Haiti’s 13 December election is gone, with no new date. But “gang violence” is only half an explanation. The UN’s own experts have spent three years documenting the gangs’ political and business patrons — and the business class that moves Haiti’s economy has sat at the negotiating table without being made to answer for the ports, the customs posts or the payments.

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, October 20, 2026 - Calvin G. Brown | On Monday, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, the UN’s top official in Haiti, gave the Security Council the count: 1,123 Haitians killed and 440 injured in gang-related violence between July and early October. On Sunday an armoured vehicle carrying Salvadoran soldiers of the Gang Suppression Force was attacked in Croix-des-Bouquets; four soldiers were still missing on Monday, according to media reports cited by UN News.