In Port-au-Prince and its surroundings, it is war. War in all its horrors—its vileness, its human and material losses, its tragedies for the civilian population, systematically attacked and brutalized by the armed gangs of Viv Ansanm.

Harassed, residents of certain neighborhoods, such as Canapé-Vert, retreat behind barricades, organizing their own means of defense. Others, like those in Christ-Roi or Delmas 32, flee in the face of the gangs' advance.