{"id":133558,"date":"2026-06-16T14:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T20:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/un-secretary-general-visits-haiti-as-gang-violence-soars\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T14:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T20:02:12","slug":"un-secretary-general-visits-haiti-as-gang-violence-soars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/un-secretary-general-visits-haiti-as-gang-violence-soars\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Secretary-General visits Haiti as gang violence soars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Haitian
Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aim\u00e9, front center, walks with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as Guterres arrives to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Danica Coto)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Danica Coto)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) \u2014 U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres visited Haiti<\/a> on Tuesday, where surging gang violence has left more than 1 in 10 people homeless.<\/p>\n

New statistics released by the U.N. reveal that 2,300 people have been killed across Haiti so far this year, with another 100 kidnapped, while 1.5 million have been displaced. Among those abducted is James Boyard<\/a>, cabinet director of the Defense Ministry, who was kidnapped last week in one of the few relatively safe areas of the capital.<\/p>\n

Guterres\u2019 one-day visit to Port-au-Prince<\/a> comes after more than 30 people were killed, injured or missing last weekend in Cit\u00e9 Soleil, a seaside slum, according to Cooperative for Peace and Development, a local human rights organization.<\/p>\n

His convoy sped past a neighborhood once fully controlled by gangs that left in their wake decimated car dealerships, abandoned homes and dozens of concrete buildings pockmarked with bullet holes. A colorful bus known as a tap-tap rumbled past, its windshield peppered with bullet holes.<\/p>\n

Graffiti scrawled on a crumbling concrete wall read: \u201cDown with Viv Ansanm, long live the police.\u201d Viv Ansanm is a powerful gang federation that the U.S. government designated a foreign terrorist organization<\/a>. It is estimated to control 70% of Port-au-Prince.<\/p>\n

Guterres traveled past dozens of Haitians who fled the clashes and now live in makeshift homes under large pieces of canvas strung up with frayed rope.<\/p>\n

They are among the more than 300,000 people displaced by gang violence across Port-au-Prince \u2014 a record. Among them are more than 18,000 people who fled the Cit\u00e9 Soleil slum in May, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaiti\u2019s displacement crisis is entering an even more alarming phase,\u201d Gregoire Goodstein, IOM chief of mission in Haiti, said in a recent statement.<\/p>\n

Guterres\u2019 first stop was the headquarters of the new gang-suppression force<\/a>, which the U.N. Security Council approved in September. It replaces a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police that aimed to help Haiti\u2019s National Police fight gangs but remained underfunded and understaffed. So far, Jamaica, Chad, El Salvador and Guatemala have deployed troops that number less than 1,000 to form part of the growing force, which is due to start operations in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

They are expected to work with Haiti\u2019s National Police and its growing Armed Forces, with hundreds of Haitian men and a couple of women lining up on a dusty road hoping to interview to join.<\/p>\n

Guterres then met behind closed doors with Prime Minister Alix Didier-Fils-Aim\u00e9<\/a>, who is under pressure to hold elections in the country of nearly 12 million people that hasn\u2019t had a president since Jovenel Mo\u00efse was killed at his private residence<\/a> in July 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a frank conversation about what\u2019s happening in Haiti, the vision the government has for the future,\u201d Fils-Aim\u00e9 told The Associated Press after the meeting.<\/p>\n

He said security is a priority so the transitional government can hold elections and \u201cget back to republican rule.\u201d Fils-Aim\u00e9 added that Guterres can help with that effort by ensuring that the countries backing the gang-suppression force \u201clive up to their engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018We don\u2019t have a life here’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guterres also stopped by a makeshift shelter in a former school where dozens of the people living there crowded around him.<\/p>\n

Forced to flee their homes after gangs shot up their community and set fire to it, some had been living there for up to four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSolino is not ready,\u201d 31-year-old Clifford Lala said of going back to his community. It was one of the last holdouts in Port-au-Prince until gangs overran it.<\/p>\n

Guterres ducked into a hot classroom and met privately with a group of six women who decried the lack of privacy at the shelter, even to shower or use the bathroom, and said they worried about their young children.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s skin-to-skin and mouth-to-mouth,\u201d said one woman.<\/p>\n

The shelter houses more than 1,200 people who sleep side by side, and only one meal a day is guaranteed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to do our best,\u201d Guterres told the women.<\/p>\n

Outside, a man began to slap the building\u2019s metal siding and bellowed, \u201cWe want to go back home!\u201d His voice grew louder and angrier as security walked into the room and whisked Guterres away.<\/p>\n

Wendy Cejour, 26, told the AP that he and his family have been living at the school for a year and a half.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we\u2019re alive we have hope, but \u2026 things are difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cWe ask … to return to our neighborhood to live better, because we don\u2019t have a life here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A day before Guterres’s visit, Human Rights Watch published a letter urging him to protect the population and target the root causes of violence and human rights abuses. The organization also called for a \u201cfull-fledged U.N. mission\u201d in Haiti.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when fully staffed and resourced, security measures alone will not suffice to address this situation,\u201d the rights group wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny meaningful strategy should include effective protection for victims of violence, credible pathways for disengagement from criminal groups, accountability for abuses, and a coordinated humanitarian response to help restore access to basic goods and services.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UN
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres greets soldiers from Chad at a base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Danica Coto)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Danica Coto)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aim\u00e9, front center, walks with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as Guterres arrives to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Danica Coto)(AP Photo\/Danica Coto) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) \u2014 U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres visited Haiti on Tuesday, where surging gang violence has left more than 1 in 10 people homeless. New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-133558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135251,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133558\/revisions\/135251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133558"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=133558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}