^{Haiti! 2026} Seven arrested in Citadelle stampede reportedly triggered by tear gas, officials say, Drame à la Citadelle Laferrière : une tragédie humaine majeure secoue le Cap-Haïtien, John Joël Joseph temwaye nan tribinal jodi a ke li te rankontre ak inite kòmandò Kolonbyen an lakay Rodolphe Jaar nan dat 6 jiyè 2021, At least 70 dead in Haiti’s Artibonite armed gang attack, Central Haitian town descends into fire and bloodshed from gang warfare, Police in Haiti arrest lawmaker Arnel Belizaire who faces charges including terror financing, La violence s’intensifie en périphérie de la capitale, Violents affrontements au centre-ville : la PNH et la Task-Force poursuivent leur offensive contre les gangs, Glimmers of life appear after Haiti retakes control of a key area from powerful gangs, Trial opens in Miami for 4 men charged in Haitian President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination, Widow of Haiti president describes his killing at US trial of four charged with conspiracy, US deports 136 Haitians including TPS and Green Card holders with their children, Ka Jak: au moins sept morts par balle, des blessés et des habitations incendiées, 19-Year-Old University Student Neïssa Tima Found Dead in Pétion-Ville, Fire ravages Cap-Haitien’s Cluny Market vendors reeling in despair, US Marshals search for Brockton double murder suspect believed to have ties to Haiti, Haitian police begin 2026 with multiple offensives against gangs

Police arrest five Milot town hall security agents and two heritage preservation employees in ongoing investigation

Overview:
Multiple Milot residents and the former director ISPAN, Haiti’s historical preservation agency, said the use of tear gas led to the crowd surge that left at least 25 people dead at Citadelle Laferrière on April 11.

MILOT, Haiti — The death of 25 people at Citadelle Laferrière occurred after police officers or town hall security agents allegedly threw tear gas to disperse visitors leading to a crowd surge at the UNESCO site on April 11, Safeguarding National Heritage (ISPAN) former director and residents in Milot told The Haitian Times.

The incident began when town hall security agents went to the Citadelle to retrieve money collected from visitors’ entry fees, according to Jean-Hérold Pérard, the site’s engineer and former ISPAN director. Visitors pay 250 gourdes, about $2, to enter. With roughly 3,000 visitors present that day, the site reportedly generated about $6,000.

Pérard said agents closed one of the Citadelle’s two entrances to safely collect the money. As rain began to fall, people outside tried to force their way in around 4:00 p.m. Gunshots were fired in the air, and tear gas was used to disperse the crowd. While it remains unclear who deployed the tear gas, many residents blamed Departmental Unit for Maintaining Order (UDMO) police officers.

“People were pushing each other and some died of asphyxiation especially after they threw tear gas,” Pérard said during an April 13 interview with The Haitian Times recounting witnesses’ accounts.

Police have arrested five town hall security agents and two ISPAN employees as part of the investigation into the Citadelle Laferrière tragedy, according to an April 13 note from Haitian National Police (PNH). The town hall security agents were identified as Jhon ‘Misyon’ Coxllee, Genovè Octavien, Altidor Arly, Louis Max Andy and Césaire Wilner Billy. Meanwhile the two ISPAN employees are Wilfrid César and Valmyr Tchelin.

The northern police force and the town hall have yet to answer The Haitian Times’ messages or return phone calls seeking an interview for this article.

Milot’s mayor on a hot seat
In addition to police and town hall security agents, some residents blamed Milot’s mayor, Wesner Joseph, including Pérard, who criticized the town hall’s handling of entry fees.

“Milot’s town hall has the right to do that [collect Citadelle’s entry fee] but this isn’t normal,” Pérard said.

“They [Milot’s Town Hall] think Citadelle is a place where they can make their money and do nonsense,” he added.

Pérard has worked at the Citadelle since 1980 and served as ISPAN’s director from 1995 to 2006.

The mayor of Saint-Raphaël also criticized Milot’s town hall for authorizing Citadelle Vibe 3.0, a yearly event held at the site. Schools had also organized trips there on April 11.

“They should never have allowed this activity. It’s the city hall that killed my family members,” Saint-Raphaël’s Mayor Gelin Robert Junior told the Unissons Nous news outlet. “It bears primary responsibility for this tragedy… There must be consequences.”

However, Joseph told Altidor Le Capois TV the town hall was unaware of the event and noted there were too few law enforcement officers present to ensure safety. He reported that about 20 police officers and 10 town hall security guards were on site.

“The judge of peace should command the police to start an investigation so we can know what caused this and who was behind it, who were the accomplices,” Joseph said.

