CBS News
Haiti’s gangs luring more children into crime and sexual abuse, HRW says, as 115 people killed in attack
Haiti’s rampant criminal gangs are luring more children into lives of crime and sexual abuse, as hunger and poverty in the tiny Caribbean nation drive young people to desperation, according to a report published Wednesday by the U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch. Hundreds, possibly thousands more children have joined the violent gangs in recent months, HRW says, with members forcing youngsters to commit crimes and subjecting them to sexual abuse and violence.
The bloodshed and political chaos that has beleaguered Haiti has shown no signs of abating, with a single gang attack last week in the town of Pont-Sondé, about 40 miles from the capital Port-au-Prince, leaving 115 people dead and at least 16 others seriously wounded, according to local officials.
Myriam Fièvre, the mayor of the nearby city of Saint-Marc, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the toll from the Oct. 3 attack would likely rise further, as authorities still hadn’t managed to access certain parts of Pont-Sondé. At least three infants were among those killed, according to a previous statement from the United Nations human rights commissioner.
Marckinson Pierre / REUTERS
The HRW report published Wednesday says the gangs likely started drawing more children into their ranks in response to law enforcement operations against their members by the Haiti Police and the United Nations-backed Multinational Security Support Mission. The MSS mission was recently approved by the United Nations. Led by Kenya, the force has only been partially deployed.
Criminal groups control almost 80% of Port-au-Prince, and HRW says joining the gangs is often the only option children have to obtain food and shelter. Around 125,000 children suffer from acute hunger in Haiti, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Some 2.7 million people live in gang-controlled territory, including 500,000 children.
HRW says almost a third of gang members now are believed to be children. A humanitarian worker in the country told HRW the gangs are using social media platforms including TikTok to attract young recruits.
HRW said girls are sexually abused by gang members and exploited for domestic labor once lured in.
“The [gang] leaders force them to perform sexual acts with them or their members while others watch,” HRW quoted one humanitarian worker as saying. “They tell them that they are their girlfriends and that they must obey them, but in reality, they exploit them for their pleasure and consumption.”
Pedro Valtierra Anza/REUTERS
Boys are often used by the gangs to run errands, act as informants to get information on police activity and to transport weapons, HRW says, though they’re sometimes commissioned to assist in carrying out more serious, violent crimes, including kidnapping and murder. For this, they are fed and often paid — money which the young recruits often use to support family members facing poverty.
Gang members often use violence to control child soldiers once they’ve been recruited, beating and threatening them if they refuse to follow orders. One boy interviewed by HRW told the organization he originally joined a gang as an 8-year-old orphan, living on the street. He said he was given a gun and told to wear it on his back.
“Girls are not usually offered incentives for loyalty,” the HRW report says in the report, citing aid workers on the ground. “Instead, they are usually let go after some time, typically when they become pregnant as a result of rape.”
Despite the spiraling violence, the U.S. government resumed deporting some migrants back to Haiti‘s capital after a pause in the flights. The Biden administration has, however, extended temporary protected status to Haitians in the U.S. until 2025.
Former President Donald Trump has vowed, if reelected in November, to enact large-scale deportations of migrants, including Haitians.
HRW says more international aid is desperately needed in Haiti and in its new report, it calls on the country’s transitional government to prioritize initiatives to protect children. The transitional council took power in April with a mandate to start rebuilding Haiti’s crippled civilian government after years of turmoil amplified by the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
Deer Park, Texas — At least two workers at a Houston-area oil refinery were killed Thursday when hydrogen sulfide leaked at the plant, setting off urgent warnings for nearby residents to stay indoors before authorities later determined that the public wasn’t in danger.
Nearly three dozen other people were either transported to hospitals or treated at the scene, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. Hours after the leak began, Gonzalez said the area was still unsafe for investigators to enter and that officials may not be able to get inside until Friday.
The plant is operated by Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, and located in the suburb of Deer Park.
Adrees Latif / REUTERS
Gonzalez said the gas release happened during work on a flange at the facility, which is part of a cluster of oil refineries and plants that makes Houston the nation’s petrochemical heartland.
Pemex said in a statement that investigations were underway and that operations had been “proactively halted” at two units with the aim of mitigating the impact.
Local officials issued a shelter-in-place order but lifted it hours later after air monitoring showed no risk to the surrounding community, Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton said.
