Is Haiti slipping ever deeper into the darkness?
The United Nations Security Council approved (on September 30) a larger international security force for Haiti than it’s had thus far with its small Kenyan police contingent, but it’s not clear things will look up any time soon for the troubled Caribbean nation.
The new UN plan was agreed the very day that Haiti’s last stable industry received a grievous body blow from which it may not recover. On September 30, a two-decade-old law that allowed Haitian textiles tax-free access to the US market expired. The textile sector employs nearly 25,000 Haitians but without a preferential US trade deal, companies may have to close shop.
This would be yet more bad news for a country where gang violence is spiralling out of control. Armed gangs, which have overrun Haiti since mid-2021, are in charge of about 85 per cent of Port au Prince. Thousands have died and 1.3 million (or a twelfth of the country) are displaced.
Enter the new UN plan for a Gang Suppression Force. This entity is visualised by the United States and Panama as a heavyweight agent of change. It’s proposed the Force will have a big UN logistics office in Port au Prince. Its 5,500 personnel will have the power to detain suspected members of the gangs.
But will it get off the ground? Crucially, will it be effective?
The UN mandate for the two-year-old Kenyan-led mission to provide stability to Haiti was always a half-hearted initiative. It never really got the international funds it needed and it less than half the 2,500 police officers envisaged arrived.
There are fears something similar may happen with the proposed Gang Suppression Force. Will the necessary funding be available? Will it be able to recruit and retain thousands of experienced soldiers and police officers?
Will Trumpworld favourite, Erik Prince, founder of private military contractor Blackwater as well as the new mercenary outfit Vectus Global, have any further role to play in Haiti? Mr Prince has already deployed Salvadoran fighters armed with drones to Haiti. They are said to have killed more than 200 alleged gang members and several civilians. Mr Prince, who is close to President Trump’s Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, is keen to portray his new offering as the American equivalent of Russia’s Wagner Group. That could be a problem if it’s rolled out in Haiti.