Built in 1820 by King Henri Christophe, the Citadelle is one of Haiti’s most cherished historical landmarks. Located atop a hill 900 meters above sea level, it attracts both locals and tourists daily. Schools often organize visits, and April is a peak period due to the site’s anniversary on April 12.

“People were pushing each other and some died of asphyxiation especially after they threw tear gas.”

Jean-Hérold Pérard, former ISPAN director
Residents said the crowd on April 11 was unusually large, with visitors arriving as early as 4:00 a.m. Some people were already leaving earlier in the day due to breathing difficulties caused by overcrowding.

Community left devastated
The Citadelle is a major source of income for Milot residents. Many work as guides, motorcycle drivers and horse riders at the site. The tragedy has left the community grieving and shaken.

“I never slept last night because I was thinking so hard about how this happened,” Francisque Almonord said as he stood in Citadelle’s parking lot on April 12. “We don’t receive enough help as an area with a touristic site. We don’t even have a nurse’s office here. Maybe if there were even two nurses here not so many people would have died.”

“They need to rethink stuff,” Almonord, 54 ,added. “This is a tourist site, they’re making money from it. We need better services.”

After the incident, some accidents occurred as vehicles descended the wet and slippery hill. One gray minivan flipped over.

The following morning, residents carried bodies wrapped in white sheets down the hill. Families mourned as they accompanied their loved ones.

“Why is there blood on him?” one woman said while weeping. “Was my brother hurt?”

Residents now worry the tragedy will discourage tourism, further hurting their livelihoods. Visitor numbers had already declined due to gang violence in Port-au-Prince.

“So many people lost their lives I’ve never seen anything like this,” Joseph Agenord, a former tour guide who lives on the hill that leads to the Citadelle, said. “Good thing I have wood, I’m just going to keep making charcoal to take care of my children.”

MIAMI (AP) — The widow of Jovenel Moïse — Haiti’s last elected president — described being shot and wounded during the 2021 assassination of her husband while testifying Wednesday in the U.S. federal trial of four men charged with conspiracy in the case.

Martine Moïse returned to the stand in a Miami courtroom after testifying for about an hour the day before. She had been the prosecution’s first witness, following opening statements by attorneys on Tuesday.

Jovenel Moïse was killed in the early morning hours of July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries — mostly from Colombia — attacked his home near Port-au-Prince, officials said.

Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages are charged in Miami federal court with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti’s former leader. Jovenel Moïse’s assassination led to unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation, where gang leaders have grown increasingly violent and empowered.

Testifying Wednesday, Martine Moïse described through a Creole interpreter how she went to bed around 10 p.m. the night before the attack and awoke to the sounds of gunfire about three hours later. She said she turned to her husband in bed next to her to ask what was going on.

“Honey, we are dead,” Jovenel Moïse said, according to his wife’s testimony.

Martine Moïse said gunfire continued as she crawled downstairs to check on her two adult children. She said she then returned to her and her husband’s bedroom, where she and Jovenel Moïse got on the floor on either side of the bed and used it as protection from gunfire.

Men eventually burst into the room and opened fire with what sounded like an automatic weapon, Martine Moïse said. She was struck several times. She said she heard men speaking in Spanish before someone shot Jovenel Moïse multiple times, killing him.

After the attackers cleared out, Martine Moïse said she expected to find the dead bodies of the 30 to 50 security officers assigned to protect the house, but there were none. She said she later learned that they were paid to leave their posts.

Moïse was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and then flown to a Miami hospital for surgery. She testified that her right arm remains disabled and she still has pain.

Defense attorneys asked if Moïse was aware that she was under investigation in Haiti in connection to her husband’s death. She said the people behind her husband’s killing are now in power and that she has fled the country for her own safety. She said she has offered to answer questions remotely, but that the people who killed her husband want her to return to Haiti so they can also kill her. Moïse was previously indicted in the case, but the charge was later annulled.

The defense also asked Moïse about inconsistencies between her testimony and earlier interviews with the FBI. She insisted that her current statements were correct and couldn’t explain discrepancies in FBI reports.

Attorneys for the four men on trial have argued that the investigation initiated in Haiti was a mess and that their clients were manipulated into taking the blame for an internal coup.

According to prosecutors, South Florida was a central location for planning and financing the plot to oust Moïse and replace him with someone the conspirators chose.

All four defendants face possible life sentences and have pleaded not guilty.

Ortiz and Intriago were principals of Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, collectively known as CTU, and Veintemilla was a principal of Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies were based in South Florida.

