Erik Prince’s Constellis is sending at least 150 contractors to Haiti, according to several sources.
Haiti’s government has hired American contractors, including Prince, in recent months to work on a secret task force to deploy drones meant to kill gang members, security experts said. Prince’s team has been operating the drones since March, but the authorities have yet to announce the death or capture of a single high-value target.
Security experts said Prince has also been scouting Haitian American military veterans to hire to send to Port-au-Prince and is expected to send many more contractors to Haiti over the summer. He recently shipped a large cache of weapons to the country, two experts said.
The Haitian government is awaiting the arrival of arms shipments and more personnel to step up its fight against the gangs.
American officials said they were aware of Prince’s work with Haiti’s government. But the full terms of the Haitian government’s arrangement with Mr. Prince, including how much it is paying him, are unknown.
Before presidential elections in Ecuador this year, Prince toured the country with local police and promised to help security forces. The country has faced a wave of violence unleashed by gangs. Ecuadorian officials denied that they had signed any security deal with Prince.
Prince, Blackwater, and Iraq
In the eyes of many, Erik Prince has a black eye (no pun intended) because of an incident involving his Blackwater contractors in Iraq. This tragic incident underscores the point that American private military contractors are fully subject to U.S. law. That fact separates American private military contractors from Russian mercenaries like the Africa Corps (the successor to the Wagner Group).
The incident that pundits still talk about occurred in Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007. By that time, the promised quick and easy victory had become a long-term insurgency with no end in sight. Many people wanted someone to blame, and Prince’s Blackwater private military contractor group gave these individuals a scapegoat.
Blackwater contractors escorting a supply convoy through the hostile streets of Baghdad received reports of a possible car bomb in Nisour Square. When contractors saw a vehicle matching the description and acting suspiciously, the understandably edgy contractors opened fire, first on the car and then on the crowd. Seventeen Iraqis died in what the media quickly dubbed the Nisour Square “Massacre.”
Eventually, some seven years later, American courts convicted one contractor of murder and three others of lesser charges. In 2020, amidst a storm of protest, Donald Trump pardoned the four contractors.
Wagner Group and other mercenaries allegedly committed several “massacres” in Africa and other areas of operation. But Russian military officials looked the other way, and in most countries, including Russia, civilian courts have no jurisdiction over mercenaries. So, these mercenaries can quite literally get away with murder.
Many would say the same thing about the Blackwater contractors involved in the Nisour Square incident. But at least the legal system dealt with the fallout.
Crisis in Haiti
From the 2007 crisis in Iraq, we jump about 15 years into the future to the current, or rather ongoing, crisis in Haiti.
Haiti has been a nation in crisis since before it broke away from France in 1804. French colonial masters drained Haiti’s resources and ruled with an iron fist. So, the fledgling republic had no money and no self-government foundation. Things got worse. Shortly after the Haitian Revolution ended, a large French armada demanded a stiff bounty. Haiti made payments on that bounty until 1947. The former slave republic was a pariah in North America for almost as long. The United States finally extended formal diplomatic recognition in 1863, over a half century after the Haitian Revolution ended.
Because of this background, Haiti cannot contend with natural and political disasters. Since 2010, it’s been forced to contend with both. Some 15 years after the fact, the country is still reeling from a large earthquake that indirectly spawned a cholera epidemic.
The country limped along until November 2016, when just 17% of registered voters showed up to elect Jovenel Moïse as the new president.
Anger over high fuel prices spilled over into street protests that began in July 2018. As these protests continued and escalated, Moïse became the scapegoat for almost all the country’s ills.
Things came to a head when, on July 7, 2021, President Moïse was assassinated in an attack on his private residence.
The hits keep coming. By the end of 2023, gangs and armed groups controlled about 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince. These gangs killed 4,789 people, kidnapped 2,490 more, and displaced an estimated 362,000 from their homes, mostly in Port-au-Prince. Most kidnapping targets were doctors, lawyers, and other wealthy members of society. Many victims were killed when ransom demands were not met, and others fled the country, further hampering efforts to pull the country out of the crisis.
What Contractors Do
Private military contractor firms like Constellis must wade into this chaos and somehow restore order. Specific efforts usually focus on aid distribution and everyday security.
In the wrong hands, a medical supply shipment is like a gold shipment. These supplies, which were intended for everyone, fetch hefty prices on the black market, where they go to the lucky few. Contractors supervise aid distribution, from the time the crates come ashore until intended recipients get their hands on badly-needed supplies.
Security is part of this process. Guards must closely watch aid stations 24/7/365. Other contractors must verify the identities of “representatives” to ensure these individuals are who they claim to be. Additionally, other security contractors must oversee distribution to ensure that desperate people don’t cross the line between needy individuals and desperate ones.
Contractor duties often overlap. Frequently, these same contractors patrol city streets to deter gang activity. Many private military contractors are former law enforcement officers. These individuals know that high visibility deters criminal activity.
Injury Compensation Available
Combat and non-combat contractors alike risk serious injury when they serve overseas. These serious injuries include:
- Trauma Injuries: Non-combat injuries, like falls and training accidents, often cause more casualties than enemy operations. Generally, these victims are very far from the nearest quality medical facility when these injuries occur. Because of the treatment delay, when doctors begin work, the victim’s medical bills are much higher.
- Occupational Diseases: Hearing loss and cancer due to toxic exposure are two of the most common occupational diseases among contractors. Frequently, military facilities are noisy and busy enough to cause hearing loss, but not noisy enough to trigger government safeguards. Toxic exposure cancer, like other forms of cancer, has a very long latency period. These victims are usually sick for decades, yet they show no symptoms of illness.
The Defense Base Act replaces lost wages and pays reasonable, necessary medical bills, if the victim’s injury was deployment-related.
Most victims receive two-thirds of their average weekly wage for the duration of their temporary disabilities. The DBA insurance company also has a legal obligation to pay all reasonably necessary medical bills. DBA lawyers hold companies to these commitments.
For more information about the DBA process, contact Barnett, Lerner, Karsen, Frankel & Castro, P.A.