Written Testimony of Pierre Esperance to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, and Trade: Haiti on the Brink

Pierre Esperance, executive director of the Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains (RNDDH), submitted this testimony to the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, and Trade of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for the hearing 'Haiti on the Brink: Assessing U.S. Policy Toward a Country in Crisis' on December 10, 2019. He describes gangs that receive state protection and attributes five massacres under the Moïse administration to them, with 127 deaths in total, including at least 71 at La Saline in November 2018. He reports at least 187 protesters killed since July 2018 and 478 people shot or stabbed from January to November 2019. He describes a judiciary receiving less than one percent of the national budget and a prison population of 11,069 of whom 74.21 percent were awaiting trial. He also covers the lack of a functioning government and the legislative elections that were not held in October 2019, which would leave Parliament obsolete from January 2020.

The figures and attributions are the witness's statements and are presented here as his testimony.