Cholera and Crime

Haiti is in the middle of a humanitarian disaster. Gang warfare has deepened since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in the summer of 2021. Hunger has intensified. Cholera is spreading, as it has before, partly because armed groups are preventing doctors from providing care.

I spoke to Natalie Kitroeff, The Times’s bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean who recently reported from Haiti, about the crisis.

Claire: Criminal organizations seem to control much of Haiti. How did they take over?

Natalie: Gangs have been around in Haiti for decades. But they became particularly brazen under Moïse. After his assassination, a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, took over, but he was never confirmed by the Parliament, and a lot of people viewed him as illegitimate. The institutions of the country were gutted. The gangs stepped into that power vacuum, and the state has lost its ability to secure the most basic arteries in the country.

Can you explain how life in Haiti has deteriorated since these gangs took over?

To understand the current situation, we can look at two major events. In July, rival gangs fought over control of Cité Soleil, the largest slum in Haiti, where about 300,000 people live. A war broke out between them that lasted for about a week and resulted in hundreds of deaths. Gang members burned down entire neighborhoods. Women were raped as a tool of war. It was horrific. Thousands of people fled the slum, and many of them have been living as refugees elsewhere in Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Then, a few months later, Henry, the prime minister, raised the price of fuel, which sparked protests that plunged Haiti in near anarchy, and one of the gangs blocked the port through which most of the fuel comes into the country. That turned a bad situation into a crisis. Haiti doesn’t have a functional electrical grid, so everything runs on diesel generators. When there’s no fuel, it impacts almost everything. Gas stations were closed. There was no trash collection in much of the capital, so it piled up in the slums. The water utility lost its ability to pump enough water and aid workers couldn’t bring in water to areas blocked by gangs, which medical experts believe was a major contributor in the cholera outbreak.

You’re based in Mexico. What did you see when you traveled to Haiti to report — how present was the violence?

I flew into Port-au-Prince. The airport is still functional. And it’s located right by Cité Soleil, the slum. From the plane you can see this sprawling shantytown. You see the sun hitting off the corrugated metal shacks. When I was there, there were thousands of refugees sleeping on cardboard and cement right next to the airport. There weren’t a lot of people in the street, either, and there was only black market fuel.

People also drive really fast. You generally drive in a bit of a panic in Port-au-Prince through these windy roads that go up and down hilly streets because of fear of kidnapping by gang members. Kidnappings, targeting both rich and poor Haitians, happened at a rate of four a day last month, according to the U.N. That feeling of the potential for something to happen at any moment hits you from the minute you leave the airport.

If there’s essentially a lock on the country, no fuel and constant gang violence, how do Haitians survive? How do they eat, for example?

Hunger has always existed in Haiti. In Cité Soleil this year, it reached famine-like conditions for thousands of many people. Some people said they drank rainwater. Others said they boiled leaves. Generally, I found that regular Haitians feel a lot of solidarity with each other. A lot of people will tell you that they survived with the help from their neighbors. One young woman told me she fled her house after neighbors told her that gang leaders were coming to rape her. People are helping each other survive.

It’s hard to describe how bad the situation is. For example, when I was in Port-au-Prince there were children recovering from gunshot wounds sleeping in a massive makeshift camp. During this rainy season, people’s homes get completely flooded and they can’t sleep at night. Streets become trash rivers and people are walking through them barefoot.

Are there still places on the island that aren’t touched by gang violence, or where relatively well-off Haitians live more normal lives?

Many wealthier Haitians tend to spend a lot of time in Miami, which is only about a two-hour flight away. Some experts say that the rise of these gangs have been facilitated and funded by these elites, because they are using the gangs to achieve their own aims such as fomenting chaos when it suits them, mobilizing or suppressing votes and paying the gangs off to facilitate the flow of goods.

Many rich Haitians travel around in armored vehicles and have security details. But nobody is exempt from the violence and the chaos and the potential that you can drive right into it.

You’ve covered stories across Latin America, but the situation in Haiti is extreme. How does reporting there compare to reporting in other places that are going through hardship?

I talked to a Haitian who said he was a U.S. military veteran who had fought in several wars. I asked him, How does Haiti compare to a war zone? He said, “In a war, you know who’s shooting at you.” I think about that all the time.

Natalie Kitroeff grew up near Philadelphia and has been based in Mexico City since 2020. In the World Cup, she is rooting for both the U.S. and Mexico.

