In the predawn hours on a Sunday in late July, members of one of Haiti’s largest armed gangs attacked the town of Ganthier, about 25 miles east of the capital and on a road that the authorities say is used to smuggle weapons. When police reinforcements arrived in armored vehicles hours later, officers found the streets deserted, the gang members having left after destroying Ganthier’s police station and torturing and killing several residents, according to the town’s mayor and the police. “The whole town of Ganthier is emptied; there is no one left,” the mayor, Jean Vilonor Victor, told The New York Times. Weeks after the arrival of a United Nations-backed international security force in Haiti, the gangs who have brought the capital, Port-au-Prince, and other regions in the country to their knees show no signs of letting up.

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Persons: Jean Vilonor Victor, Weeks Organizations: New York Times, United Locations: Ganthier, United Nations, Haiti, Port