movement launched the previous day by some of their colleagues in several streets of the capital.

To reconstruct the events, AyiboPost spoke with witnesses, investigators, police officers, a senior Haitian Army official, and a union representative.

According to witness accounts, police in Port-au-Prince received a kidnapping alert over the radio that Saturday at around 5 p.m. The kidnappers were reportedly traveling in a black car.

The Port-au-Prince police station then ordered an intervention brigade to position itself along the Bourdon corridor in order to check vehicles coming down from the area.

Intervention Brigade 1 began inspecting cars in Bourdon. It stopped a gray vehicle bearing a Haitian Army plate near Saint-Louis de Bourdon school. The gray vehicle did not stop.

Intervention Brigade 1 raised the alert and pursued the vehicle as far as Lalue, passing Natcom and then heading toward Bois-Verna along Avenue Lamartinière.

The West Department director of the Haitian National Police, Yvon Cantave, was the first to intercept the gray vehicle with his team on Rue Saint-Cyr, a short distance from the Hotel Le Plaza in Champ-de-Mars.

The foreign occupants of the vehicle opened the door, raised their hands in the air, and identified themselves.

Intervention Brigade 1 then arrived and was informed that they were foreign personnel. It did not fire.

However, another intervention brigade arrived at the scene moments later. Without asking questions, it opened fire on the foreigners’ armored vehicle, according to a witness.

The gray vehicle was hit by at least five bullets. The rear right tire was punctured. A child was injured in the incident.

Shaken, the foreign agents—said to be members of the task force of the government of Alix Didier Fils-Aimé—returned to their base at Hotel Le Plaza in Champ-de-Mars, according to a police officer who witnessed the scene. A justice of the peace conducted the required legal inspection there.

A senior Haitian Army official contacted by AyiboPost refused to comment on cooperation between the army and the task force, as well as on the issue of the license plates, saying he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The police and the army have rules of engagement, the same official said. “You cannot open fire on unarmed people who pose no danger, whether military or civilian. You may shoot when you are under threat.”

Young recruits are currently facing discipline problems, according to the official, who said he himself had been held up with his children by police officers in Port-au-Prince despite his status.

The task force’s responsibilities, its communication channels with Haitian institutions, and its accountability mechanisms remain unclear. A spokesperson was contacted via WhatsApp, and this article will be updated if he responds.

The Departmental Judicial Police Service questioned the agents involved in the case, including the four officers from the accused brigade, last Tuesday. They were then placed in isolation by the police Inspectorate General before being released this Tuesday.

“They allegedly directed insults at officers under the West Department Directorate during the April 11 operation,” Mathieuny Sidel, spokesperson for the National Union of Haitian Police Officers, told AyiboPost.

Some police officials believe the attack on the foreign agents was intended to create a diversion to facilitate the kidnappers’ escape, while others view the armed intervention as an act of insubordination, since the West Department director was already on site and in discussion with the foreign agents.

The investigation is ongoing.

By: Widlore Mérancourt

Wethzer Piercin & Jérôme Wendy Norestyl contributed to this report.

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