Organization of American States under pressure from the US to help quell gang violence in Haiti

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Organization of American States came under pressure Thursday to help quash gang violence in Haiti as a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police in the troubled Caribbean country struggles with a lack of funds and personnel.

A U.S. Department of State official attending an OAS meeting on Haiti's security crisis said that the Washington-based group has a critical role to play in the nation.

''Much more can and should be done,'' said Barbara Feinstein, deputy assistant secretary for Caribbean Affairs and Haiti at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Feinstein echoed comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Haiti.

''Why do we have an OAS, if the OAS can't put together a mission to handle the most critical region in our hemisphere?'' Rubio said Wednesday as he proposed building a mission with regional partners. ''We're grateful to the Kenyans, but this is a regional problem, and it should have a regional solution.''

OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro on Thursday acknowledged that the Kenya-led mission was struggling and said that the organization was working on new initiatives.

''There is a need for a new structure for the mission,'' he said.

Last year, the U.S. and Haiti called for it to be replaced with a U.N. peacekeeping mission, but the U.N. Security Council hasn't supported such a change.

‘A wave of indignation'

Thursday's OAS meeting was held just hours after gangs launched another attack in Haiti's central Artibonite region.

Gunmen stormed a church in Préval, killing 22 people, including an 86-year-old pastor who was beheaded, according to Bertide Horace, spokesperson for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite.

''This tragedy has sparked a wave of indignation throughout the country,'' she told The Associated Press, adding that the victims called for help, but that neither police nor officers with the Kenya-led mission responded.

Kenya's OAS representative, Jayne Toroitich, said that while the mission has made considerable progress in Haiti despite ongoing challenges, Haitian police need more training and that the mission more money and personnel.

Only 1,000 out of the 2,500 personnel envisioned by the U.N. Security are currently in Haiti. In addition, the mission is operating at only 30% of its capability in terms of equipment, the representative said.

The OAS meeting was held a day after Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer who became one of Haiti's most powerful gang leaders, pleaded with people from the Delmas 30 neighborhood in the capital, Port-au-Prince, to let armed men through, so that they could overthrow Haiti's prime minister and its transitional presidential council.

''I need the road to get to the prime minister's office,'' he said in a video posted Wednesday on social media.

Chérizier, best known as ''Barbecue,'' is among the leader of a powerful gang coalition called Viv Ansanm, which last year forced former Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign as it attacked dozens of critical state infrastructure sites and forced Haiti's main international airport to close for nearly three months.

A plea for more help

Gangs that control at least 85% of Port-au-Prince also have seized a significant amount of territory in Haiti's central region in recent months.

''Every day, these gangs are gaining more territory,'' said Patrick Pélissier, Haiti's minister of justice and public security.

More than 5,600 people were killed across Haiti last year, and more than 1,600 others from January to end of March, according to the U.N. Gang violence also has left more than 1 million people homeless in recent years.

Pélissier noted that Haiti's National Police is severely understaffed — there is one officer for every 12,000 residents. He said that intelligence and counterintelligence also is greatly lacking.

Jean-Michel Moïse, Haiti's defense minister, echoed those concerns.

The military has about 1,000 members with limited training, he said.

''They are unable, still now, to effectively (fight) the gangs, which are very strong, very well armed, very well financed,'' Moïse said. ''Haiti is on the brink of being fully controlled by criminal gangs, and we cannot allow that to happen.''

He called on the OAS and the international community to help train military officers and new recruits.

''The army is very small, very embryonic,'' he said, adding that the current urban warfare in Haiti is overwhelming them. ''They were not prepared for this kind of challenge.''

Moïse said the government didn't expect gangs to become so powerful after President Jovenel Moïse was killed in July 2021 at his private residence.

He and other Haitian officials noted that the ongoing gang violence is fueled by the smuggling of weapons, many of which come from the U.S.

Moïse and Pélissier thanked the OAS and the international community for their support so far, but stressed that much more is needed.

''Haiti … needs this solidarity to be translated into concrete actions,'' Pélissier said. ''The problem that we have in front of us today is huge.''

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Evens Sanon contributed to this report from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.