This commodification of death marks the ultimate stage of the predatory economy of bandits
In Port-au-Prince, gangs are taking control of cemeteries and extorting money from families who want to bury their loved ones there.
Until 2021, the Grand Cimetière de Port-au-Prince, more than 250 years old, as well as those of Douillard in Cité Soleil, Delmas 34 and Carrefour, hosted a large number of burials.
Cemetery of Port-au-Prince. Photo Jean Feguens Regala pour AyiboPost
Today, these cemeteries have all come under the control of armed gangs.
According to a funeral director contacted by AyiboPost who requested anonymity, families sometimes pay more than 2,000 gourdes to the gangs to gain access to place the remains of their loved ones in the Port-au-Prince cemetery.
The entrepreneur’s funeral business, located on Rue Fleury Battier, in the lower part of the town, has ceased operations since the attacks perpetrated by armed gangs in February 2024.
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Families agree to pay to access the cemetery, another entrepreneur informed of the practice told AyiboPost.
« First, we agree with the families of the deceased on the formalities, then we contact the gang that controls the cemetery, to avoid any misunderstanding on the day of the funeral. Once their agreement is obtained, we continue the process, » this second entrepreneur revealed to AyiboPost.
Life has deserted Funeral Street downtown Port-au-Prince, once the nerve center of funeral activities.
The ambulances, which usually transport the bodies, are now taking refuge in Jérémie Alley, not far from the Bois-Verna district.
Previously, Port-au-Prince city officials collected taxes from the cemetery. But since February 2024, gangs have been setting the amounts and collecting the money.
From now on, you have to go through them for any burial.
Read also: Death is very expensive in Haiti
According to a businessman involved in these practices, contacted by AyiboPost, funeral homes no longer perform funeral rituals. There is no hearse or fanfare. Only one or two family members accompany the deceased to their final resting place.
A hearse parked on Jérémie Alley in front of the former premises of the Haitian Hotel School, May 2025. Photo: Fenel Pélissier for AyiboPost
These measures are aimed at avoiding any incidents with gangs, the source continued.
Relatives of the deceased can complete the formalities themselves by paying the cemetery entrance fee, or entrust the task to the funeral home, explains a former director of the Port-au-Prince cemetery, interviewed by AyiboPost and wishing to remain anonymous for security reasons.
Other cemeteries in the metropolitan area have simply become inaccessible.
Funeral homes no longer perform funeral services. There is no hearse or fanfare. Only one or two family members accompany the deceased to their final resting place.
This is the case of the Parc du Souvenir, the largest private cemetery in the country, located in Torcel, stronghold of the Kraze Baryè gang led by Vitelhomme Innocent.
The company is not completely closed, but it has suffered damage, a manager contacted by telephone by AyiboPost explained.
According to the park administrator, who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, the company was the victim of the theft of more than 1,800 chairs, as well as solar panels and generators, stolen in 2024 by gangs operating in the area.
« We have recorded losses estimated at nearly US$500,000, » he said, adding that due to the difficulty of access, the Memorial Park now offers its cremation service on a very selective basis.
The company has more than 8,000 vaults. Burying a deceased person there normally costs up to US$2,800.
To bury their loved ones, some families are now turning to the cemeteries of Turgeau and Fragneau-Ville, in Delmas 75, still in operation in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince.
The one in Fragneau-Ville has been in operation since 2022, but burials there are officially recorded in a register from January 2025.
Bodies placed in a cold room. Photo: Georges Harry Rouzier for AyiboPost
« At first, the cemetery was rarely visited because people thought it was reserved for the poor and the destitute. But since other cemeteries in the city center became inaccessible, we’ve been receiving more burials than before, » Floriant Maxo, director of the Fragneau-Ville cemetery, told AyiboPost.
The Fragneau-Ville cemetery recorded around twenty burials in April, compared to fifteen in February, according to the director. On some Saturdays, the cemetery hosts up to five funerals. A figure that, for Maxo, reflects the growing number of visitors to the site.
To meet this demand, officials had additional vaults built. These vaults are organized in tiers, stacked one on top of the other. It is necessary to climb scaffolding to place the bodies inside.
Officials set the rental cost of the vaults at 50,000 gourdes per year. Access fees, meanwhile, are set at 5,000 gourdes and collected by the Delmas municipality.
The Fragneau-Ville cemetery recorded around twenty burials in April, compared to fifteen in February, according to the director. On some Saturdays, the cemetery hosts up to five funerals. A figure that, for Maxo, reflects the growing number of visitors to the site.
Rental prices vary by cemetery.
In Turgeau, the cemetery is managed by the administration of the board of directors of the communal section (CASEC) of the first section of this commune.
This lease can last up to five years, depending on the wishes of the deceased’s family, and can be renewed at its end. Those without a burial vault must pay up to 50,000 gourdes per year to rent one.
After the deadline expires, families can request to have the remains moved or placed in the cemetery’s universal grave. They can also request to have them returned home, a practice costing up to 20,000 gourdes, but in apparent violation of the Haitian Penal Code.
A man in the Port-au-Prince cemetery leans on a grave, his hand resting on his head. Photo: Georges Harry Rouzier for AyiboPost
However, according to this man, who wishes to remain anonymous, the burial would not have cost him anything if the family had been able to use the family vault in the Grand Cimetière de Port-au-Prince.
In Petite-Rivière, in the Artibonite region, « no one goes to the cemeteries located in areas controlled by the Gran Grif gang, » magistrate Dort Lereste told AyiboPost. According to the mayor, residents are now turning to the main cemetery located in the city center.
According to the latest quarterly report of the United Nations Integrated Office on Human Rights, published on April 30 on the human rights situation in Haiti, at least 1,617 people were killed in the first quarter of the year.
More than a million people are displaced, and more than half of the population needs humanitarian aid.
On May 2, the United States designated the Viv Ansanm coalition and the Gran Grif gang, which is controling Artibonite, as terrorist organizations.
The difficulties of accessing cemeteries weigh heavily on the finances of citizens who are already in great difficulty.
Gangs set up tolls and charge for the dead to pass.
“After filling up, I have to budget at least 15,000 gourdes just to pay the various toll booths on the way to Carrefour [for example],” the manager of the funeral home on Rue Fleury Battier mentioned above told AyiboPost.
Vaults under construction at the Fragneau ville cemetery in Delmas 75, May 2025. Photo Diego André
In 2021, you could organize a funeral for 100,000 gourdes. “But today, even 150,000 gourdes is no longer enough. You need at least 200,000 gourdes for a very simple funeral. And the clientele has decreased,” he continues.
By : Fenel Pélissier
Cover | A man at the Port-au-Prince cemetery hits a grave with a hammer to insert a coffin. Photo by Jean Feguens Régala for AyiboPost.
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