Haiti’s Largest Investor Navigates Gangs to Keep Phones Working
Gangs in Haiti have destroyed schools, pharmacies and factories. But they have largely spared one infrastructure network: the country’s telecommunications grid.
Gangsters, it turns out, need working cellphones, too.
Digicel, Haiti’s largest operator and biggest foreign investor, has been able to keep 85% of its cell towers functioning and its mobile services online by carefully navigating gang territories and engaging warlords, said Maarten Boute, the Belgian-born chairman of the company in Haiti. Digicel uses subcontractors they call “community liaisons” to meet with gang chieftains so that the company can secure fuel from ports controlled by the gangs and ensure the safety of technicians conducting repair jobs in gang-controlled neighborhoods.
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