In its battle against the gangs that have plunged the country into chaos, Haiti has turned to American security contractors—including the founder of the notorious Blackwater Worldwide. The New York Times, citing security experts and Haitian and American government sources, reports that Erik Prince is among the contractors hired for a task force to kill gang leaders with drones. The sources say Prince has also shipped a large cache of weapons to Haiti and has been searching for Haitian American military veterans to send to the country, with around 150 mercenaries expected to arrive this summer.
American officials say Prince, a former Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater in 1997, isn't getting any money from the US government, and it's not clear how much Haiti is paying him. A Prince spokesman confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that he has met with Haitian leaders to discuss security and the delivery of essential goods. Human rights groups say the Haitian government, which only controls around a tenth of the capital, Port-au-Prince, has been using drones strapped with explosives to strike gangs for months, the Journal reports. The groups say hundreds of people have been killed, but no gang leaders were among them.
Haitian American veteran Rod Joseph, who runs a security officer training company in Florida, says Prince has asked him for a list of veterans who could be sent to Haiti, but he wants to know more about the mission first. Joseph tells the Times that Prince also plans to deploy private soldiers from El Salvador. He says he's concerned about private US military contractors working directly with Haiti's government, with no US oversight. "We should be very worried, because if he's from the US government, at least he can have the semblance of having to answer to Congress," Joseph tells the Times. "If it's him, his contract, he doesn't owe anybody an explanation." (More Haiti stories.)
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