Troubled OAS pitches a new Haiti intervention

Politico

6 days ago

With help from Jacob Wendler, Sam Skove, Connor O'Brien, Felicia Schwartz, Daniel Lippman
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FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY: The head of the Washington-based Organization of American States — a grouping of 35 Latin American and Caribbean countries focused on regional development — has a plan to mobilize its members to end the chaos in Haiti.
The organization's Secretary General ALBERT RAMDIN called for a $1.4 billion OAS-led and European Union-backed intervention in Haiti starting next month in a closed-door speech to OAS representatives Tuesday.
In the speech — which NatSec Daily got a transcript of — Ramdin outlined a plan to defeat the gangs sowing chaos in Haiti's cities, allow unimpeded humanitarian aid to the country's 1.3 million displaced people and restore order to pave the way to national elections. That will include the creation of six European Union-funded 'forward operating bases' tasked to resolve the 'dire' security situation in and around the capital Port-Au-Prince. In his speech Ramdin thanked the EU for 'providing the resources' for that initiative but did not say what commitments he had received from the EU.
Neither the OAS nor the EU responded to requests for comment.
Haiti — the poorest country in the Western hemisphere — has been tormented by violent gangs since the assassination of President JOVENEL MOÏSE in 2021 led to a collapse of the country's government. A Kenyan-led U.N.-backed multinational security force deployed to the island in 2024 has failed to restore order. And U.N. Security Council members Russia and China have nixed U.S. efforts to send U.N. peacekeepers.
Ramdin said that of the $1.4 billion that the OAS requires for the plan, a total of $900 million will fund 'humanitarian response' in Haiti. If OAS members approve his proposal 'by early September, we can start the process of execution' of the plan.
Ramdin's pitch for OAS intervention in Haiti comes as the organization is in the Trump administration's crosshairs. The U.S. has historically funded about 50 percent of the OAS' annual budget. The Trump administration has withheld that money during a 180- day review of U.S. support for multilateral organizations that concludes Saturday.
So far OAS has not impressed the Trump administration with its actions in Haiti. Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO criticized the OAS in May for failing to 'provide a force' to stabilize Haiti. Then in June, Deputy Secretary of State CHRISTOPHER LANDAU piled on. 'If the OAS is unwilling or unable to play a constructive role in Haiti, then we must seriously ask ourselves why the OAS exists,' he said in a speech at the group's General Assembly.
But that ignores structural restraints on how the OAS operates.
'The OAS is not equipped, bureaucratically or legally, to organize a military force,' said FRANK MORA, who was U.S. ambassador to the grouping during the Biden administration.
When asked if Ramdin's proposal was an implicit bid for continuing U.S. support for the OAS ahead of the administration's funding decision, Mora said 'I think you just nailed it.'
The State Department didn't respond to a request for comment.
Ramdin described his proposed OAS intervention as strictly temporary.
'Once the security environment improves, we will go into long-term security management, which means that we won't need troops anymore from outside,' Ramdin said.
That may underestimate the challenges of confronting the violence in Haiti.
'It will take a sustained effort — a mini–Marshall Plan — that no country has been willing to support so far,' said LELAND LAZARUS, a former special assistant to the head of U.S. Southern Command.
The Inbox
FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — HAMAS HOSTAGE'S WIFE PLEADS FOR MORE TALKS: LISHAY MIRAN-LAVI, the wife of an Israeli hostage in Gaza, told our own Daniel Lippman that Rubio assured her talks to free the hostages continue, even though U.S. and Israeli negotiators pulled out of talks with Hamas last week.
Miran-Lavi and several other hostage families met with Rubio last Friday — the day after U.S. negotiators abandoned the talks in Doha. She said that Rubio told them to ignore the 'background noise' from the various parties and that negotiations were continuing, though he didn't provide details.
She said she urged Rubio to pressure both sides to make a deal to free her husband OMRI MIRAN, who Hamas militants abducted during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Nahal Oz kibbutz. She and the other families also met with administration officials at the White House and Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) during their Washington trip.
'I really hope that the administration, Rubio and others that we met understand that freeing the hostages is really the key, and this is really the solution to a lot of problems that we have,' she said. A person with knowledge of the discussion confirmed that Rubio told the hostage families that efforts to free their relatives would not stop.
