US Secretary of State Chides OAS Role in Haiti’s Current Political and Security Situation

WASHINGTON, DC – The United States is re-considering its policy towards Haiti where criminal gangs are seeking to overthrow the government, with Washington also taking aim at the Organization of American States (OAS) for not doing much more to effectively deal with the crisis in the country.

Washington recently designated the Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif gangs in Haiti as foreign terrorist organizations, adding that the age of impunity for those supporting violence in Haiti is over.

“ We think that designating theme is important because both you and I know that there are individuals, including those living in our home states who are in cohorts with some of these gangs,” US Secretary Of State, Marco Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

He said there is need to talk broader about the Haiti problem “because it is something I feel very passionate about….but let’s be frank here, we are concerned that humanitarian groups in order to distribute humanitarian aid are often charged for lack of a better term, tolls.

“You have to pay the money to let them go and that makes them subject to sanctions, because if they pay somebody money to let them go through that is not the intent of the sanctions and we don’t intend to punish them.

“The fundamental challenge we have in Haiti is that none of our existing international mechanisms are built for this problem set. Our international mechanisms are largely built to keep warring factions, ideological factions, tribal factions, political movements from each other”.

But Rubio said Haiti is a country that is being threatened by 35 to 40,000 members of a coalition of criminal enterprises.

“It is basically controlled by organised crime,”  he said, adding that Washington is “undertaking right now a substantial review across the inter-agency what options exist to tackle a country that is being taken over by a mafia, for want of a better term.

“They don’t care about governing the country. They want to control territory….its like allowing the mafia to take over the five boroughs of New York, “ he said, questioning the role of the OAS.

“Why do we have an OAS if the OAS can’t put together a mission to handle the most critical region in our hemisphere.  We are going to challenge the OAS to build a mission of partners to confront this”.

Rubio said while the United States is grateful for the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS)“this is a regional problem and it should have a regional solution”.

He said the United States would continue to be supportive of the MSS for two reasons, including the fact “it is the only  mission, and number two, because of the Kenyans, they have been brave and their willingness to do it and number three who is going to join a future mission if the previous mission was abandoned.

“But we don’t believe that the MSS mission is going to solve the problem. It could be part of the answer, but it wont solve the problem,” he said, noting that the mandate provided to the MSS by the United Nations Security Council  “is defensive in posture.

‘Let us be frank, these 30 to 40,000 gang members have to be eliminated, put in jail…you have to get rid of them, As long as they are around you won’t be able to have stability in the country.

“The other is capacity. They have had complaints about some of the equipment they have been provided with. It is a combination of not having a force posture, not having the legal authority and not having the appropriate equipment to be able to conduct some of these missions,” Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Meanwhile, a high-level symposium will be held on Thursday at the OAS to identify urgent responses to the security crisis in Haiti. This meeting follows Presidential Advisor Smith Augustin’s visit last April to OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro and reflects the shared commitment to regional mobilization in the face of worsening insecurity in the country.

The symposium will bring together Haitian authorities, representatives of member states, and experts to discuss concrete avenues for supporting security in the country. Particular emphasis will be placed on the impact of organized crime on security and justice institutions, and on ways to address it through regional cooperation mechanisms, particularly those provided for in the Inter-American Convention against Terrorism.

Augustin and Luis Almagro will deliver the opening remarks with addresses also expected from Barbara Feinstein, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State at the U.S. Department of State, as well as Haitian Ministers Patrick Pélissier (Justice) and Jean Michel Moïse (Defense).

“This symposium aims to demonstrate the root causes of insecurity in Haiti, to expose the various national, transnational, and international dimensions of the problem, and to secure concrete commitments to support the security recovery plan being implemented by the transitional authorities. It will also contribute to greater visibility of Haiti’s urgent needs, the establishment of shared priorities with partners, and the deepening of regional dialogue on security,”  the organisers added.

The UN said that children in Haiti continue to face serious protection risks, including exploitation, sexual abuse and recruitment by gangs.