Top Democrat in Senate Foreign Relations Committee urges Rubio to prioritize Haiti crisis

Yahoo

13-05-2025

The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is calling on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prioritize U.S. efforts to deal with the crisis of gang violence in Haiti.
Rubio, who supported Haiti while he was in the Senate, should reconsider restoring funding cuts, push for money for the ongoing international armed mission to fight gangs and engage with Russia and China in high-level conversations to lay the groundwork for a formal United Nations peacekeeping mission, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said.
Shaheen outlined her concerns and recommendations to Rubio in a three-page letter, shared with the Miami Herald, that shows she's been closely monitoring the worsening crisis in Haiti.
'Absent strong U.S. leadership, Haiti is on the path to becoming a failed state overrun by armed criminal groups — a tragedy that would exacerbate an already dire humanitarian catastrophe for the Haitian people, produce a mass migration emergency with huge regional implications and risk consolidating a transnational criminal and drug trafficking hub mere hundreds of miles from U.S. shores,' Shaheen said.
READ MORE: Designating Haiti's gangs as terrorists risks humanitarian aid | Opinion
The letter comes amid a lack of clear U.S. policy toward Haiti amid the worsening humanitarian and security situation, and deepening concerns about the future of the under-resourced and ill-equipped Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, which is in danger of falling apart.
Funding for the mission has stalled and several Caribbean countries have put their promised deployments on hold. Only about 1,000 of the 2,500 envisioned security personnel have been sent to Haiti. In June, the operator of the U.S.-built mission base adjacent to the Port-au-Prince international airport will need to be notified if it will get a $200 million payment to continue operations for six months after the contract comes up for renewal in September. Meanwhile, money is still needed for critical equipment, more troops and a base to expand the current deployment.
Shaheen acknowledged in her letter that 'despite some laudable efforts' by the U.S. and international community to deal with the situation — Kenya's leadership over the security mission and the establishment of the Transitional Presidential Council — 'these efforts have failed to change the status quo and the Haitian people are worse off today than they were even a year ago.'
In the short term, she added, continued political, logistical and financial support for the Kenya-led mission 'is the most feasible and realistic option to stabilize the security crisis,' Shaheen wrote, adding that the Trump administration needs to make adjustments.
That includes pushing the multinational mission 'beyond a primary focus on protecting critical infrastructure to sustained... operations against criminal groups and key targets with a strategic focus on gaining and maintaining territorial control.'
That means developing plans for bolstering bases to accommodate a mission force of between 2,500 and 5,000 personnel, Shaheen said.
'The Administration should also develop concrete metrics for evaluating... progress, expand the number of military personnel with counter insurgency expertise and ensure sufficient staff and budget to create the twelve operational bases established in the 2024 Concept of Operation agreed to by the United States and Kenya,' she said.
Since the Kenyans began deploying last June with the first group of police officers, the mission and Haitian police have struggled to stop the onslaught of armed gangs, which have seized even more territory in the last year while carrying out kidnappings and killings. At the same time, the country continues to be hit by natural disasters, complicating a dire humanitarian situation where more than a million people have displaced from their homes by gangs.
On Monday, U.N. aid groups in Haiti reported that recent rainfall in the northeast region led to widespread flooding that damaged farms and vital infrastructure as well as more than 3,900 homes. Initial assessments indicate loss of livestock and destruction of small farms, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said. Key roads were also damaged, hindering access to affected communities.
Last week, gangs reduced a major auto dealership, Automeca, to ashes in Port-au-Prince just a month before it was set to celebrate its 57th anniversary on June 28. The next day, gangs invaded the community of Furcy in the hills of Kenscoff above the capital, attacking a police station and burning homes in the area. Gangs with the Viv Ansanm coalition also set fire to The Lodge, a well-known hotel in the area.
Masillon Jean, the mayor of Kenscoff, said that while the police managed to take back the Furcy station, armed gang members still occupy a school and Catholic church in the area. An unknown number of residents have been killed while others seriously wounded, he added, and authorities still have not been able to get into the area due to the presence of armed gangs, which have cut off the road and erected barricades.
'There needs to be an operation to dislodge these guys from Furcy,' Jean said on Monday during an interview on Port-au-Prince Magik 9.
The intensified attacks have continued despite the Trump administration's designation of Haiti's powerful armed gangs as foreign and global terrorists earlier this month. That includes 27 gangs that are part of the Viv Ansanm coalition and the Gran Grief gang operating in the Artibonite region. Both groups have been labeled Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists by Rubio.
Shaheen said she's 'deeply skeptical' over the effectiveness of the designations to hold Haitian gangs and their political and economic enablers accountable and is concerned that the delivery of humanitarian assistance could be impeded by the designation.
READ MORE: Open letter to the United Nations: Haitians need help now | Opinion
There are as many as a half million illegal firearms in Haiti's criminal market, the vast majority of which are trafficked to from the U.S., Shaheen said, and the administration should do more to target arms trafficking networks into Haiti.
'Ending Haiti's gang violence is not possible without taking our own concrete steps to investigate and dismantle this arms trafficking network,' she said. 'I urge you to work with your inter-agency partners and Dominican Republic authorities to improve illicit firearms tracing and recovery in Haiti.'
The U.S. has been the key financial backer of the security mission in Haiti, which was authorized by the U.N. but dependent on voluntary contributions. Last month as the U.N. Security Council met to discuss the situation, the Trump administration said it could no longer keep carrying such a significant financial burden.
At the same time, the administration has been cutting funds, imposed a 10% tariff on Haitian goods entering the U.S. and has not said whether it supports efforts to create a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission or a plan by Guterres to share some of the burden by using the U.N.'s peacekeeping budget.
The deepening uncertainty and chaotic security situation already had its first political casualty over the weekend. A previously announced referendum on Haiti's constitution, previewed for May 11, did not take place. General elections, which are being planned for this November, also appear increasingly out of reach.
'It is in the U.S. national interest to act before it is too late. Given your strong leadership on issues in the Western Hemisphere... I am confident you understand that Haiti's security situation has direct security implications for the United States,' Shaheen wrote Rubio. 'While there should be a strong emphasis on burden sharing, it is in the U.S. national interest to lean forward, not pull back from Haiti.'