Haiti: a new director for the national police
Members of the Haitian police in Port-au-Prince, January 5, 2017 (illustrative image).
HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Plagued by insecurity, Haiti has a new director for its national police.
President Jovenel Moïse made this change at the head of the police force while the country is experiencing an upsurge in kidnappings for ransom, especially in the capital Port-au-Prince.
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With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince
,
Amélie Baron
The massacres in working-class neighborhoods, kidnappings, shootings which paralyze all daytime activity in places: civil society organizations have been denouncing the worsening security situation for months.
By changing the director of the national police, the authorities want to show that they are acting, as Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe testified: "
Being fully aware at government level of the seriousness of the security situation, we cannot project still a long time this lethargic image of having folded arms and delivering the country to bandits without faith nor law, to psychopaths.
"
Léon Charles, the new director of the PNH, had already occupied this post between March 2004 and June 2005, a period of crisis following the ouster from power of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Faced with the impunity that gangs enjoy today, he has a lot to do to re-motivate the police and eliminate lawless areas.
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To read also: Haiti: hundreds of policewomen and national police officers again in the street
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