On October 17, as every year, the country will commemorate the assassination of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the father of the nation. The agenda of the current authorities for the event is still unknown. However, it is clear that they will not be going to Pont Rouge to lay wreaths, as they have done in recent years. The reason is well-known: gangs have fragmented the country and now control Pont Rouge.

In addition to longstanding barriers like illiteracy, hunger, unemployment, and lack of access to basic social services like electricity and clean water, armed gangs now divide one region from another, one neighborhood from the next. Traveling across the territory has become a challenge, highlighting that Haiti has ceased to function as a unified republic.