Guns and drugs fuel 'alarming epidemic' of violence

The last thing Raquel Rodriguez remembers of that afternoon is that she was playing with her neighbour's baby outside her home in the Trinidad and Tobago neighbourhood of Barataria in San Juan. Then came a piercingly loud explosion.

- Natricia Duncan

"The noise was very, very close. It was very loud," she said. "So I stood there, frozen, with my left hand on my temple. And then I started to wonder what was going on. Then I realised that my eyes were turning dark. Then it went totally blank." She had been hit by a stray bullet that penetrated her left temple and tore its way diagonally to her right cheekbone.

She survived the attack in September 2022. But although the mother of three has regained her speech and mobility, both eyes were ruptured, leaving her completely blind. Rodriguez said the incident has been tough on her family, and she yearns for the opportunity to migrate. She is one of thousands who have been caught in a recent wave of violent crime across the Caribbean.

At the extreme end of this trend, which leaders have called "an alarming epidemic", is a gang war that has plunged Haiti into anarchy. Armed factions have controlled most of the country's capital since the former president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in July 2021. About 2,500 people were killed or injured in the first quarter of 2024.