International troops are urgently needed to stabilize Haiti’s spiraling humanitarian and security crisis, the U.S.’s top diplomat said this week at a Caribbean summit, echoing calls by the United Nations and Haiti’s government.
Haiti is the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country and armed gangs have filled a power void that followed the assassination of its president in 2021. The gangs control large parts of the capital Port-au-Prince and access to water, food and health care. The U.N. says that Haiti is spinning out of control on virtually every measure from sexual violence to kidnappings, from migration to murder. Cindy McCain, executive dictator of the U.N.’s World Food Programme, recently visited the country and said that “one of the world’s worst hunger crises is unfolding unseen, unheard and unaddressed.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the brief remarks during a trip Wednesday to Trinidad and Tobago, where he met with Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Trinidad and Tobago is hosting a conference for a regional political and economic organization of countries. The State Department said in a statement that Blinken and Henry “agreed on the urgency of deploying a U.N.-authorized multinational force or peacekeeping operation” to help Haiti’s police restore order. Blinken told leaders at the summit that the U.S. “shares the commitment felt throughout the region to help the Haitian people shape their future to restore the country’s democratic order through free and fair elections.”
But Blinken stopped short of suggesting U.S.-led forces could be deployed to help calm the turmoil. And no other countries have stepped forward to say they would be willing to lead a security mission of this kind.
Visualizing turmoil in Haiti:How gang wars are tearing the country apart
A path forward for Haiti − or no path at all?
A separate gathering of Haitian and other Caribbean political leaders last month in Jamaica also ended without any apparent progress on solving Haiti’s economic and security crisis or calls for international intervention − and with at least a few accusations that U.S. support for Haiti’s current leader is reinforcing a political stalemate.
Francois Pierre-Louis, who was an adviser to former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said that key to ending an impasse over what should be done in Haiti − and who should do it − is for the Biden administration to withdraw its backing for Henry, Haiti’s leader.
“Why does the U.S. State Department continue to support someone who is by all accounts incompetent and unable to appease the situation? We don’t know,” said Pierre-Louis, a professor of political science at Queens College CUNY. Pierre-Louis did not attend the conference in Jamaica. But he said he was briefed by sources who did. He said that Henry opened the event with a speech and then spent most of the rest of the three days in Jamaica in his hotel room, refusing to engage with participants.
“Henry will do nothing,” said Daniel Foote, a former U.S. envoy to Haiti who resigned from the role in September 2021. His resignation was driven, in part, by frustration about what he said was a “deeply flawed” U.S. policy toward the country, including an “inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees.” Foote said Henry likely viewed the talks with foreign diplomats as “a cover” to give him time to plan and schedule an election. But he said that even if there is a vote “the election results won’t be acceptable to the population.”
“Haiti will continue to spiral,” he said, “and we’ll be talking about what’s next in the chaos afterwards.”
A senior adviser to Henry did not respond to a request for comment on Pierre-Louis’s characterization of the prime minister’s participation at the Jamaica event. In response to a request for comment on how effective Henry has been since his appointment as Haiti’s leader, the State Department described Henry as a “transition” figure.
“The United States continues to call on Haitian stakeholders to rise above their differences and urgently work towards the restoration of democratic order, including elections, when security permits,” it said.
Ariel Henry, a post-assassination president
The U.S. helped install Henry as Haiti’s leader in an attempt to stabilize a country on the brink of chaos following the murder of President Jovenel Moise at his residence in the early hours of July 7, 2021. Henry has signaled that he is willing to hold an election this year, yet Haiti has no democratically elected leaders after the terms of its remaining senators expired earlier this year. That means there are no elected officials in place for a country of more than 11 million people, many of whom are facing extreme poverty, deepening hunger and out-of-control gang violence that has paralyzed Port-au-Prince and the country’s already fragile economy.
Violent kidnappings for ransom have soared over the past year, although Jean Jean-Pierre, a musician who lives in Port-au-Prince, said in a WhatsApp message that in recent months “since populations have begun taking the matter into their own hands, kidnappings have gone down substantially.” He described “taking the matter into their own hands” as fighting back with the help of specialized SWAT teams, often armed only with machetes.
He said he was “still keeping a low profile despite a two-month lull in kidnappings” and pointed out that as Haiti’s “political crowd” were in Jamaica, gangs attacked and set ablaze part of that country’s Port-au-Prince consulate.
“Violence and climate shocks capture the headlines, but we don’t hear as much about the 4.9 million Haitians struggling to eat day-to-day,” McCain said in June.
What’s the plan for Haiti?
Back in October, Henry requested the immediate deployment of a foreign armed force. The U.N. Security Council, along with the U.S. and Canada, support the idea of a multinational force. Vice President Kamala Harris said as much at a separate regional summit in the Bahamas last month.
And 70% of Haitians appear to back this idea as well, according to a poll in February poll.
But no one can agree on who should lead it. The U.S. has so far demurred, partly because of its history of failed interventions in Haiti. Canada, which has a large Haitian diaspora, has also shown reluctance to lead from the front. U.N. peacekeepers previously committed sexual abuse of women in Haiti, highly tarnishing the organization’s credibility. Only Jamaica’s government has said it’s willing to contribute troops.
Pierre-Louis, the former Haitian government adviser, said he believes “Henry needs to go” before there can be any meaningful talk of an intervening force. He’s also ambivalent about whether such a force would work.
“We’ve been down that road before,” he said.
