As Haiti’s national police struggled to regain control of Port-au-Prince last month after days of government paralysis following a violent anti-government protest, guards at a security checkpoint noticed a suspicious-looking White Nissan Patrol.
After searching the vehicle, police found an M4 rifle, four 9mm semi-automatic pistols including a Glock, a .380 caliber pistol and several magazines and rounds of ammunition. Among the vehicle’s five passengers were government employees and a known gang member, Johnny Metellus, who would later identify himself to police as vice delegate of Port-au-Prince, a position appointed by the president.
The men were immediately taken into custody. But even before the paperwork on their arrests could be filed with the courts, they were back on the streets, freed on the orders of an assistant government prosecutor after he personally showed up at the police station.
The prosecutor, Gérald Norgaisse, later defended his intervention on local radio. But Marie Yolene Gilles, the human-rights advocate who detailed the incident in a recent report — including Metellus’ past run-ins with Haiti National Police and U.N. peacekeepers — said the arrest and release underscore Haiti’s current precarious state. The United Nations, she said, is failing in its mission to reenforce justice and security, and the 15,735-member Haiti National Police force is being outgunned by heavily armed gangs and paramilitary units within its own ranks.
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Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article222945290.html#storylink=cpy
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