Blinken arrives in Haiti to show US support for fighting gang violence

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Thursday in Haiti to reaffirm the U.S. government’s commitment to a multinational mission to fight gangs in the Caribbean country and push for long-awaited general elections.

Some 400 Kenyan police have been deployed to Haiti to lead a U.N.-backed mission to quell gang violence in the Haitian capital and beyond, but concerns have grown that the mission lacks enough funding and equipment.

Brian Nichols, U.S. assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, said Wednesday that the U.S. government is considering a U.N. peacekeeping operation as one way to secure money and resources to fight gangs that control 80% of Haiti’s capital.

Blinken arrived a day after Haiti’s government extended a state of emergency to the entire country. It had been imposed earlier in the year in the capital and surrounding areas in an attempt to stem the ongoing violence.

Blinken is scheduled to meet with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille and a nine-member transitional presidential council that was created after former Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned. He also planned to meet with unspecified political party leaders.

Blinken also will meet with the head of the multinational mission and the chief of Haiti’s National Police.

“Our goal is to recognize the positive progress made toward improving security and encourage efforts to appoint the provisional electoral council so Haiti can move toward elections,” Nichols told reporters ahead of the trip.

Haiti last held elections in 2016, and officials since then have blamed gang violence and political upheaval for preventing them from holding new ones.

In July 2021, former President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, and gang violence since then has surged. In February, gangs launched coordinated attacks on police stations and the main international airport, which remained closed for nearly three months. They also stormed Haiti’s two largest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

The violence subsided somewhat before the first contingent of Kenyan police arrived in late June.

“We are seeing a dramatic increase in patrols and operations designed to restore security and sense of normalcy in Haiti,” Nichols said.

However, gangs continue to attack communities surrounding the capital of Port-au-Prince.

After meeting with officials in Haiti, Blinken is scheduled to fly Thursday night to the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

On Friday, he is scheduled to meet with Dominican President Luis Abinader and other officials before returning to the U.S. later that day.

Nichols said the talks with Abinader will focus on three priorities: strengthening economic ties, advancing values including respect for human and labor rights and promoting increased security in the region, especially in Haiti.

Abinader has come under fire in recent years for his administration’s treatment of Haitian migrants and those born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents.

He also has largely closed the airspace with Haiti and is building a wall between the two nations.