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PaperclipPerfector  22hr ago (text post)   184 thread views

Transnational Thursday for August 14, 2025

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Reuters:

The prominent Donald Trump supporter and private security executive Erik Prince says he has a 10-year deal with Haiti to fight the country's criminal gangs, and then take a role in restoring the country's tax-collection system.

In an interview with Reuters, Prince said his company, Vectus Global, would be involved in designing and implementing a program to tax goods imported across Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic once the security situation is stabilized.

He said he expected to wrestle control of major roads and territories from the gangs in about a year. “One key measure of success for me will be when you can drive from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitian in a thin-skinned vehicle and not be stopped by gangs,” Prince said in the interview.

Prince would not comment about how much the Haitian government would pay Vectus Global, nor how much tax he expects to collect in Haiti.

A person familiar with the company's operations in Haiti told Reuters that Vectus would intensify its fight against the criminal gangs that control large swathes of Haiti in the coming weeks in coordination with the Haitian police, deploying several hundred fighters from the United States, Europe and El Salvador who are trained as snipers and specialists in intelligence and communications, as well as helicopters and boats. Vectus's force includes some French and Creole speakers, the person said.

Haiti used to collect half of its tax revenue at the border with the Dominican Republic, but gang control of key transport routes has crippled trade and cut off state income, a report commissioned last year by Haiti's government and several multilateral organizations found. This has undermined the government's ability to respond to the crisis or deliver basic services, the report said.

Other security firms working in Haiti have raised questions about how Vectus would hold onto cleared gang territory as well as the wisdom of channelling resources to private security firms instead of the country's own security forces.

Interesting piece, and honestly, probably a better outcome for the Haitians than they previously might have realistically expected. Thanks again for doing these writeups!

Other security firms working in Haiti have raised questions about how Vectus would hold onto cleared gang territory

I'd guess they're going to be shooting people who try to challenge their hold. What's the argument why they should not be doing this?

as well as the wisdom of channeling resources to private security firms instead of the country's own security forces.

...I am not a fan of Eric Prince or his variously-named corporate entities, but I would be intrigued by an explanation, in detail, of why they would be less trustworthy than Haiti's security forces.

I have not been following recent events in Haiti closely. My uninformed bet would be that the place has been a notably dysfunctional hellhole with little meaningful rule of law and much chaos and illegitimate violence. Even under my least-charitable assessment of Prince and his cohort, rule by competent, efficient mobsters with an unquestioned monopoly on force is almost certainly better than living under ceaseless gang warfare by crazy slum warlords.

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