77 officers in the second, and final, group of Guatemalan security forces sent to Haiti arrive on the tarmac of Toussaint Louverture airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 4, 2025. Agence France-Presse
PORT-AU-PRINCE — More than 75 Guatemalan soldiers arrived in Port-au-Prince on Saturday to help Haiti’s overwhelmed police force curb gang violence, one day after a first contingent, bringing their number to more than 150, AFP journalists observed.
The Latin American troops join the Kenyan-led multinational force that began deploying last June. So far, there are 400 officers — most of them Kenyan, but also some from Jamaica, Belize and El Salvador — on site, out of an expected 2,500.
The force is under-equipped as it attempts to stamp out Haiti’s powerful, well-armed gangs, who have been accused of murder, rape, and kidnappings for ransom.
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The United Nations estimates that the gangs control about 85 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince, and gang violence has not abated in the crisis-wracked Caribbean country since the multinational force arrived.
Attacks by armed groups have been escalating in multiple areas of the capital for more than a month.
Two journalists and a policeman were killed at the December 24 reopening of a hospital in Port-au-Prince in a gang attack.
In early December, more than 200 people were killed after an apparent order by a gang leader to target voodoo practitioners, according to the United Nations.
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The month before, gunfire prompted the closing of the airport in the capital to commercial traffic.
Authorities in Haiti’s transitional government have called on the UN to transform the Kenyan-led force into a full-fledged peacekeeping mission.
The request, conveyed by the United States, has run into opposition from China and Russia, which have veto power in the UN Security Council.