Description: The US Treasury Department has announced the designation of two powerful Haitian gangs, Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif gang as terrorist organizations. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio elaborated that the US administration considered these organizations a severe threat to national security and all entities discovered to cooperate with the gangs would be internationally prosecuted. The designation comes as a raging gang war ruptured in the country in 2020 which led to devastating massacres of civilians and severe humanitarian and security crisis in the country.
Impact: The US designation of Haitian gangs as terrorist organizations figuratively gives a wide berth of jurisdictions to US military personnel. The Haitian crisis has gone massively unnoticed by the international community with low number of countries investing in mediating some form of a peace agreement or countering the gangs operationally. The designation is unlikely to achieve or stipulate any action from the US administration, and for the time being should be perceived as a political move of condemning the violence perpetrated by Haiti’s armed gangs. The conflict enters its fifth year as the island country is under considerable humanitarian pressure, with the US fueling refugees through the mass deportation policy by the Trump administration. Growing crises with armed gangs in Central and South America, more specifically in Ecuador, Columbia and El Salvador, pose a significant regional security risk which could implode into a regional crisis in the long – term.