Haiti asks for US and UN troops’ help as assassination causes power vacuum
Haiti has asked Washington and the UN for troops to secure its ports, airport and other strategic sites after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
The US has already said it will send FBI agents and other officials to investigate the killing of Moise at his home on Wednesday, which has caused a power vacuum in the crisis-hit Caribbean nation.
“We thought that mercenaries could destroy some infrastructure to create chaos … During a conversation with the US secretary of state and the UN we made this request,” elections minister Mathias Pierre told AFP on Friday.
The US State Department and Pentagon confirmed receiving requests for “security and investigative assistance” and said they were in contact with officials in Port-au-Prince.
A UN diplomatic source indicated it could not meet Haiti’s request without a Security Council resolution.
Washington had already signalled its willingness to help.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said senior FBI members and other officials would head to the Caribbean as soon as possible.
Questions have swirled about who masterminded the audacious assassination, with most members of a hit squad of Colombians and Americans either dead or in custody, and no clear motive made public.
Colombia’s President Ivan Duque Marquez said the head of his country’s national intelligence directorate and the intelligence director for the police would travel to Haiti with Interpol to help with investigations.
Three men are being touted as successors to Moise.
Haiti has no functioning parliament and more than half of its population is aged under 20.
After days of paralysis in the capital, Port-au-Prince, people are venturing back on to the streets, shops are opening and public transport services have resumed – but all under a pall of apprehension.
People hurried to stockpile necessities at supermarkets and queued to buy propane for cooking in anticipation of more instability.
In a sign of mounting fear, hundreds of people gathered outside the US embassy in Port-au-Prince on Friday after rumours spread on radio and social media that the US would hand out humanitarian visas.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the day after … I am preparing for bad days ahead,” Port-au-Prince resident Marjory told AFP, as she and her husband stocked up on supplies.
Gang violence has also increased.
The city’s airport, shut after the attack, appeared to have reopened, according to data on Flightradar.
One of Moise’s last acts as president on Monday was to appoint a new prime minister, Ariel Henry. He had not taken office when Moise was killed.
Hours after the assassination, Mr Henry’s predecessor Claude Joseph said he was in charge.
While the opposition has accused Mr Joseph of power-grabbing, the UN has said he had authority because Mr Henry had not been sworn in.
On Friday, in an attempt to fill what it called an “institutional and political vacuum”, the Senate voted on a resolution to make Senator Joseph Lambert the provisional president.
But the announcement is non-binding. While it does have some support among opposition politicians, not enough senators are in office to legally pass the resolution.