Solages was a CTU representative in Haiti who investigators say coordinated with others, including Christian Sanon, a dual Haitian-U.S. citizen whom the conspirators initially favored to replace Moïse.

Defense attorneys have said the group was working with FBI agents, U.S. Embassy officials and members of the Haitian government in what they believed was the lawful arrest of a criminal president. The defense has pointed to Joseph Félix Badio, a former Haitian government worker who was arrested in Haiti in 2023, as the mastermind behind a plan to use the president’s arrest to assassinate Moïse.

U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra has blocked out more than two months for the trial.

Five others previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the U.S. and are serving life sentences. A sixth person was sentenced to nine years behind bars after pleading guilty to providing body armor to the conspirators. Sanon’s trial will be scheduled later.

Seventeen Colombian soldiers and three Haitian officials face charges in Haiti. Gang violence, death threats and a crumbling judicial system have stalled the investigation.

MIAMI (AP) — Greed, arrogance and power were the driving forces behind four men charged in the U.S. for the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s last elected president, Jovenel Moïse, prosecutors said Tuesday during opening statements.

Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys began presenting opening statements in the trial in Miami for Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages. They are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti’s former leader. Moïse’s assassination led to unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation, where gang leaders have grown increasingly violent and empowered.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin told the jury that the case against the four men wasn’t complicated: They wanted to seize power and get rich.

“So arrogant and confident in themselves, the evidence will show, and thinking so little of the Republic of Haiti and its people, they actually thought they could pull it off,” McLaughlin said.

Defense attorneys argued that the investigation initiated in Haiti was a mess and that their clients were manipulated into taking the blame for an internal coup.

“Once you get off on the wrong foot, everything that comes after is hard to trust,” Ortiz’s attorney Orlando do Campo said.

Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries — mostly from Colombia — attacked his home near Port-au-Prince, officials said. According to court documents, South Florida was a central location for planning and financing the plot to oust Moïse and replace him with someone the conspirators chose.

All four defendants face possible life sentences and have pleaded not guilty.

Ortiz and Intriago were principals of Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, collectively known as CTU, and Veintemilla was a principal of Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies were based in South Florida.

Solages was a CTU representative in Haiti who investigators say coordinated with others, including Christian Sanon, a dual Haitian-U.S. citizen whom the conspirators initially favored to replace Moïse.

The conspirators met in South Florida in April 2021 and agreed that, once in power, Sanon would award contracts to CTU for infrastructure projects, security forces and military equipment, investigators said. Worldwide Capital agreed to help finance the coup, extending a $175,000 line of credit to CTU and sending money to co-conspirators in Haiti to purchase ammunition, officials said.

CTU initially retained about 20 Colombian nationals with military training to provide security for Sanon. Conspirators also spent months obtaining weapons and body armor and attempting to build relationships with Haitian gangs, officials said.

By June 2021, the conspirators realized Sanon had neither the constitutional qualifications nor sufficient popular support to become president. They then backed Wendelle Coq Thélot, a former Haitian Superior Court judge. She died in January 2025 while still a fugitive.

Defense attorneys told jurors that Sanon approached their clients in early 2021 with plans to liberate Haiti from Moïse, who had overstayed his term as president and faced criticism from Haitian citizens, U.S. politicians and United Nations officials.

Emmanuel Perez, an attorney for Intriago, said the group was working with FBI agents, U.S. Embassy officials and members of the Haitian government in what they believed was the lawful arrest of a criminal president.

The defense has pointed to Joseph Félix Badio, a former Haitian government worker who was arrested in Haiti in 2023, as the mastermind behind a plan to use the president’s arrest to assassinate Moïse. Defense attorneys claim Moïse had already been killed by men dressed as Haitian police officers when the Colombian security force arrived to arrest him.

The group had a real arrest warrant signed by a judge, Solages’ attorney Jonathan Friedman said. The judge later claimed the warrant was signed under duress.

“None of the people here on trial knew that,” Friedman said.

Marissel Descalzo, an attorney for Veintemilla, reserved the right to present her opening after the government makes its case.

After openings, prosecutors called their first witness, Moïse’s widow. Martine Moïse, who was wounded during the attack, testified for about an hour before court recessed for the day. She’s set to return Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra has blocked out more than two months for the trial.

Five others previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the U.S. and are serving life sentences. A sixth person was sentenced to nine years behind bars after pleading guilty to providing body armor to the conspirators. Sanon’s trial will be scheduled later.

Seventeen Colombian soldiers and three Haitian officials face charges in Haiti. Gang violence, death threats and a crumbling judicial system have stalled the investigation.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — As the sun rose, a handful of women opened tattered beach umbrellas in the heart of Port-au-Prince and scanned the horizon before opening their fruit and vegetable stands.

