PORT-AU-PRINCE — The United States’ top envoy to the United Nations visited a crisis-wrecked Haiti this week during which she announced tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian and security aid, but also issued a warning about the need for elections to the country’s new leadership.
“My message to them: ‘You have a job. And your job is to make sure that we get the Haitian people to elections, get that electoral commission established, get them to work,’ ” Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Miami Herald. “We’re willing to fund them, we’re willing to provide support and advice, but we need to get it done.”
Haiti hasn’t had an elected president since Jovenel Moïse was gunned down inside his bedroom three years ago, and no Parliament since he dismissed most lawmakers in a tweet in 2020 and began ruling by decree.
Thomas-Greenfield’s visit was her first to Haiti since gunshots during Moïse’s funeral forced her and the rest of a visiting U.S. presidential delegation to cut their visit short on July 23, 2021. Since then, the U.S. diplomat has led the charge at the U.N. Security Council to get global U.N. sanctions imposed on gang members spreading violence and hunger, and those financing political instability, and getting an armed international force deployed to help the Haitian police root out gangs. She and her counterpart from Ecuador spearheaded the Security Council resolution authorizing last month’s long-awaited deployment of the first contingent of Kenyan police officers nine months after it was approved.
During her visit to Haiti Thomas-Greenfield publicly praised the country’s new political transition for sharing the U.S. commitment to reduce crime, strengthen human rights and build a more transparent, representative government. But privately in meetings with members of the presidential council and Prime Minister Garry Conille, she also made the thrust of her visit clear: get the elections process rolling by appointing a Provisional Electoral Council, whose job under Haitian law is to organize the balloting.
“If we start to see that they are not moving forward and moving to establish the provisional electoral commission, leading to elections, we’re gonna call them out for it,” Thomas-Greenfield told the Herald.
Organizing elections in Haiti, last held in 2016, is the final goal in a deal that was put in place in March by the 15-member Caribbean Community bloc in Jamaica after the U.S. agreed to support a political transition in Haiti. A presidential transitional council was formed, and its seven voting members were tasked with readying Haiti for the arrival of the Kenyan force, selecting a new prime minister to lead a new government and to organize elections.
“My message to them was very, very clear,” Thomas-Greenfield said about her conversations with Conille and the transitional presidential council. “We are depending on them to do what they have been selected by the people of Haiti to do … they have to work together to deliver to the Haitian people.”
The renewed push by the U.S. comes after years of putting discussions about elections on the back burner as gangs drove Haiti to the brink of collapse in the aftermath of the 2021 assassination of Moïse. It also comes as the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission finally starts to come together.
In addition to delivering a message about elections, Thomas-Greenfield wanted to highlight U.S. support for the fight against gangs in hopes of getting more countries to step up with financing and equipment, and she wanted to hear firsthand what it’s like for Haitians, especially women and girls, dealing with the violence and humanitarian crisis.
During the visit to Port-au-Prince Thomas-Greenfield heard both skepticism and hope. In a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Tabarre, female activists questioned whether the new political transition can avoid a new political crisis and whether the Kenya-led mission can actually help the Haitian police dismantle gangs and restore order. Activists noted that since the Kenyan force’s arrival, it remains dangerous to go out on the street, and the attacks that have already forced 578,000 Haitians from their homes into displacement camps continue.
“Again, it just started,” Thomas-Greenfield said of Haiti’s new governing structure. “I understand the skepticism. But I’m not going to let skepticism stand in the way of making progress.”
Before leaving Port-au-Prince, she announced $60 million in aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development to help Haiti deal with the humanitarian crisis.
She also announced Haiti will get more armored vehicles to support the security mission. The package includes “a substantial increase in the number of mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles through the Department of Defense,” she said, and the procurement of armored vehicles by the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
“These gangs are not used to having a force like the Kenyans fight against them,” she told the Herald. “They’re used to terrorizing populations who are defenseless. They’re used to terrorizing police stations that are not fully equipped, so they’re going to be dealing with a different kind of response with the Kenyans on the ground.”
Thomas-Greenfield said she was told that in areas where the Kenyans have appeared on joint patrols alongside the Haiti National Police, many of the gangs have hunkered down, taking a wait-and-see mode.
During her visit, she and others in the U.S. delegation, including Brian Nichols, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, were reminded of the complexities of the crisis in which armed groups now control more than 80% of the capital.
The day before the delegation’s arrival, members of the 400 Mawozo gang killed two people in Ganthier, a town just east of the U.S. embassy in Tabarre. The attack left the police station in flames, despite reports by the Haitian police that they had thwarted the attempted arson.
“I know people are impatient, and … they want to see change now,” said Thomas-Greenfield. “The Kenyans have been on the ground for three weeks … and they are working very, very closely with the new head of the Haitian national police to put together a strategy. The prime minister was clear that he wanted a strategy from them on how they are going to engage.”
There are currently 400 Kenyan police officers in Haiti, and they will soon be joined by about 200 officers from Jamaica. An additional 600 Kenyans are currently being vetted and trained for the mission, which will also include security personnel from other countries. At its peak the mission is expected to have about 2,500 personnel.
The U.S. remains the largest financial contributor to the security mission, providing more than $300 million for logistics, equipment and training. Though other countries, including Canada and France, have also contributed, Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration wants “to see more” help from other nations.
“We’re pushing for that. I’m pulling together meetings on a regular basis in New York; we’re trying to organize a Friends of Haiti group in New York, to really push for and address funding shortfalls,” she said. “But I think the good news story out of this is the fact that a country like Kenya, Benin in Africa, are providing troops, Jamaica in the region are providing troops. We’re just getting started. I know there’s a lot more work to be done.”
That work also includes pursuing sanctions against people in Haiti who finance gangs and political instability.
In an unusual move earlier this month, Thomas-Greenfield publicly named a Haitian politician, the former president of the Haitian Senate, Youri Latortue, as she expressed frustration over Russia and China’s refusal to support the U.S. push to impose U.N. sanctions against him. She is not giving up, she said.
“We’re going to keep trying to call them out for blocking putting them on sanctions,” Thomas-Greenfield said of Russia and China, adding that the U.S. has other names it is pursuing for placement on the list whose membership currently includes just five gang members.
“But in the meantime, we have imposed direct sanctions by the U.S. government and we will continue to look for others to put sanctions on. We do believe sanctions work, specific sections on why sanctions work; the Haitians believe sanctions work. Nobody wants to be on a sanctions list.”
By JACQUELINE CHARLES/Miami Herald