(RepublicanInformer.com)- Haiti is in upheaval after its president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated last week. But despite the tenuous situation there, the U.S. has no plans to send help.
A senior official in the Biden administration told both the New York Times and Reuters that there are currently no plans to send military assistance from the United States to Haiti. That announcement comes in the wake of Haiti requesting security forces come to the country to help guard its critical infrastructure as turmoil is rising there.
A “state of siege” was instituted by Claude Joseph, the country’s interim prime minister, following Moise’s assassination at his home in the capital city of Port-au-Prince last Wednesday morning.
One source in Congress told The Hill that a request for military forces was “generically mentioned” by Haitian officials. The source said:
“It’s kind of been framed in this bucket of U.S. security assistance where in reality the Haitian government made a request for U.S. troops.”
There has been much confusion over that request, though, according to other sources. Part of the issue is that French is the official language of Haiti, and their word for “troops” may also refer simply to police forces, not military forces.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, did say that the U.S. would be giving Haiti financial resources to help their issue. America would also be sending senior officials with the Department of Homeland Security as well as the FBI to Haiti to help where needed.
Reuters has reported that the country requested the United Nations Security Council send forces to Haiti as well.
Following Moise’s assassination, 19 people were arrested in connection with the incident. Two of those people are Haitian Americans — Joseph Vincent and James Solages. The other 17 are Colombians.
The defense ministry in Colombia also confirmed on Friday that 13 of those suspects are former soldiers of their department. The New York Times reported that the Colombian military said two of those former soldiers are now dead, while the other 11 are in custody.
It’s not surprising to the military world that Colombians were apparently heavily involved in the attack. Former members of the military in Colombia have been recruited as hired guns in the past, the Times reported. As the paper wrote:
“Colombians are attractive to those looking for military help, because they often have years of experience fighting left-wing guerrillas and drug traffickers inside their own country — and are often trained by U.S. experts.”
For its part, Colombia’s government have condemned the assassination and were assisting Haitian officials in their investigation.
Officials within Colombia have said some of the suspects left Bogota in May, and made their way to Haiti by going through Panama and then the Dominican Republic. Some of the others went directly to the Dominican Republic in June and traveled to Haiti from there.
The Dominican Republic and Haiti are on the same island in the Caribbean, called Hispaniola.
