Death Count in Haiti’s Prisons Grows

The structural crisis in Haiti, which deepened with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last year by Colombian mercenaries hired by a Florida-based company, is also reflected in the prisons.

In addition to the famine, the hoarding of humanitarian aid by wealthy families and the dominance of criminal gangs have caused the detention centers in the Caribbean country to become hotbeds of infection and death. Recently in the civil prison of Petit-Goâve, four more deaths were recorded, and the number of deaths is expected to increase due to other inmates being in critical conditions.

Local media reported that the cause of death is the poor conditions of the detention centers and the little or no assistance given to inmates in crisis. The judicial opinion of the corpses was carried out by a justice of the peace, and a mass grave was dug in the city cemetery by order of the relevant authorities.

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Already by the middle of this year, some eight prisoners had died of hunger in the Les Cayes prison after the center ran out of food. These deaths were added onto others who had died under the same circumstances: hunger, lack of water, and high heat contribute to the proliferation of diseases. UN agencies in the first months of the year already counted more than 50 deaths in prisons.

Haiti’s prison system houses a population that exceeds its capacity. The lack of food and medicine and procedural delay aggravate the situation. The cause of this evil is found in the history of the country, marked by looting and Western tutelage, especially from the United States.

Haitian prisons have been “reformed and financed” by the United States, Canada, France, and the United Nations during the 14-year military occupation after the 2004 coup. Now, according to the Haitians themselves, they have become “death camps.”

(Misión Verdad)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/KZ/KW