PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. on Wednesday offered a reward of up to $3 million and possible relocation in exchange for information on the financial activities of Haiti’s Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif criminal groups.
Washington has designated both groups, which bring together hundreds of gangs in the capital Port-au-Prince, agricultural Artibonite region and central Haiti, as terrorist organizations.
The U.S. announcement marks a shift in tactics; previous bounties have been focused on individual gang leaders.
Haitian security forces, with the support of a U.N.-backed force deployed three years ago and a U.S. private military company, have intensified attacks on armed gangs that control most of the capital, but have yet to make a major gang leader’s arrest.
Once dependent on sponsorship from elites, Haiti’s gangs have grown more economically independent as they cemented control over the capital and extended to rural areas in recent years.
Besides controlling roads and checkpoints, they are accused of collecting funds through extortion, thousands of ransom kidnappings, gun, drug and organ trafficking, and theft of vehicles, buildings and crops.
More than 1.4 million people have been displaced by the conflict with gangs, which has exacerbated food insecurity, and close to 20,000 have been reported violently killed in Haiti since 2021. The death toll has climbed every year.
According to the U.N., most gang killings are the result of firearms that are illegally trafficked into the country, with many believed to come through U.S. ports in Florida and Georgia.
(Reporting by Harold Isaac and Sarah Morland, Editing by Iñigo Alexander)
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