2026-01-03

PORT-DE-PAIX CHIEF PROSECUTOR LEADS ILLEGAL ARMED MILITIA Rezo Nodwes published an investigation on January 1-3 revealing that Me Jeir Pierre, the Port-de-Paix Commissaire du Gouvernement or chief prosecutor, confirmed he is leading an armed civilian brigade in Port-de-Paix. The militia which operates outside any legal framework has already been attributed with one death. Rezo Nodwes legal analysis determined that in Haitian law the Government Commissioner is a magistrate of the prosecutor's office whose role is strictly judicial including prosecuting offenses, requiring application of law, and supervising investigations. The investigation concluded that the prosecutor has no operational, police, or military competence and that maintaining order is exclusively the responsibility of the Haitian National Police and exceptionally the armed forces within a clearly defined legal framework. The creation January 03, 2026 or direction of a civilian brigade especially secret and armed rests on no legal basis and represents an illegal paramilitary militia that escapes any recognized chain of command, any institutional control, and any clear responsibility. This revelation confirms the spread of vigilante groups beyond Port-au-Prince into regional departments. Human Rights Watch documented in its 2025 World Report that self-defense groups have killed over two hundred sixty individuals suspected of gang links often in collusion with the police. The UN Security Council Report warned that self-defense groups accounted for nine percent of casualties between July and September 2025 targeting alleged gang affiliates. The militia phenomenon is spreading because the PNH lacks operational capacity to protect communities with only approximately nine thousand officers for eleven million people forcing civilians to organize armed groups often with police or judicial officials' leadership. However these militias operate outside any legal framework, employ extrajudicial killings, and risk becoming criminal organizations themselves through extortion and revenge killings. With thirty-five days until February 7 and the government's no negotiations with gangs doctrine, militia proliferation is expected to accelerate as communities lose faith in state protection.