By Dr. Harrison Ernest, Lavi FM, January 12, 2026
In the Canapé-Vert neighborhood, east of Port-au-Prince, a singular figure emerged during the year 2025: Samuel Joasil, better known as "Kommandan Samuel," a former security agent for Minister Joiseus Nader during the presidency of Jovenel Moïse. While violence plagues vast urban areas of the country, Canapé-Vert has become a bastion of resistance, fueled in part by Samuel's presence. But the central question remains: who is he really?
A police officer attached to the USGPN
According to an analysis of the Haitian crisis published by an international conflict monitoring institute, Samuel Joasil was a member of the General Security Unit of the National Palace (USGPN), a special unit of the Haitian National Police (PNH). However, he is not described as a police officer, but rather as one of the many local brigade leaders who are or have been active or retired police officers; Canapé-Vert has several such brigades not controlled by the Haitian state, and the one led by Samuel is one of the largest.
In this interpretation, Samuel is not simply an armed civilian: he is part of a dynamic in which police officers—active, retired, or dismissed for various crimes—play a crucial role in local defense brigades, often at the interface between law enforcement and civilian communities.
A brigade leader on his way to becoming a potential traditional gang leader
On the ground, Samuel is seen as the main coordinator of the armed defense of Canapé-Vert against the "Viv Ansanm" gangs: he mobilizes local self-defense brigades, organizes watch shifts, and intervenes in response to direct threats from criminal groups. Local media and residents describe him as a community leader, often present at collective actions, demonstrations against insecurity, or informal negotiations with other armed actors of all types and suspected criminals.
The brigades he commands, however, do not currently resemble a structured criminal gang like those controlling most of Port-au-Prince, but rather community vigilance groups that sometimes cooperate with the police or operate independently due to a lack of police presence.
Neither a simple gang leader, nor a typical politician
Far removed from the gang leaders who dominate several neighborhoods of the capital (and who are often formal, hierarchical, and involved in extortion, kidnapping, or trafficking), Samuel is not yet officially listed as a criminal leader, nor accused by international authorities of direct links to major criminal networks.
However, his role goes beyond that of a uniformed police officer: he has become an imposed (and sometimes contested) local authority, capable of mobilizing armed civilians not documented by the established state authorities, judging residents of Canapé-Vert involved in conflicts and deciding on appropriate sentences, organizing political demonstrations, publicly delivering hate speech, manipulating crowds against figures perceived as ideological adversaries, reinforcing social divisions, and also representing a form of alternative power in an area where the state struggles to assert its presence.
Some observers have also noted that political actors or institutional intermediaries—particularly within the government or the Presidential Transitional Council—have sought to influence or control these brigades, suggesting the existence of indirect political links. However, this does not mean that Samuel is a formally elected political leader or one mandated by a recognized political party, despite his previous political activities within a mafia group called "NEW BLOOD," which he led jointly with Pierre Espérance, Rudy Thomas Sanon, Youri Chevry, Nenel Cassy, and others.
The current interpretation
Based on the available information:
- Administrative status: Samuel is a police officer linked to the USGPN at least at one point in his career.
- Field role: He is the head of the Canapé-Vert self-defense brigade, playing a key role in local coordination against gangs.
- Political leader or gang leader?: He appears to be neither a traditional criminal gang leader nor an elected political leader, but a hybrid local figure: a community security actor with a police background and significant social influence in a confused, fragile context where the State, the PNH and the FADH show a total deficit of effective control.
This intermediate status illustrates one of the most complex aspects of the Haitian crisis: state security forces which, lacking solid institutional capacity, merge with local power structures, generating illegally heavily armed and influential leaders but outside the classic frameworks of the state or structured criminal gangs.
At the very least, it appears that Komandan Samuel is no longer an active police officer, as he is beyond the control of the IGPN (General Inspectorate of the National Police) and the DGPN (General Directorate of the National Police), which are powerless to summon him, according to the Secretary of State for Public Security, Mario Andresol. This raises some fundamental and troubling questions, projecting a compromising and extremely bleak future for the Haitian National Police: What is the purpose of the institution's Human Resources Department? Do the PNH (Haitian National Police), the MJSP (Ministry of Justice and Public Security), and the MICT (Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Communities) have detailed information on the quantity of illegal weapons and other combat equipment held by Komandan Samuel and his gangs? Who is financing their activities and operations?
These are all legitimate questions that deserve urgent answers from the relevant authorities in order to prevent the birth of any new gang structure in Canapé-Vert (“NEW BLOOD”), in parallel with the efforts made in recent days by law enforcement to combat the VIV ANSANM gangs, recover illegal weapons, arrest bandits, open major roads to traffic, and restore democratic life in Haiti.
Posted Oct. 20, 2026