'President Trump and Secretary Rubio remain focused on releasing the hostages, including the remains of two Americans,' a State Department spokesperson said.
TARIFFS TAINT FOREIGN POLICY: Several of President DONALD TRUMP's updated reciprocal tariff rates unveiled Thursday are hitting countries at risk for instability and could conflict with Trump's aim to create stability in the Middle East, our own Felicia Schwartz writes in.
Take Syria, which faces a 41 percent tariff that matches the reciprocal levy Trump imposed on the country's imports in April. While the U.S. and Syria have minimal trade, that tariff level could still create tension in nascent U.S. relations with its new government after the ouster of former Syrian President BASHAR ASSAD late last year. It also appears to run counter to the Trump administration's decision to lift sanctions on Damascus in June, which aimed to build ties with its transitional government and help it rebuild the country.
Iraq, meanwhile, saw a slight decrease in its April tariff rate to 35 percent from 39 percent. That levy exempts oil, which dominates U.S.-Iraqi trade but inflicts a symbolic sting that could send an unwelcome signal to one of Washington's most important partners in containing Iranian influence and a key target of U.S. efforts to win countries away from China.
NASA SHRINKAGE: The thousands of NASA employees leaving the agency won't create a 'critical loss' of knowledge at the agency, NASA's chief of staff BRIAN HUGHES told our own Sam Skove in this morning's Space newsletter. A blend of the White House's proposed 25 percent cut in the agency's budget and the retirement of a large swathe of its senior staff has fueled the exit of almost 4,000 employees since January. Hughes is fine with that.
'Even when some senior people have left, there's an additional cadre behind them,' Hughes said.
Hughes' words carry extra weight thanks to his strong ties to the White House — an unusual feature for a NASA chief-of-staff. Hughes had no NASA background before taking on his post, but he has proven loyalty to Trump after running his Florida campaign in last year's presidential election. With no permanent NASA administrator selected, Hughes is the top politically appointed Trump official at NASA, after Transportation Secretary SEAN DUFFY, who heads NASA on an interim basis.
DRINKS WITH NATSEC DAILY: At the end of every long, hard week, we like to highlight how a prominent member of the national security scene prefers to unwind with a drink.
Today, we're featuring DREW THOMPSON, who served as the Pentagon's director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia from 2011 and 2018. Thompson is now a fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. Singapore's weather year-round mirrors what we've endured here in the DMV the past few weeks. Think constant high heat and sweltering humidity that makes a drink — any drink! — the highlight of one's day.
No surprise that Drew's go-to libation is an icy cold beer. But not one from some soulless corporate manufacturer. Drew's brew comes from his own home-blending of water, hops and yeast that produces a pint that can strip the stripes off the local Tiger Beer brand.
'After I left the Department of Defense and moved to Singapore in 2018, I learned how to make home-brewed beer and have been making my own beer ever since. It's a great discussion starter when I bring a few bottles to a friend's house and introduce the latest batch.' 乾杯 !
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The Complex
UNDER THE DOME: The Pentagon has scheduled its first major test of the Trump administration's planned Golden Dome missile defense system for 2028, CNN's Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen scooped today. That aggressive timeline would deliver on the three-year target announced by Trump in May for the $175 million project and, if successful, give the administration a high-profile win to tout in November 2028.
Defense Secretary PETE HEGSETH gave Space Force Gen. MICHAEL GUETLEIN, who Trump charged with spearheading the project, 60 days to come up with an initial architecture and 120 days to draft an implementation plan in late May, per a memo obtained by CNN.
But, as our colleagues Connor O'Brien and Joe Gould reported Thursday (for Pros!), the defense appropriations bill heading to the Senate floor doesn't allocate any new money for the defense system, which was awarded $25 billion in the GOP megabill.
UKRAINE'S PATRIOT GAINS: Germany has brokered a deal with the Trump administration for the delivery of two Patriot missile systems to Ukraine in the coming days, the German Defense Ministry announced today. Berlin will then deliver 'further system components' to Kyiv in the next two to three months, with the Pentagon promising Berlin will be first in line to receive the newest Patriot technology in return, the statement said.
