Important Takeaways:
- Haiti orders curfew after gangs overrun its two largest prisons, free thousands of inmates
- Authorities in Haiti have ordered a nighttime curfew after an explosion of violence in which gang gunmen overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend.
- A 72-hour state of emergency began Sunday night. The government said it would set out to find the killers, kidnappers and other criminals who fled.
- “The police were ordered to use all legal means at their disposal to enforce the curfew and apprehend all offenders,” said a statement from Finance Minister Patrick Boivert, the acting prime minister.
- Gangs already were estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince, the capital. They are increasingly coordinating their actions and choosing once unthinkable targets like the Central Bank.
- Haiti’s National Police has roughly 9,000 officers to provide security for more than 11 million people, according to the U.N. They are routinely overwhelmed and outgunned
- But the attack on the National Penitentiary late Saturday shocked Haitians who are accustomed to living under the constant threat of violence.
- Almost all of the estimated 4,000 inmates escaped.
- A second Port-au-Prince prison containing around 1,400 inmates was also overrun.
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