The power of criminal gangs in Haiti continues to grow and at the moment they control about 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, according to “certain estimates” that this Monday were cited in the UN Security Council by Miroslav Jenca, Undersecretary General for Europe, Asia and the Americas in the UN Political Affairs Department.

The gangs have begun to attack the places of “relative security” that remained in the capital, such as the Petionville neighborhood, where UN offices, embassies and foreign personnel are located. There, an attack recorded last Tuesday left “dozens dead,” he said.

In response, spontaneous groups of neighbors have begun to organize armed patrols, to set up unofficial road controls “and to take justice into their hands,” Jenca lamented.

The number of displaced people reaches 700,000

In the vast areas where gangs have control, the security and human rights of their inhabitants are in danger, and especially those of women, since gang members resort to all forms of violence, often sexual violence, to subjugate neighbors.

This situation has caused 700,000 Haitians to flee their homes and are now in a situation of “internally displaced people.”

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Despite this, neighboring countries continue to deport Haitians (170,000 so far), mainly from the Dominican Republic, although Jenca did not cite this country.

What is the situation of the Multinational Mission to contain gangs in Haiti?

The Multinational Security Mission that was supposed to train the Haitian police has so far received only 400 agents of the 2,500 that it must gather, mainly due to lack of funds, and the prospects are so pessimistic that the Government of Haiti has already asked that the MMS be transformed into a classic mission of “blue helmets”.

However, this will not be easy because so far Russia and China oppose the deployment of a peace mission in Haiti arguing that the last mission of this type left the country among very serious accusations of sexual abuse and having caused and spread in 2010 a cholera epidemic that was fatal for the country, leaving thousands dead.

An Oslo court issued this Wednesday preventive detention of one week with a ban on visits for Marius Borg Høiby, son of Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, for two cases of rape of two different women.

Høiby, 27 years old and the result of a previous relationship with the princess, had been arrested on Monday night for the third time since August for an alleged rape, but the Prosecutor’s Office revealed today at the end of the hearing, held behind closed doors, that another case had been discovered during the investigation.

The young man, who is not part of the Royal House, is also being investigated for injuries and damages against three of his ex-girlfriends and for threats to a man.

Prison for two cases of rape in Norway

The hearing began at 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and ended two hours later, but Judge Anne-Lene Åvangen Hødnebø did not issue her opinion until after 22:00.

According to public television NRK, the police used as evidence recordings found on Høiby’s phone.

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In both cases it is sexual intercourse without penetration, reported the Prosecutor’s Office, which had requested two weeks in prison.

“The reason we asked for two weeks is that we discovered another violation last night. It is a case of sexual relationship without intercourse with a woman unable to resist the act. We are investigating two rape cases,” prosecutor Andreas Kruszewski said at the end of the hearing.

HØiby’s lawyer, Øyvind Bratlien, stated that his defendant denies the accusations and described the allegations as a “catastrophic” error of judgment.

Three arrests since August

Høiby was arrested on Monday night when he was driving with his ex-girlfriend, the protagonist of the incident that led to the first arrest and which he is forbidden to contact.

His home in Skaugum, on the same property where Crown Princes Haakon and Mette-Marit reside, was searched by police officers.

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According to Norwegian media, the first alleged rape occurred at the young woman’s home in March of this year; the other, in her residence in Skaugum a few weeks ago.

It is the third arrest of Høiby, who was arrested a few hours ago in early August after an incident in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and was accused of injuries, damage and threats, in a case that was later expanded and that also includes two of his previous partners and another person.

Høiby admitted a few days after his arrest in August in a statement part of the accusations and admitted to having problems with alcohol and other drugs and suffering from mental problems.

The Royal House is reluctant to talk about the case

The Norwegian Royal House has been reluctant to comment on the case of the young Marius Borg Høiby, which has generated a lot of media attention in this Nordic country, and only Prince Haakon has made statements.

“I think Marius faces serious accusations. The judicial system must do its job,” Haakon said today from Jamaica, where he attended an event organized by the UN.

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The heir to the Norwegian throne said that as “parents” they have tried to get the young man to receive “help.”

Høiby is the result of a previous relationship of Mette-Marit and has no official commitments to the Royal House, although he attends some celebrations such as the birthdays of his stepbrothers and has always maintained the relationship with both Haakon and Kings Harald V and Sonia.

The US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, said that Beijing has rejected a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Minister Dong Jun, in Laos, where both participate this Thursday in a Southeast Asian security ministerial meeting with their partners.

“I’m sorry that China has chosen not to see each other here. The decision of the People’s Republic of China is a step backwards for the entire region,” Austin told media from Laos, according to a Pentagon statement on Wednesday.

US and China in ASEAN

Austin and Dong participate today in Vientian in the meeting of the defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with their partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States).

Although it was expected that the heads of Defense of the world’s major powers could be seen on the margins of the meeting, Austin considered it “unfortunate” that China has declined the face, without the American going into explaining the reasons.

“You have to be in touch to get an explanation of your decision. It’s unfortunate. It affects the entire region because they really want to see two powerful people talking to each other, which would send a message of tranquility,” Austin added.

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China, for its part, has not yet commented on this issue.

Taiwan in the focus of the matter

According to CNN, Beijing would have rejected the meeting between Dong and Austin due to the sale of weapons in October from Washington to Taiwan, a self-governing island that China does not rule out invading and to which the United States provides ammunition and in principle would defend.

Dong and Austin had met for the first time at a security forum in Singapore in June, which formalized the restoration of high-level contact between the two powers, cut after the former speaker of the US House of Representatives. Nancy Pelosi will visit Taiwan in August 2022.

Tensions did not ease until Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in San Francisco in November 2023.

Austin ruled out that the lack of a meeting this time will have “any kind of implication in the future,” amid uncertainty in the region in the face of the imminent change of administration in the United States and the turn in Defense that it may mean.

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“I just think it’s something they’ve chosen to do right now and only they can explain why they’ve chosen not to take advantage of a good opportunity,” he said.

The ministers of ASEAN (made up of Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam) conclude today with their partners their annual two-day summit in Vientian, with several hot spots in the region, including Burma and the South China Sea, and amid a war escalation in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon.