OAS chief warns gang influence could taint Haiti’s first elections in a decade

The secretary general of the Organization of American States said Thursday that ties between Haitian politicians and armed gangs are undermining preparations for the country’s first general elections in more than a decade, warning that the links could taint the vote’s credibility.

Albert Ramdin told reporters, including wire agency EFE, that collaboration between the political class and criminal groups is an open secret in Haiti.

“There is a certain collusion between the political world and the gangs,” Ramdin said, adding that everyone is aware of it but no one addresses it publicly.

Ramdin, who led a high-level OAS delegation to Haiti in August alongside CARICOM Secretary-General Carla Barnett, said he pressed Haitian authorities to adopt clear rules barring candidates with ties to criminal organizations from running for office. He said he has not received a clear response.

Identifying which candidates have criminal ties, and which have nonetheless been cleared to run, would make it possible to measure how deeply organized crime has penetrated the electoral process, Ramdin said.

The OAS chief named insecurity as the central threat to the vote and questioned both the performance of the U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force and the failure of some countries to deliver troops and funding they had pledged to the mission. Holding credible elections, he said, depends on establishing a favorable security climate.

Haiti’s electoral calendar sets the first round of presidential and legislative elections for Dec. 13, with a runoff scheduled for Feb. 21, 2027. It would be the country’s first general election since 2016; Haiti has had no sitting president since Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021.

The United Nations recorded at least 3,050 deaths and 1,401 injuries linked to gang violence in Haiti during the first six months of 2026, according to figures cited during Ramdin’s remarks.