Related: Read Natalie’s dispatch from the front lines of the gang wars in Haiti.

NEWS

International

• Women working as surrogates in Cambodia are being forced to either go to prison or raise the children they bore.

• Protests over Covid lockdowns spread across China.

• British prosecutors are wielding a law intended to prevent human trafficking against low-level drug dealers.

• Western countries are scrambling to arm Ukrainian troops and refill their own drained weapons stockpiles.

• The U.S. gave Chevron a license to expand energy operations in Venezuela, a response to the reduced global oil supply.

Other Big Stories

• More Americans are living alone as they age, challenging housing and health care systems.

• Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, has one of the toughest jobs in Washington: doling out $100 billion to remake American manufacturing.

WORLD CUP

Staying alive: Argentina salvaged its chances with a 2-0 win against Mexico, giving its star, Lionel Messi, a path to finally win the tournament.

Today: Costa Rica beat Japan 1-0 this morning, and Canada and Germany are looking to redeem earlier losses. Here are the latest scores.

Advantage: Do population, democracy and wealth help countries win the cup?

FROM OPINION

America’s addiction to fast fashion hurts low-wage workers and the environment, Rachel Greenley writes.

From helping hungry families to supporting journalism fellowships, here’s where Times Opinion writers think you should donate this holiday season.

Donald Trump is radioactive. Republicans’ 2024 hopes rest with Ron DeSantis, Maureen Dowd’s conservative brother Kevin argues.

Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and other pop stars are open about their anxieties and insecurities. That’s admirable, says Pamela Paul.

The Sunday question: Does FTX’s collapse signal the end of cryptocurrency?

The industry was rife with scams and losing billions even before FTX, one of its largest exchanges, imploded, Vox’s Emily Stewart notes. MarketWatch’s Jurica Dujmovic thinks the problem isn’t crypto itself, but rather companies straying from its guiding ethos of decentralization and transparency.

MORNING READS

“Shrinkflation”: He’s exposing how you’re getting less for your money.

Freudenfreude: How to celebrate others’ success.

Closed off: In the West, large swaths of public land are inaccessible to the public.

Shopping for the couple: The Times’s wedding gift guide has advice from newlyweds.

Alzheimer’s: Here’s how to know if you’re at risk.

Sunday routine: A dance company director prioritizes his partner.

Advice from Wirecutter: Relax with these jigsaw puzzles.

BOOKS

Hilma af Klint: The Swedish painter established “a new visual language.”

By the Book: Douglas Brinkley, the author of “Silent Spring Revolution,” would like to invite Rachel Carson to dinner.

Picks: Here are nine books that Times editors recommend this week.

Times best sellers: Michelle Obama’s “The Light We Carry” debuted as a No. 1 hardcover nonfiction best seller. See all our lists.

THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE

On the cover: A judge faces a case that came back to haunt him.

Recommendation: Reading feminist comics helped her grieve her miscarriages.

Ethicist: Do the parents of an aid worker going to Ukraine need to know about the visit?

The brink of sanity: Could a writer survive the “quietest place on earth”?

Read the full issue.

THE WEEK AHEAD

What to Watch For

• Congress returns this week after its Thanksgiving break.

• The U.S. men’s soccer team plays its next World Cup match, against Iran, on Tuesday.

• Prince William and his wife, Kate, are expected to begin a U.S. visit on Wednesday, including a stop in Boston.

• The annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at New York City’s Rockefeller Center is on Wednesday.

• The Kennedy Center honors will be presented on Thursday to George Clooney, U2 and others.

• On Friday, the government will report how many jobs the economy added in November.

What to Cook This Week

Now that Thanksgiving behind us, it’s time to enter a turkey-free zone, Emily Weinstein says. Instead, try grilled shrimp with chili and garlic, a sheet-pan dinner of salmon and broccoli with sesame and ginger or a gorgeous beet salad with coriander-yogurt dressing.

NOW TIME TO PLAY

And a clue from the Sunday crossword:

94 Down: It has only one-sixth of the mass of Earth’s moon

Take the news quiz to see how well you followed the week’s headlines.

Here’s today’s Spelling Bee. Here’s today’s Wordle. After, use our bot to get better.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times.

Lauren Hard, Lauren Jackson, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Ashley Wu contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.

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