Jailbreak panic

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Six gunmen blasted into Haiti’s main prison this week, killing a guard and sparking a mass jailbreak. “They seemed to be in there for two or three people only,” a witness told The Miami Herald. “Everyone else rushed out in the panic.” Nearly 500 of the 1,250 inmates fled, including two former high-ranking officials who served under Jean-Bertrand Aristide, before he was driven into exile, a year ago. Former prime minister Yvon Neptune and former interior minister Jocelerme Privert called U.N. peacekeepers from the home of another escapee, asked for a ride back to prison, then waited by the pool, chatting over wine and cheese. “They insisted on returning,” a U.N. spokesman said, “to make clear they didn’t try to escape.” Both men face corruption charges.

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