geoff: The un security council
expressed what it called deep
concern over the security and
humanitarian crises in Haiti.
The caribbean nation is in
freefall, without effective
governance or protection from
gangs that routinely terrorize
innocent civilians.
That has left people reeling
from the violence, and others
hopeless, determined to leave.
Special correspondent Marcia
Biggs reports from the capital
of Haiti, port-au-prince.
>> It is a scene of utter chaos.
This passport office overrun
with patients desperate to make
it to the United States.
Demands for new passports have
reportedly gone from 1500 a day
to more than 5000.
Since the launch of a U.S. Visa
program that the Biden
administration is calling
humanitarian parole.
You need a valid passport just
to begin that application
process.
20-year-old Ange Marie has been
camped out there waiting her
turn for three weeks. She says
she doesn't want to betray her
country, but she cannot stay.
>> Every day, the gang territory
is expanding.
They take some more everyday, we
can't live like that.
Marcia: Can you tell me where
you are sleeping?
>> Right in front of me there.
Marcia: Is it scary to be
sleeping here at night?
>> Yes.
I'm afraid to sleep here because
there is gunfire, and you don't
know where it is from.
You never know when you are
going to be the victim.
Marcia: Victim to a wave of gang
violence that has Haiti gripped
with terror.
Hundreds of thousands have fled
and now remaining residents are
taking matters into their own
hands.
Two weeks ago, an angry mob beat
and then burned alive more than
a dozen suspected gang members.
It's fear and frustration born
of a long running economic and
humanitarian crisis that
worsened in July 2021 when
president jovenel Moise was
assassinated.
Interim prime minister Ariel
Henry didn't keep his promise to
hold elections, and Haitian
politics have since then fallen
apart.
Now criminal gangs have
flourished, where official
authorities no longer govern.
Port au prince is a city held
hostage by gangs.
We were just talking to some
people here on the street and
the minute the cameras came out,
they were terrified to speak.
But for women, the weapon of
retribution is often rape.
The U.N. Estimates almost one
third of women and girls in
Haiti have been the victims of
sexual abuse or violence.
20-year-old sousphanie has been
on her own since her mother died
last August.
Her only family is her son, 17th
month-old Ainslie.
His father is a man she had been
involved with since she was
12 years old.
But she says she never knew he
was in a gang.
We have hidden her face for her
own safety.
>> The owner of the house where
I rented a room told me that he
didn't like when those type of
people come to his house.
At that time, I didn't believe
him 100%.
It's later when I went to sell
downtown and I saw him with a
bunch of guys with machine guns,
that is when I finally totally
believed it.
That he was in a gang.
That night I told him not to
ever come back.
Marcia: But he did come back,
with six of his friends.
>> The minute they came in the
house, they started beating me
up.
Some beat me with a wooden
board, some beat me with a gun
and some beat me with electrical
wires.
They asked me how come I
wouldn't get back together with
him, where did I get that
rebellious spirit?
Then, they raped me.
When they finished doing what
they were doing, they threw the
baby at me and pushed me
outside.
Marcia: They through your baby
at you?
Was the baby hurt, was the baby
crying?
>> Yes, he was crying.
And his leg was injured.
Marcia: What's going through
your mind right now?
>> Every time I tell this story,
it's like, if I felt it again.
It's like I relieved it again.
That is what is in my head right
now.
Marcia: I'm so sorry.
>> I was ashamed.
I didn't feel like a human being
anymore.
I didn't want to go out.
Even people who didn't knew what
I had endured, I couldn't look
them into their eyes.
Marcia: For three months, she
was homeless.
She says if it were not for her
son, she would have killed
herself.
But then recently, a beacon of
hope.
A local women's shelter unites
her with other victims and a
psychologist, which she says has
helped with the shame.
But she still worries that
Ainslie's father and his friends
will come looking for her again.
Can you go to the police?
Is there anything that you can
do to feel safer?
>> I didn't go to the police
because the policemen cannot
protect themselves, so they
cannot protect me.
>> This is where we are right
now.
The police are no match for the
gangs. [00:03:45][5.6]
Marcia: Garry pierre-pierre is
the founder of the Haitian
times, an english-language
publication that covers the
island nation.
>> About 30% to 40% of the
police force, either
sympathizers or outright members
of these gangs. [00:04:07][9.0]
-- Of these gangs.
The police missions have become
suicide missions because the
gangs are waiting and lying in
wait for them.
Marcia: The U.N. Has called for
the deployment of an
international force but the
problem runs much deeper, Pierre
Pierre says.
>> What happens next?
How do you integrate the gang
members into civil society and
get them to jobs and really
dismantle the gangs?
Because at the end of the day,
it's a socio economic problem
that we have that's creating
this.
Marcia: In the meantime,
residents living in areas of
intense fighting are all but
abandoned.
It's just too risky to go in and
out.
Including for us.
But we were able to make the
trip with Jose Ulysse.
Who manages a hospital in one of
those neighborhoods.
We are on our way to the
Fontaine hospital which is the
last remaining, last standing
hospital in cite soleil one of
the most violent areas in all of
port-au-prince.
We are here with a fully armored
vehicle because we have to cross
several frontlines to get there.
We held our breath on this last
part of the journey as just down
that road lies what's called the
deaf crossroads.
But once we reached the
hospital, an oasis of sorts from
the fear.
Mothers bring their babies for
vaccinations and hospital staff
does everything from teaching
vocational skills to treating
gunshot wounds.
Jose says he has been able to
stay open because the majority
of the staff are from the
community.
And because they keep no records
or alert police when they treat
injuries of gang violence.
>> We don't need to know where
you come from, why you are here.
No.
We don't have questions.
No questions asked.
You have a bullet in your leg,
we remove it, we give you
medicine, then go away.
Marcia: Today there are no
gunshot victims, but rather the
daily medical procedures vital
in any community.
This woman is having a
c-section.
Anxious relatives wait in the
hallway for their loved ones.
>> Where would you go if this
hospital didn't exist?
>> We would perish.
We would die because it's the
only hospital that is left.
Cite soleil is now an area that
is abandoned.
You walk in the street, you are
afraid. You get to your home,
you are afraid.
Everywhere, we are afraid.
We don't live in peace.
Marcia: But the hospital is a
safe haven for even the tiniest
patients.
Haiti has the highest infant
mortality rate of any country in
the western hemisphere.
Babies are often born at home or
in the street because a trip to
the hospital just is not safe.
Like this baby, she was born
last night, delivered at home
with an infected umbilical cord,
which untreated, could lead to
sepsis and then death.
Her mother, 17-year-old
rose-bianca got her to the
hospital, even though she says
she is scared even to walk in
the streets.
>> I am really afraid because of
how things are right now.
Bullets flying in the air from
everywhere, and you can't know
exactly where it came from.
I have to take the street with
lots of caution nowadays.
Marcia: Are you scared for the
baby?
>> Yes, I am scared for her a
lot.
Marcia: At our final stop in the
hospital, we walked into a room
full of little ones. Sick and
malnourished when they arrived,
most were abandoned when their
parents were killed or could no
longer care for them.
Now thriving, we asked how long
they could stay.
They can stay forever, we are
told.
They are home.
As we left the hospital, we
noticed rose Bianca cradling her
baby girl less than 24 hours
old.
She had been discharged and was
negotiating for a ride home on a
motorbike.
Carefully, she and her sister
climb on the back and ride off
with her newborn baby into an
unknown future.
For the pbs newshour, I am
Marcia Biggs in port au prince.
Haiti.
♪♪