A 94-page report by UN experts says the Viv Ansanm gang alliance is now split by “violent fractures,” and warns that political and economic figures who back gangs could use them to sway Haiti's elections, the Associated Press reported.

The experts, appointed by the UN secretary-general, worked from October 2025 to July 2026 and say they corroborated confidential sources with independent ones. They write that gangs stay strong thanks to “political, economic and security actors who back gangs when it serves their interests,” and that “targeting gang leaders without addressing the networks that sustain them will inevitably fall short.”

“Each leader will seek political and electoral arrangements on its own terms,” said Romain Le Cour of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, offering territory, access to voters and protection in exchange for rewards after the vote.

The report names former senator Nenel Cassy, accusing him of controlling a criminal group in Miragoâne. “I am a pacifist,” Cassy told the AP, calling the allegations “incorrect and unfounded” and political persecution. He said no Haitian court has found him guilty of anything. Former lawmaker Alfredo Junior Antoine, also named, denied the allegations in an email to the experts.

The experts say the lower Artibonite has seen “an unprecedented level of coordinated gang violence” since March. They also found that sanctions are barely enforced: one frozen account of a sanctioned former lawmaker held $421, and several gang leaders had nothing frozen at all.

The report warns of rising sexual violence and recruitment of children. It says gangs offer children about $1,000 and a motorcycle to join, plus $114 to $190 every two weeks.