Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: According to a United Nations estimate, approximately 167 criminal gangs operated in Haiti in October 2021, exerting territorial control over as much as two-thirds of the country. Haitian armed criminal gangs, the most prominent of which are the G9 Family and Allies and 400 Mawozo gangs, conduct violent crimes, including murder, rape, arms and drug trafficking, racketeering, kidnapping, and blockades of fuel and aid deliveries. These crimes have perpetuated the ongoing security and humanitarian crises in Haiti, which have worsened since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Service jointly found a 333 percent increase in human rights violations and abuses against the rights to life and security in Haiti between July 2018 and December 2019. At least 19,000 Haitians were forcibly displaced during 2021 due to rising criminal violence. At least 803 kidnappings were reported in Haiti during the first 10 months of 2021, including the kidnapping of more than 16 United States citizens, giving Haiti having the highest per capita kidnapping rate of any country in the world.
There is significant evidence of collusion between criminal gangs and economic and political elites in Haiti, including members of the Haitian National Police, which has resulted in widespread impunity and directly contributed to Haiti’s current security crisis. On December 10, 2020, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury designated former Haitian National Police officer Jimmy Chérizier, former Director General of the Ministry of the Interior Fednel Monchery, and former Departmental Delegate Joseph Pierre Richard Duplan under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114–328 ; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note) for their connections to armed criminal gangs, including organizing the November 2018 La Saline massacre.
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