2026-02-27

DELMAS Minister of Justice Patrick Pelissier, serving as acting Prime Minister during Fils-Aime's CARICOM travel, chaired a high-level strategic security meeting in Delmas on February 25 in direct response to what Le Nouvelliste described as a kidnapping surge across the metropolitan area. The meeting convened PNH High Command including the Director General, the Central Directorate of Judicial Police, the Central Directorate of Administrative Police, and the West 1 and West 2 Departmental Directorates, alongside Delmas Mayor Wilson Jeudy and central government representatives. The operational measures announced at the meeting reflect an enhanced posture across all ten departments. PNH leadership committed to optimizing mobile patrol density and fixed checkpoint coverage, intensifying prevention operations, expanding police outposts and forward operating bases, enforcing stricter internal troop identification protocols, and activating structured civilian collaboration through anti-kidnapping alert mechanisms. The scope of the announced measures extending to all ten departments rather than only the metropolitan zone signals recognition that kidnapping networks have operational reach beyond Port-au-Prince. The meeting was preceded by three significant security incidents that define the operational context. On the night of February 20 to 21, a large-scale anti-gang operation in Kenscoff resulted in at least 16 gang members killed through a combination of sniper fire and drone deployment, with Task Force elements and private military contractor assets confirmed as participants. On February 23, a kidnapping interdiction operation in Delmas 48 killed six kidnappers including a figure identified as Kalash, but also killed two PNH officers, Junior Dorelus of the SWAT unit and Isreno Etienne of the Bureau of Investigation. Eight firearms and three vehicles were seized. On February 24, two additional suspected kidnapping network members were arrested in Port-au-Prince. The deaths of two officers in a single Delmas interdiction operation on February 23 are operationally significant, indicating that kidnapping networks are offering armed resistance at a level that generates PNH casualties. The Carrefour-Aeroport substation, which had been seized and burned by gang forces, reopened as February 27, 2026 a renovated police station with businesses beginning to return to the corridor. This represents a concrete territorial recovery indicator, though DW's February 27 documentary on the Viv Ansanm coalition documented continued gang control over schools and healthcare facilities across large sections of Port-au-Prince, illustrating the fragmented and contested nature of security gains.