At Vertières Day event, Haitian officials vow to win ‘new battle’ against gangs

PORT AU PRINCE — Forced to commemorate Haiti’s historic Battaille de Vertières under heavy security in Haiti’s violence-plagued capital, state officials vowed to win the ‘new battle’ they say the nation faces: its violent armed gangs. Speaking during the battle’s 222nd commemoration ceremony at Villa D’Acceuil on November 18th, the day revolutionaries decisively beat back the French to free itself from colonial rule, the Haitian officials also declared that Haiti will be victorious – once again.

“Today, the nation’s enemy has changed faces,” said Laurent Saint-Cyr,  president of the Presidential Transition Council (CPT), the body tasked with ruling Haiti temporarily. 

“The system trying to strip us of our humanity now consists of armed men connected to transnational criminal networks seeking to destabilize the country,” he said. “The state will continue to strengthen the Army and Police to win this battle.”

Saint-Cyr was speaking during a muted event held after CPT members visited MUPANAH to lay a wreath at the foot of Capois-La-Mort, a monument of the revolutionary hero symbolizing the courage and resistance that marked Haiti’s independence. During the solemn speech, he honored the memory of the ancestors who fought in the Battle of Vertières to break the chains of enslavement—earnign Haiti the distinction of being the First Independent Black Republic. 

Like Saint-Cyr, the Commander-in-Chief of the Haitian Armed Forces (FADH) also emphasized the moral responsibility of the institution at this critical moment in national history. 

“The army I have the honor of leading is not an auxiliary force,” the commander, General Derby Guerrier, declared. “It is the expression of the Haitian people’s will to stand strong. Each person’s suffering is a call to action.”

Haiti faces ever-persistent violence, a slew of socio-economic and humanitarian crises and absence of a functioning government. Tuesday’s commemoration of Vertières, forced to be held far from that battle’s historic site in the North due to security concerns, was muted, it still served as a reminder of a country that still seeks to reconnect with the spirit of resistance and unity that shaped its birth. 

In addition to Saint-Cyr, present were Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé and CPT members, representatives of the diplomatic corps, the top command of the FADH and Haitian National Police (PNH) and Houngan Asogwe Erol Josué, director of the National Bureau of Ethnology.

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