Almost five years ago, on June 7, 2021, I brought to your attention a powerful book (Les Villages de Dieu by Emmelie Prophète) about Haiti’s real political situation, in which I urged those interested in its fate to focus on the gangs proliferating in Port-au-Prince in order to understand the desolation sweeping the country for several decades.

For many of you, it was the first time you discovered these murderers in action, even within their intimacy. We learned that the neighborhoods from which these monsters emerged were in no way different from nearby districts where populations more concerned with public peace resided. At the heart of the violence, one encountered mothers working tirelessly, grandmothers going to Mass, students killed in uniform, and gang leaders high on drugs.