LETTER FROM THE CARIBBEAN

Savior or dangerous outlaw? In Haiti, opinions are sharply divided about Jean Ernest Muscadin, a magistrate who has served since 2019 in the city of Miragoâne, in the southern part of the country. For many residents of Miragoâne, the main city in the Nippes department, this government commissioner – the Haitian equivalent of a public prosecutor – is seen as the right person for the job. While gangs have terrorized the greater Port-au-Prince area, the Haitian capital, for several years and have been gaining ground in rural regions, Muscadin has worked tirelessly to prevent the same fate from befalling his city and the three southern departments of the Tiburon peninsula.

“If, until now, gangs have not entered the ‘Grand Sud’ region, it is thanks to the vigilance of the authorities, of whom the government commissioner is the leading figure,” said journalist James Jean-Louis, Miragoâne’s correspondent for the public broadcaster Radio Télévision Caraïbes, over the phone.

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