Masked policemen storms police stations in Haiti to release fellow officers

A large group of masked police officers, members of a disgruntled sector of the Haitian police force who call themselves Fantom 509, stormed several police stations in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday.

The rogue group freed fellow officers that had been jailed, accused of participating in an alleged coup against embattled President Jovenel Moise last month.

A deepening economic, as well as political crisis in the most impoverished country in the Americas, has led to a huge surge in crimes and murders as gangs have gained power, turning ever more sections of the capital and other cities into no-go areas.

Masked, heavily armed divisions of the Fantom 509 group, who describe themselves as indifferent police officers also ex-officers, told local media they believed their colleagues had been unjustly arrested in a Port-au-Prince police station.

The police had no immediate judgment on the incident or why the officers had been detained. Lawyers for the police said in a statement they were victims of the politicization of Haiti's police force and the frustrations of its justice system.

The Fantom 509 brothers said they were also protesting the fact authorities had not reached the bodies of four policemen who died last Friday in a botched raid on a gang center where crime games are often held.

Trainee police officers participated in the jail break while citizens took to the street for a fifth day to block roads with media, debris and smoking tires, also vandalizing a car dealership.

President Jovenel Moise said on Wednesday a time of crisis in the worst gang-controlled areas for one period in form to allow state security forces to regain restraint of the state.

Critics blame the state of not enough providing the police to face gangs, even if it has slightly exalted its approximations for the police this year.