T&T AND HAITI – THE BRUTAL TRUTH

SOME people suggest it is unfair to compare Trinidad and Tobago’s social state with that of Haiti.

So, let the facts speak.

In Haiti, a land of 11.7 million people, there were just over 5,000 murders for 2024.

In T&T, with a population of 1.5 million, more than 600 people have been slain.

In both countries, high-powered guns, illicit drugs, and contraband goods come in freely, and the authorities are doing nothing to stamp out the trade.

The United States Department of Defence (DOD) reports trafficking issues associated with unlawful killings.

There has been an increased number of gory killings and other violent crimes in both countries.

“Brutal attacks on children…sexual violence, mutilation of human remains, widespread displacement and destruction of homes and property,” the DOD said of Haiti.

There is a proliferation of gangs in both countries, and children are commonly recruited.

Experts in T&T and Haiti say economic elites are invested in the flow of weapons and drugs.

The DOD, the local Strategic Services Agency, and various other agencies and experts report that gang recruits in T&T are getting younger.

“Newer, younger, more violent leaders are emerging and existing gangs are disaggregating with an accompany level of animosity toward each other,” the SSA reported.

A UN agency said 40 per cent of new gangsters in Haiti are children as young as 11 years.

Haitian gangs “have more firepower than the police,” according to the UN.

Experts make a similar observation about the T&T landscape.

In both countries, there is an alarming spread of violence into previously safe communities, and home invasions are on a dramatic rise.

“Gang violence has spread into non-hotspot areas,” the SSA said.

Many have been displaced in Port-au-Prince and other areas, and there are emergency migrations.

International media show Haitians frantically packing to flee their crime-ravaged land.

There is a beeline of T&T nationals seeking to escape the rampant crime, mainly small business people and law-abiding citizens who have been terrorised by criminals.

The middle-class has vanished in Haiti and is being depleted in T&T.

In Haiti, gangs are ruling several communities to the point where the authorities and visitors do not enter.

In T&T, gangs briefly blocked St. Paul Street in inner city Port of Spain a few months ago, and armed-to-the-teeth criminals put fear into delivery drivers and service providers entering hotspot zones.

A recent report by a US agency said: “Once the wealthiest colony in the Americas, Haiti is now the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, with more than half of the country living below the World Bank’s poverty line.”

With the sharp decline in energy resources, T&T’s economic fortunes are on the skids, with increasing levels of poverty and a huge wealth gap.

Investors have fled both countries, although in T&T a major reason is the lack of natural gas as a feedstock.

Haiti boasts of the first successful insurrection against slavery more than 200 years ago, with the promise of economic success from bountiful agricultural production.

T&T achieved independence in 1962, “with boundless faith in our destiny.”  

Haiti has been termed a failed state.

In T&T, many are in denial.