Haiti’s embattled prime minister has landed in Puerto Rico as he tried to return to Haiti to quell a surge in violent gang attacks, officials said.
Officials told the Associated Press that Ariel Henry landed late in the afternoon at the Luiz Munoz Marin International Airport in the capital San Juan.
Mr Henry was expected to travel to the Dominican Republic later to fly to Haiti, but the government of the Caribbean nation closed its air borders as gangs in Haiti continue to escalate their attacks on key targets such as prisons and the main international airport.
Gangs opened fired on police late Monday outside the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, where Mr Henry would probably land should he return home.
An armoured truck could be seen on the tarmac shooting at gangs trying to enter the airport as scores of employees and other workers fled from whizzing bullets.
The airport was closed when the attack occurred, with no planes operating and no passengers on site. It remained closed on Tuesday.
Schools and banks were also closed on Tuesday, and public transport ground to a standstill.
“Haiti is now under the control of the gangs. The government isn’t present,” said Michel St-Louis, 40, standing in front of a burned-down police station in the capital. “I’m hoping they can keep Henry out so whoever takes power can restore order.”
While Haiti’s problems run deep and defy any quick fix, Mr Henry himself is increasingly unpopular. His inability to govern effectively has stoked calls for him to step aside that the gangs are also embracing, if only to advance their own criminal interests, said Jake Johnston, a research associate at the Washington-based Centre for Economic and Policy Research.
Mr Henry was last seen on Friday in Kenya on a mission to salvage a multinational security force the east African nation was set to lead under the auspices of the UN.
He left Haiti more than a week ago to attend a meeting of Caribbean leaders in Guyana, where a deadline was announced – by others, not Mr Henry – to delay repeatedly postponed elections yet again. The balloting was pushed back to mid-2025.
That announcement is what appears to have triggered the latest explosion of violence.
It began with a direct challenge from a powerful gang leader, Jimmy Cherizier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue who fashions himself as a Robin Hood crusader. He said he would target government ministers in an effort to prevent Mr Henry’s return and force his resignation.
“With our guns and with the Haitian people, we will free the country,” he said in a video message announcing the offensive.
He appeared to make good on that threat over the next few days as gangs launched attacks on the central bank, the airport, even the national football stadium.
The culmination of the co-ordinated offensive came over the weekend when a jailbreak at the National Penitentiary and another prison released onto the streets of the capital more than 5,000 inmates, many of whom had been serving time for murder, kidnapping and other violent crimes.
Mr Henry, a soft-spoken neurosurgeon, positions himself as a transitional figure and peacemaker who has the backing of the US government – long Haiti’s dominant foreign ally and the key to any stabilisation effort.
But the Biden administration’s support has not translated into popularity at home, where Mr Henry is reviled. Since he took power more than two years ago, the economy has been in free fall, food prices have skyrocketed and gang violence has surged.
Last year, more than 8,400 people were reportedly killed, injured or kidnapped, more than double the number reported in 2022. The UN estimates that nearly half of Haiti’s 11 million people need humanitarian assistance.
Additionally, Mr Henry has been unable to bring Haiti’s disparate political actors into an agreement on general elections, which have not been held since 2015.