Private military executive Erik Prince, a close ally of President Donald Trump, plans to deploy his company’s private forces in Haiti for a decade, Reuters reported Thursday.
Prince’s company, Vectus Global, will help the Haitian government with security by contracting out his services on a 10-year deal, while also helping repair its tax-collection system, according to Reuters. Haiti has suffered under brutal gang wars over the last five years, with gangs now controlling up to 90% of the capital city Port-au-Prince.
“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 told Reuters in an interview. Prince did not tell Reuters how much the Haitian government will pay for his services.
Prince is a former Navy SEAL and founder of Blackwater Worldwide, a private military corporation (PMC). Prince is a longtime friend of Trump, and the president pardoned four former Blackwater contractors in 2020 convicted on charges relating to the killings of Iraqi civilians in 2007 during U.S. involvement in the region.
The PMC will reportedly employ helicopters, snipers and boats in their arsenal against the gangs, a person familiar with the PMC’s operations in Haiti told Reuters.
From January to March of this year, over 250 people were killed, 66 injured and more than 3,000 residents were uprooted by gang violence in Haiti’s capital, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, citing United Nations (UN) data.
A senior White House official denied any involvement in the deal, telling Reuters that the U.S. government has “no involvement” in the operation and will not be conducting oversight.
The State Department recently put out a $5 million bounty to anyone willing to provide information that leads to notorious Haitian gangster Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier’s arrest in any nation. Cherizier allegedly funneled funds from Haitians living in the U.S. to his gang’s coffers, which has been a large contributor to the violence gripping the nation.
Vectus Global did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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