IT’S HELL IN HAITI
US Marines evacuate embassy amid gang war
The US military sent the Marines to gang-wracked Haiti to airlift embassy workers from the country as Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Jamaica on Monday for an emergency regional meeting over the crisis.
Additional American forces were brought in to bolster security at the embassy in a suburb of Portau-Prince as bloody turmoil raged around it, fueled by cutthroat gangs threatening to topple the government and leaving a flood of decaying bodies in the streets.
It was not clear Monday how many Americans were rescued in the airlift, which came as thousands of Haitians were forced to flee their homes because of the violence that erupted Feb. 29 after a series of coordinated gang attacks killed at least four police officers.
Gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, a k a “Barbecue,” has taken credit for the attacks. He vowed to capture Haitian government officials and block the return of Prime Minister Ariel Henry from Kenya, where he was lobbying for United Nations-backed police to intervene in the gang wars.
Henry is currently trapped on US soil in Puerto Rico after he was banned from landing in the Dominican Republic for safety reasons while on his journey home. The DR shut down its land border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola over the violence.
Since the initial violence erupted, anti-government gangs have shut down Haiti’s airports, stormed two of the country’s largest prisons and freed about 4,000 inmates, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew.
Blinken was meeting Monday with Caribbean trade-bloc leaders in Jamaica to discuss possible solutions to the crisis. It was unclear if Henry was attending.
“The international community must work together with Haitians towards a peaceful political transition,” US Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols wrote on X on Monday en route to the meeting.
The US embassy airlifts started Sunday, and “no Haitians were on board the military aircraft,” the military said in an apparent attempt to quell speculation that the US was assisting in the evacuation of government officials during the growing national emergency.
“This airlift of personnel into and out of the embassy is consistent with our standard practice for embassy security augmentation worldwide,” officials said. The US embassy was said to be remaining open during the evacuations.
Meanwhile, foreigners such as Canadian aid worker Richard Phillips, 65, were trapped.
“We are actually quite concerned about where this is going,” Phillips said Saturday. “If the police force collapses, there’s going to be anarchy in the streets, and we might be here a month or more.
De-facto dictatorship
“I’ve been shot at many times in Haiti and have bullet holes in my truck. Personally, I’m kind of used to it. But I’m sure other people, it’s quite traumatic for them.”
The embattled prime minister is now facing calls to resign or agree to a transitional council as Haitian politicians form alliances and vie for power amid the violence.
The country has been in disarray since Henry’s predecessor, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021 in a plot believed to involve foreign mercenaries and Haitian police officers. Moïse’s widow, Martine, is among more than 50 people facing charges for the assassination.
Last year, gang violence prevented Haiti from holding elections, creating a de-facto dictatorship as the terms of elected officials expired.