PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Police in Haiti announced Tuesday that they regained control of a critical telecommunications hub that heavily armed gangs had seized last week, briefly disrupting air traffic and internet connections.
The takeover was a rare success for Haitian authorities and a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police that have struggled to push back powerful gangs seeking full control of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The police operation at the Téléco site in the once peaceful community of Kenscoff began before dawn on Monday and lasted about two hours, according to Michel-Ange Louis Jeune, spokesperson for Haiti’s National Police.
“This is a strong message that the new police chief sent,” he said, referring to André Jonas Vladimir Paraison, who was appointed to the post earlier this month.
Jeune did not take questions during the news conference and did not say how many people, if any, were killed during the operation.
He said police found numerous guns, including automatic weapons with scratched-out serial numbers, and more than 1,000 bullets.
“When the population is sleeping, the police are not sleeping. They are working to ensure that people can sleep,” he said.
Last week, gangs filmed themselves taking over the Téléco site, telling the government it had less than a week to start negotiations. The person in the video did not say what, if anything, the gangs were demanding.
“You see, this is not a rumor. I am in Téléco,” a gang member who goes by the name of Didi says in the video. “If I don’t receive any calls from you guys, I’m going to get my clan to come burn the whole system now, and there won’t be any communications.”
In another video, one gang member is seen apparently switching off multiple buttons on a large server and using a screwdriver to disassemble another server as the room he’s in stops humming. He later stacks several motherboards outside and films them as he says, “I’m taking everything.”
Two days after the takeover, Haiti’s civil aviation agency condemned the action but noted that it only caused minor disruptions since it was able to implement certain measures to circumvent the crisis.
The attack was blamed on Viv Ansanm, a powerful gang federation that struck other key government infrastructure last year and was designated as a foreign terror organization by the U.S. earlier this year. Early last year, gunmen forced Haiti’s main international airport to close for nearly three months and raided the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing some 4,000 inmates.
In the video where gunmen raided Téléco last week, Didi called on the government to hand out bullets to police so they could come and go after gang members.
Godfrey Otunge, the Kenyan commander of the multinational force in Haiti, was present at Tuesday’s news conference but spoke only briefly.
“Be patient; you will see results,” he said as the police spokesperson promised similar raids in other gang-controlled areas.
Téléco is located in the same community as an orphanage that gangs raided earlier this month. They kidnapped eight people, including an Irish missionary and a 3-year-old child, who remain missing.
Gangs are estimated to control about 90% of Port-au-Prince, and they have repeatedly attacked Kenscoff this year to try and take over the area.
Experts say they are concerned about a recent video posted on social media in which Jimmy Chérizier, best known as Barbecue and one of the leaders of Viv Ansanm, is seen having a friendly chat with Kempes Sanon, who used to be one of his fiercest rivals.
Sanon is the leader of Haut Belair/Les Argentins, an armed group that was a member of G- Pèp, a gang federation that used to clash heavily with Chérizier’s G9 coalition.
“It was a bit unusual,” Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said of the video, noting it’s the first time Sanon publicly shows his face in that manner.
Both Chérizier and Sanon used to be police officers, and experts wonder what the apparent new friendship might bode for Haiti.
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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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