Vitel’homme Innocent’s photo on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list suggests a mad man – eyes wide and wild, teeth gritted. It’s the image you’d expect from a gang leader accused of destabilizing a nation, who claims to be under divine protection and who has a $2 million bounty on his head for alleged kidnappings.
In person, he projects a different image, at least to guests. Powerful, certainly, surrounded by armed acolytes who jump at a glance, but also very attentive, with a cooler full of sandwiches for his visitors and a tendency to be philosophical in his conversations.
After weeks of negotiations, CNN entered the Haitian gangland earlier this month to speak with Innocent, whose armed group Kraze Baryé is among the allied armed groups that have plunged Haiti into a crisis of anarchy. He is an influential voice among the country’s gang leaders, and he believes peace must be restored. But under what conditions?
Last week, outside the Tabarre neighborhood of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, a truck drove us through a maze of winding dirt roads, past checkpoints manned by armed guards wearing balaclavas and Halloween masks. We passed through what was once an affluent neighborhood; pink bougainvillea still overflowed the high walls and a lush green football pitch opened onto splendid views of the city below.
After about 45 minutes, a gold car stopped in front. Innocent got out. He was thin and seemingly unarmed, dressed in a brightly striped batik suit and soft moccasins, with a tangle of gold chains and a cross draped around his neck. He took us into a rococo mansion, where gold velvet chairs and sofas, crystal in display cases, and plastic flower arrangements evoked the former owners.
We sat, removing teddy bears from the seats to make room, and talked about the future.
“The Haiti we knew, the pearl of the Antilles in which we grew up, could yet become the most beautiful again,” said Innocent, speaking softly in Haitian Creole. “One day, someone could sit at the Champ de Mars and eat ice cream.
Today, the capital’s iconic park, the Champ de Mars, is a war zone between gangs and the police. After years of political unrest, institutional neglect and a series of brutal natural disasters, Haiti’s misfortune was pushed to a head last month with an unprecedented wave of gang violence, which led to the closure from Port-au-Prince.
read more on: Gangs forced out Haiti’s government. This FBI ‘Most Wanted’ gang leader claims they’re liberating the country (msn.com)