German Defense Minister BORIS PISTORIUS said the agreement won't affect Berlin's NATO contributions. That deal follows a Russian bombardment of Kyiv on Thursday that killed 31 people — the deadliest attack on Ukraine's capital in a year. Meanwhile, Trump upped the ante in his ongoing feud with former Russian leader DMITRY MEDVEDEV, writing on his Truth Social platform this afternoon that he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be sent to the region 'just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than that.'
The threat came after Trump and Medvedev traded epithets on social media Thursday, with Medvedev — the deputy chair of Russia's security council — threatening Trump with a Cold War-era Russian doomsday weapon designed to automatically launch a retaliatory nuclear strike, as our own Eli Stokols and Paul McCleary report.
On the Hill
FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — SENATE DEMS HIT TRUMP ADMIN ON HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT: Sen. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.) and her fellow Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are introducing legislation today to safeguard the credibility of the State Department's annual human rights report after officials delayed the release of last year's report to make changes to sensitive sections. As our own Nahal Toosi scooped Thursday, the 2024 report was initially scheduled for release today but has since been sent for more edits overseen by Rubio's top aides on topics including Israel and Gaza.
The bill, dubbed the Safeguarding the Integrity of Human Rights Reports Act, would require the State Department to report on government corruption, restrictions on freedom of expression or political participation and discrimination against women, indigenous people and LGBTQ+ people, among other issues.
Rep. GREGORY MEEKS (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is introducing companion legislation. 'Omitting key information for political interests undermines the integrity of the entire report,' Shaheen said in a statement. Expect GOP lawmakers to mostly ignore the bill due to the absence of a Republican co-sponsor and its explicit criticism of Trump administration foreign policy.
Broadsides
WITKOFF'S 'STAGED' GAZA VISIT: Special envoy STEVE WITKOFF and U.S. Ambassador to Israel MIKE HUCKABEE visited a section of Gaza on today as the Trump administration tries to cool concerns within the GOP (think MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE) about mass hunger in the zone. But Witkoff ended up taking heat from a former senior Palestinian Authority official instead.
'Mr. Witkoff, Gaza is not an animal farm that requires a staged personal visit to take some personal photos in front of the death traps overseen by your American companies,' said Gaza's former health minister BASEM NAIM, per CNN.
While in Gaza Witkoff and Huckabee visited a distribution center for the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and pledged to report back to Trump about its operations. Hundreds of Gazans have been killed since May trying to access food and water amid ongoing Israeli military operations in the zone. Huckabee pushed back against criticism of that U.S.-backed aid effort by praising it as 'an incredible feat' in an X post today.
BEIJING BLASTS PALESTINIAN SANCTIONS: The Chinese government took aim today at the Trump administration's imposition of sanctions that will bar members of Palestinian political entities from obtaining U.S. visas.
'China is appalled by the U.S. sanctioning officials of the Palestinian Authority and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization,' said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson GUO JIAKUN. Guo said the sanctions symbolized the Trump administration 'turning a blind eye to the international effort for peace' between Israelis and Palestinians.
The State Department said Thursday that the sanctions are punishment for the groups' 'continuing to support terrorism. The sanctions are administration pushback against threats by countries including Canada, France and the United Kingdom to recognize Palestinian statehood unless Israel ends its military operations in Gaza.
Transitions
— JULIA REESE, former senior legislative assistant to Rep. ASHLEY HINSON (R-Iowa), is now federal government affairs principal at Nucor Corporation.
— TÕNIS SAAR is the new director of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence. Saar most recently served as secretary general of the Estonian Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs.
What to Read
— Mitch McConnell and Chris Coons, Washington Post: How to ensure America is ready for the next war
— Lev Nachman and Wei Ting-yen, Foreign Affairs: Taiwan's Democracy is in Trouble
— Mark McKinnon, The Globe and Mail: Movement to recognize Palestinian statehood reflects Israel's growing isolation
Monday Today
— The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, 10 a.m.: Spacepower in Action: Leading the Fight for Space Superiority
— Foreign Policy, 11 a.m.: The Future of European Defense
— Stimson Center, 8 p.m.: Assessing North Korea's '20×10' Regional Development Progress
Thanks to our editors, Heidi Vogt and Emily Lussier, who deliver danger-free aid daily.