Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Eugene

(64,542 posts)
Sun Apr 20, 2025, 09:01 AM Sunday

U.S. to designate Haiti gangs as foreign terrorists, opening way to use Salvador prison

Source: Miami Herald

U.S. to designate Haiti gangs as foreign terrorists, opening way to use Salvador prison

Jacqueline Charles
Fri, April 18, 2025 at 12:26 PM EDT·8 min read

Haitian gangs and individuals financing and arming them could soon find themselves labeled as “terrorists” and imprisoned in El Salvador’s notorious maximum-security prison, the same facility the Trump administration has been sending alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, the Miami Herald has learned.

The U.S. State Department, which earlier this year designated the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and seven other criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations, is working on issuing the same designation, or a less severe category —“specially designated global terrorist”— to leaders and members of Haiti’s powerful Viv Ansanm gang coalition, and the Gran Grif armed group operating in the country’s rural Artibonite region..

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spent a significant amount of time speaking with Caribbean leaders about Haiti’s deepening instability during a visit last month to Jamaica, believes that the ongoing violence, which has left 1 million Haitians one step away from famine and more than a million internally displaced, is both a threat to regional security and U.S. interests. The terrorist designation would extend U.S. jurisdiction to anyone assisting the gangs, from gun and ammunition traffickers to government officials in Haiti financing the groups. Anyone found guilty of assisting the gangs would be regarded as “terrorists” and face harsher penalties, including counter-terrorism sanctions.

“For too long the enablers of Haiti’s brutal gangs, in the U.S., Colombia and elsewhere have gotten away with impunity, but they will now be faced with the criminal consequences of providing material support to terrorism,” a senior State Department official told the Herald. “This includes scenarios where Haitian gang leaders and members could end up at CECOT, alongside fellow designated terrorists from MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.”

-snip-

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/news/u-designate-haiti-gangs-foreign-162640878.html

6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

Walleye

(39,776 posts)
1. There have been no attacks on the United States by these gangs or people.
Sun Apr 20, 2025, 09:04 AM
Sunday

The only gangs that have attacked our government or the proud boys and so forth. They don’t even know what terrorism is I think. When I say they, I mean the followers.

sop

(13,815 posts)
4. Now they'll start disappearing Haitian "terrorist gang members" from Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.
Sun Apr 20, 2025, 09:12 AM
Sunday

Estimates are 60% of the 6000 taxi drivers in Miami are Haitian. Good luck finding a taxi at Miami Imternational Airport.

https://haitiantimes.com/2020/11/18/daniella-levine-cava-miami-dades-new-mayor-promises-to-keep-standing-by-haitians/

NCDem47

(2,784 posts)
5. That list to go to El Salvador will creep to include more and more people of color and other "terrorists"
Sun Apr 20, 2025, 09:27 AM
Sunday

Amazing how Russian mobsters here in the U.S. evade all of this I'm sure.

Latest Discussions»Region Forums»Latin America»U.S. to designate Haiti g...