The chief meteorologist at CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV, David Paul, said the wind was calm Thursday night.
Hydrogen sulfide is a foul-smelling gas that can be toxic at high levels.
“Other than the smell, we have not had any verifiable air monitoring to support that anything got outside the facility,” Mouton said.
Television news crews showed multiple ambulances and emergency vehicles at the scene. Gonzalez had originally posted on the social platform X that one person was transported to a hospital by helicopter, but officials later said at a news conference that no one was airlifted.
The leak caused the second shelter-in-place orders in Deer Park in the span of weeks. Last month, a pipeline fire that burned for four days forced surrounding neighborhoods to evacuate.
Los Angeles — Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, though fans of the electric vehicle maker will have to wait until at least 2026 before it’s available.
CEO Elon Musk pulled up to a stage at the Warner Bros. studio lot in one of the company’s “Cybercabs,” telling the crowd the sleek, AI-powered vehicles don’t have steering wheels or pedals. He also expressed confidence in the progress the company has made on autonomous driving technology that makes it possible for vehicles to drive without human intervention.
Tesla / Handout via REUTERS
Tesla began selling the software, which is called “Full Self-Driving,” nine years ago. But there are doubts about its reliability.
“We’ll move from supervised Full Self-Driving to unsupervised Full Self-Driving, where you can fall asleep and wake up at your destination,” he said. “It’s going to be a glorious future.”
Tesla expects the Cybercabs to cost under $30,000, Musk said. He estimated that the vehicles would become available in 2026, then added “before 2027.”
The company also expects to make the Full Self-Driving technology available on its popular Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in Texas and California next year.
“If they’re going to eventually get to robotaxis, they first need to have success with the unsupervised FSD at the current lineup,” said Seth Goldstein, equity strategist at Morningstar Research. “Tonight’s event showed that they’re ready to take that step forward.”
Tesla had 20 or so Cybercabs on hand and offered event attendees the opportunity to take rides inside the movie studio lot – not on Los Angeles’ roads.
At the presentation, which was dubbed “We, Robot” and was streamed live on Tesla’s website and X, Musk also revealed a sleek minibus-looking vehicle that, like the Cybercab, would be self-driving and can carry up to 20 passengers.
The company also trotted out several of its black and white Optimus humanoid robots, which walked a few feet from the attendees before showing off dance moves in a futuristic-looking gazebo.
Tesla / Handout via REUTERS
Musk estimated that the robots would cost between $28,000-$30,000 and would be able to babysit, mow lawns and fetch groceries, among other tasks.
“Whatever you can think of, it will do,” he said.
The unveiling of the Cybercab comes as Musk tries to persuade investors that his company is more about artificial intelligence and robotics as it struggles to sell its core products, an aging lineup of electric vehicles.
Tesla’s model lineup is struggling and isn’t likely to be refreshed until late next year at the earliest, TD Cowen analyst Jeff Osborne wrote in a research note last week.
Osborne also noted that, in TD Cowen’s view, the “politicization of Elon” is tarnishing the Tesla brand among Democratic buyers in the U.S.
Musk has endorsed former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and has pushed many conservative causes. Last weekend, he joined Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.
Musk has been saying for more than five years that a fleet of robotaxis is near, enabling Tesla owners to make money by having their cars carry passengers while they’re not being used by their owners.
But he’s acknowledged that past predictions for the use of autonomous driving proved too optimistic. In 2019, he promised the fleet of autonomous vehicles by the end of 2020.
The announcement comes as U.S. safety regulators are investigating Full Self Driving and Autopilot based on evidence that it has a weak system for making sure human drivers pay attention.
In addition, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration forced Tesla to recall Full Self-Driving in February because it enabled speeding and violated other traffic laws, especially near intersections. Tesla was to fix the problems with an online software update.
Last April in Snohomish County, Washington, near Seattle, a Tesla using Full Self-Driving hit and killed a motorcyclist, authorities said. The Tesla driver told authorities he was using the system while looking at his phone when the car rear-ended the motorcyclist. The motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
NHTSA says it’s evaluating information on the fatal crash from Tesla and law enforcement officials.
The Justice Department also has sought information from Tesla about Full Self-Driving and Autopilot, as well as other items.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.