In a city cut off from the world, guns and drugs keep flowing

From above, traces of Haiti’s extensive smuggling networks come into focus: the scars of a clandestine airstrip in its sun-bleached Central Plateau, a dock jutting from gang-held territory into the still waters of the Gulf of Gonave.

On the rare days that the hills surrounding Port-au-Prince fall silent, people notice. “If you can’t hear shooting somewhere, the gangs are probably running low on ammunition,” a police source in the Haitian capital told CNN. “But when there’s a lot of shooting, they’ve definitely received a fresh shipment.” For over two months, Port-au-Prince has been cut off from the world, its international seaport and airport shuttered following an explosion of gang attacks in late February. All major roads are blocked by gang checkpoints. For most people living here, there is no way out – and no way to bring in desperately needed food and medicine. Encircling the Caribbean nation is another closed perimeter, this one created by Haiti’s neighbors. The Dominican Republic has sealed the island’s shared border and airspace. The Bahamas has launched a naval blockade to keep Haitians from fleeing the crisis by boat; the UK has sent a warship to ward off anyone seeking refuge in Turks and Caicos, a British overseas territory; and the US state of Florida has increased marine and aviation patrols. And yet guns, bullets and drugs keep pouring in, crossing international waters and airspace to reach the embattled country – most of the firepower originating from the US. “Haiti doesn’t produce guns and ammunition, yet the gang members don’t seem to have any trouble accessing those things,” says Pierre Esperance, executive director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network.