PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s interim government has asked the U.S. and U.N. to deploy troops to protect key infrastructure as it tries to stabilize the country and prepare for elections in the aftermath of President Jovenel Moise’s assassination.
The request for U.S. military support recalled the tumult following Haiti’s last presidential assassination, in 1915, when an angry mob dragged President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam out of the French Embassy and beat him to death. In response, President Woodrow Wilson sent the Marines into Haiti, justifying the American military occupation — which lasted nearly two decades — as a way to avert anarchy.
Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s elections minister, defended the government’s request for military assistance, saying in an interview Saturday that the local police force is weak and lacks resources.
“What do we do? Do we let the country fall into chaos? Private properties destroyed? People killed after the assassination of the president? Or, as a government, do we prevent?” he said. “We’re not asking for the occupation of the country. We’re asking for small troops to assist and help us.”
The request was received but there has been no decision, according to a U.S. official familiar with the situation. But the Biden administration has so far given no indication it will send troops.
For now, it only plans to send FBI officials to help investigate a crime that has plunged Haiti, a country already wracked by poverty and gang violence, into a destabilizing battle for power and constitutional standoff.
Haiti also sent a letter to the United Nations requesting assistance, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Saturday. The letter asked for troops and security at key installations, according to a U.N. source.
“We definitely need assistance, and we’ve asked our international partners for help,” Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph told the AP in a phone interview late Friday. “We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation.”
On Friday, a group of lawmakers announced they had recognized Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti’s dismantled Senate, as provisional president in a direct challenge to the interim government’s authority. They also recognized as prime minister Ariel Henry, whom Moise had selected to replace Joseph a day before he was killed but who had not yet taken office or formed a government.
One of those lawmakers, Rosemond Pradel, told the AP that Joseph “is neither qualified nor has the legal right” to lead the country.
Joseph, who assumed leadership with the backing of police and the military, said he was “not interested in a power struggle.”
“There’s only one way people can become president in Haiti. And that’s through elections,” he said.
Meanwhile, more details emerged about what increasingly resembled a murky, international conspiracy: a shootout with gunmen holed up in a foreign embassy, a private security firm operating out of a warehouse in Miami and a cameo sighting of a Hollywood star.
Among those arrested were two Haitian Americans, including one who worked alongside Sean Penn following the nation’s devastating 2010 earthquake. Police have also detained or killed more than a dozen former members of Colombia’s military.
Some of the suspects were seized in a raid on Taiwan’s Embassy, where they are believed to have sought refuge. National Police Chief Léon Charles said another eight suspects were still at large and being sought.
The attack at Moise’s home before dawn Wednesday also seriously wounded his wife, who was flown to Miami for surgery.
