US seeks Brazil help as frustration grows on Haiti force
NEW YORK, United States, (AFP) – Months after Haiti’s prime minister and the UN pleaded for intervention in the violence-ravaged nation, world powers are searching for new ideas with no country eager to lead a force.
In the latest effort, a senior US envoy sought forward movement on Haiti on a visit to Brazil, which spearheaded a previous UN-led mission in Haiti and sits on the Security Council.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said she came away with the view that the Brazilians under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “care about Haiti.”
“They want to see something done, and they committed to working with us in the Security Council to find a path forward,” Thomas-Greenfield told AFP on her plane back from Brasilia.
“We’re making some progress but we’re all frustrated that we have not been able to make more progress more quickly,” she said.
Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, has been torn apart by intersecting security, political and health crises with armed gangs controlling most of the capital Port-au-Prince.
Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, told the Security Council on Wednesday that Haiti was “dangling over an abyss.”
Initial efforts led by the United States aimed for another nation to lead an operation to restore basic security and government functions and pave the way for a political transition.
With no country stepping forward, diplomats said that other options on the table now include establishing a conventional peacekeeping operation with contributions around the world.
The United States, long a key power in Haiti with major interventions in the early 20th century and the 1990s, has focused on sanctions and funding the fledging national police.
President Joe Biden, who ended the US war in Afghanistan, has made clear he will not put Americans at risk, although his administration has promised support if another country takes the lead.
Canada was seen as the leading contender but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau too has appeared to conclude that an operation would be too risky.
Maria Isabel Salvador, the UN special representative for Haiti, said she still hoped a single country could come forward or that the Caricom community of Caribbean nations could take the lead.
But she said it was also time for the United Nations to start “to be innovative” and “find other ways of providing this force.”