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US pledges support for security leading to Haiti elections as prime minister resigns
The US has pledged $333 million so far to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti and to help bankroll a proposed international security force composed of police officers from Kenya. The World’s host Marco Werman speaks with Eduardo Gamarra, professor of political science at Florida International University, about the evolving US role in helping Haiti through a time of civil unrest and political upheaval.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry attends a public lecture at the United States International University in Nairobi, Kenya, March 1, 2024. The prime minister had traveled to Kenya to push for the UN-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country to fight gangs in Haiti. Henry, who is facing calls to resign or form a transitional council, remains unable to return home.
Andrew Kasuku/AP/File
On Tuesday, Haiti’s besieged prime minister, Ariel Henry, announced that he has agreed to resign once a transitional presidential council is installed amid a surge in gang violence. It is unclear who will take on leadership in the country.
Politicians across Haiti are scrambling for power, but elbowing their way into the race are powerful gangs that control 80% of Haiti’s capital and demand a say in the future of the troubled nation.
The US has pledged $333 million so far to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti and to help bankroll a proposed international security force composed of police officers from Kenya.
The World’s host Marco Werman spoke with Eduardo Gamarra, a political science professor at Florida International University, about the evolving US role in helping Haiti through a time of civil unrest and political upheaval.
The US has said that it will work in Haiti, but only through multilateral channels, Gamarra explained, adding that the Association of Caribbean States has been the most effective in working not only with the United States, but also with what’s left of Haiti’s political leadership.
Marco Werman: How would you describe US interests in Haiti?
Eduardo Gamarra: There are no major economic interests in Haiti that could be of interest to the United States, given what Haiti’s economy has gone through. The main interest right now, perhaps from a political point of view, is somehow stopping the flow of undocumented Haitians and through the southern border.
I mean, a lot of Haitians are wary about foreign intervention. What is the track record when it comes to international involvement in Haiti?
Well, the US has had at least 100 years of some kind of intervention in Haiti, whether it was military, like at the beginning of the 20th century, in 1915, or like we did in trying to return [Jean-Bertrand] Aristide to power in 1994. So the US has had a permanent presence in Haiti that, by and large, is resented both by the average Haitian and by the Haitian elite. There is a very recent history, for example, of a major UN force called MINUSTAH that was in Haiti from 2004 until 2017. And Haitians remember it not by the reestablishment of order, but because it brought cholera, and because some soldiers engaged in in sexual abuse of Haitian women. So that’s the memory of a recent foreign intervention.
How does Haiti’s long-term relationship with the US and this pressure in the diaspora here against intervention? How does this all impact the Biden administration’s choices now?
Well, the Biden administration has opted first and foremost for a multilateral approach. They are completely against any kind of direct military intervention given the history of the past. And so in some measure, they’re very cautious and how they deal with Haitian leadership in the diaspora. And since there really are no real interlocutors in Haiti, right? In fact, finding some credible interlocutors through CARICOM [Carribean Community] is the first time in which the US is talking to somebody other than the prime minister, who just recently resigned. So the US is first and foremost doing a multilateral approach. And then I think, you know, it may, in the long run, consider some other type of intervention. But the most important thing that the US has pledged is to fund the Kenya Force. That money, however, is tied up in the lower house of our Congress, and it’s tied up in this whole debate over whether we should fund Ukraine, Israel and in other issues.
I’m just curious, what are your thoughts on the Kenyan intervention? Some people are saying it could turn into a real tragic situation.
The most important thing is first, what is the nature of the mission? Is it just to stabilize the country, or is it, as I’ve read elsewhere, that it’s to stabilize the country and then help Haiti promote elections or hold elections? In either case, these aren’t missions that are going to last two or three weeks or three or four months. You know, the longer they are, the more room for major mistakes.
This interview has been edited and lightly condensed. AP contributed to this report.