It was unusually quiet in Carrefour Aéroport, a famed intersection in Haiti’s capital that once bustled with traffic and commerce until hundreds of gang members stormed the area in early March 2024 in an unprecedented wave of violence.

They smashed businesses, killed civilians and set fire to a police substation as officers fled.

For nearly two years after the attack, gangs drained the life out of Carrefour Aéroport.

Then in December, Haitian police officers launched a sustained attack against powerful gangs to drive them out of the area with the help of a private security firm and Kenyan police officers leading a U.N.-backed mission that is winding down.

The retaking of Carrefour Aéroport is “probably one of the very first tangible messages sent by the authorities that, ‘yes, we can take back the territory of … no man’s land,’” said Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

It’s a hint of what could happen elsewhere in Port-au-Prince after a powerful gang federation known as Viv Ansanm began raiding neighborhoods and targeting key government infrastructure in February 2024 in a series of attacks that forced the closure of the country’s main international airport and eventually led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

“It is a sign of hope,” Le Cour said. “It sends the message that this is doable.”

A glimmer of life
On Feb. 7, Haitian authorities reopened a renovated police substation in Carrefour Aéroport to much fanfare in a capital that is 90% controlled by gangs.

Curious onlookers watched and one of them clapped as heavily guarded police officers entered their restored building nearly two years after gangs had torched it.

“Life is timidly returning to normal,” Jacques Ader, a police commissioner, told reporters.

Since the reopening, street vendors and the drivers of colorful buses, known as tap taps, have reinserted themselves in the area.

“Small businesses are recovering,” said Jean-Remy Laveau, a 35-year-old motorcycle taxi driver who used to work in the area before gangs seized control.

“It will be good for me, more activities, more money more work. I’ll be able to better feed my two kids and my wife,” he said.

Also eager for work was Mario Volcy, a 44-year-old tap tap driver who on a recent morning pointed out the vans and big buses circulating in the area for the first time since early 2024.

He called on the government to prosecute those who unleashed the violence and help those affected by it.

“All victims should receive support from the state,” he said as he cut the interview short, noting with a smile that his tap tap was full. “I have to go now!”

And off he went, with a Bible on his dashboard and his tap tap emblazoned with “God is my guide” on its side.

Frustrations simmer
Not all are celebrating the revival of Carrefour Aéroport.

Gaspar Caseus, 49, said he remains frustrated because gangs still control the main highway leading to southern Haiti. He called on authorities to retake control of other major intersections.

“I need to be able to move south,” he said. “That is where I pick up coal to bring back to the city for sale.”

“Things changed after the attack,” he added. “It destroyed my life. It forced my family to move. I look like a beggar. I was able to eat whenever I felt like it. Now, I eat only if something comes around or a good friend remembers me.”

Caseus said he heard on the radio that more help was arriving in April. That’s when a so-called gang-suppression force is expected to take the reins of the current U.N.-backed mission that is winding down after a lack of funds and personnel.

“As long as I am alive,” he said, “someday, things will change for the better.”

‘What’s the plan?’
On a recent morning, 32-year-old Antoinette Desulmon donned a big hat to block out the sun and laid out mangoes, oranges, tomatoes and peppers in the hope that someone at Carrefour Aéroport would buy from her that day.

She noted police were on patrol in an armored vehicle and the substation had reopened, but she was afraid the peace was fleeting.

“Fear is with me every second,” she said. “I am here selling, but my head is somewhere else.”

Desulmon’s partner went missing two years ago; she believes he was a victim of gang violence.

“I miss him a lot,” she said, adding that she is also concerned about her two children who are living in a makeshift shelter with a cousin, among the 1.4 million Haitians displaced by gang violence.

Desulmon said she had no other choice but to resume selling vegetables and fruit to feed her two children and cousin.

“My heart is broken,” she said. “The depression is real.”

Around her, nothing has been rebuilt except for the police station. Dozens of charred homes remain in ruins while businesses and schools are still shuttered.

Le Cour, the Haiti expert, said it will likely take time before Carrefour Aéroport is restored to its bustling glory of street vendors, stores selling car parts and restaurants offering coffee to morning commuters and a local soup known as bouillon for lunch.

He said he was hopeful that the incoming gang-suppression force would retake control of even more territory.

But even if it does, big concerns remain.

“We’re missing the other side of the equation, which is, what do you do with gang members? What’s the plan for the day after you retake the territory?” Le Cour questioned. “Are you able to rebuild the territory? Are you able to bring people back in?”