Agape Flights suspends aid deliveries from Venice to Haiti amid rising gang violence

VENICE – Agape Flights, a faith-based nonprofit that provides supplies for visiting mission groups in the Bahamas, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, canceled its planned March 7 flight to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

An increased wave of gang violence has shut down Port au Prince Airport and jeopardized Agape Flight’s ability to safely deliver needed supplies and medicine to mission partners in six locations in the country.

The canceled flight was a scheduled two-day trip that would have landed in the Dominican Republic Thursday and Haiti Friday – providing supplies for five different locations – before returning to Venice.

But with the borders closed between the two countries that share the island of Hispaniola, that flight would have been impossible to complete.

Even if that was not the case, Agape Flights CEO Allen Speer said he did not want to put their mission partners in harm’s way.

“We’re taking this on a day-by-day basis,” Speer said.

Speer said he worked with a sister nonprofit, Fort Pierce based Missionary Flights International, to deliver the supplies bound for the Dominican Republic. He has also talked with a Puerto Rico-based sea ministry about delivering supplies to Haiti by an undisclosed port in the south of the country but added, “I wouldn’t want to put any false hope out there.”

A coordinated gang effort

Speer pointed to a coordinated effort by several gangs – especially while Ariel Henry, Haiti's U.S.-backed prime minister, has been in Kenya, attempting to push through a stalled plan for 1,000 Kenyan police officers to travel to Haiti to help stabilize the nation.

“They have coalesced, they have begun to collaborate together and in some ways are uniting to really get him out of office and out of power,” Speer said.

Hundreds of armed gangs have gained an increased level of power in the country since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

On March 29, 2022, one of Agape Flights' two airplanes – a twin-engine Piper Navajo Chieftain –was set on fire during protests at Les Cayes airport.

Those protests coincided with the 35th anniversary of Haiti’s 1987 Constitution.

That temporarily stranded seven members of an Agape Flights work team.

They eventually arrived home on April 2, 2022, while a fundraising effort gave the ministry money to buy a larger replacement aircraft.

Conditions this year are far worse, Speer said.

“Now we’re at a different place of decline; we're at the bottom,” he said. “Haiti is at  the very, very bottom and I just fear that there will be a lot more bloodshed.”

Several of their mission partners have left Haiti for safety reasons, Speer said. Though those who remain are resourceful, a long break in service of a month or longer will have a severe impact, “especially those people who we carry in much needed medicine – they will be in dire straits to receive medicine.”

A plea for help from the U.S.

Speer said he has reached out to the offices of both U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, as well as U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, and has not heard a reply.

He recognized the severity of ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East but fears that Haiti is being overlooked.

“We are the Haitian people’s hope,” said Speer, who would like to see the U.S. develop a coalition to help solve the crisis in Haiti.

Speer was talking with a high ranking Haitian official Wednesday, “and he said, 'Will you pray with me right now because these gang members are steps away from my door.'”

Speer tried to call the official Thursday, to no avail.

“The gangs have to be stopped,” Speer said. “The Haitian people, that's where my heart really lies – they’re good people, they're lovely people and they deserve hope,” he added. “All they desire is what all of us have in this country: safety and security.

“Safety and security and freedom, that is what we hold dearest in this country – that would be our message to all of our elected officials.”

Information from USA Today was used in this report.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Agape Flights suspends aid from Venice because of Haiti gang violence