Summary
Overview
CNN's Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Payton Walsh discusses his groundbreaking investigation into Haiti's desperate attempt to regain control from powerful gangs by hiring Eric Prince's private military company, Vectus Global. The report reveals a capital city where 90% was recently under gang control, with downtown Port-au-Prince transformed into an urban wasteland. Prince's operation deploys ex-special forces contractors and armed drones in what may represent a new era of privatized warfare, raising questions about effectiveness, civilian casualties, and the future of conflict in failed states.
Haiti's Collapse Into Gang Control
Port-au-Prince has experienced an unprecedented collapse, with gangs controlling up to 90% of the capital city at its worst point. The downtown area has become an apocalyptic landscape where vegetation grows through piles of trash and abandoned buildings, resembling scenes from post-apocalyptic fiction. Despite the danger, hundreds of residents still traverse these gang-controlled areas daily in single file, often barefoot, just to reach work and find food.
- Haiti is in an extraordinary moment of post-collapse unlike anything seen in 25 years of conflict reporting
- 10% of the capital city is now controlled by the government, with gangs controlling the rest
- Downtown Port-au-Prince has become an urban forest with vegetation growing through trash and abandoned buildings
- Streets have become open sewers with trash piled so high that vegetation grows roots through it
- Hundreds of people walk through gang territory in single file at dawn and dusk to reach work
" I've never seen anything like it in 25 years of conflict reporting. "
" The vegetation started to grow roots through it and grow out of it and then the buildings...if you recall scenes from the last of us or planet of the apes the kind of after the apocalypse this is what happens to a big city and the vegetation takes it back that was really life right there "
The Gang Landscape and Their Brutal Methods
Over a dozen major gangs control Haiti, led by notorious figures with FBI bounties on their heads. These groups emerged from various origins—some as business enforcers, others from drug dealing operations—and frequently fight among themselves. Most disturbingly, gangs extensively use children under 12 as combatants and spotters, with estimates suggesting half of gang members are minors who are forced to commit horrific acts of violence.
- Gangs are led by figures like Barbecue, Vitellon, and Meccano, many with FBI most wanted status
- Gang violence accounts for much of the casualties, as groups constantly fight each other for territory
- Gangs briefly attempted to form a political alliance to enter government but it didn't last
- An estimated half of gang members are minors, with children used as spotters and combatants
- Gangs leave children behind with handguns while older members flee with military-grade weapons
" One gang leader junior dude so like called julio said eric prince is the biggest threat...he literally sort of said the big problem is eric prince and we want him to leave so we can make a deal with the cops "
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