President Biden’s administration has no plans whatsoever to offer or to send military assistance to Haiti after the country approached both the US and the UN asking them to deploy soldiers to guard infrastructure amid rising turmoil following the murder of President Jovenel Moise, The Hill reports, quoting a senior Biden administration official.
State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter previously on Friday said she could not confirm that such a request was made.
Jose Luis Diaz, spokesman for the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, sad that the UN political mission in Haiti, on the other hand, has received the letter and have forwarded the request to the Security Council to decide.
After the Haitian government declared a 15-day state of emergency on Wednesday to help authorities arrest the killers of Moise, Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph instituted a “state of siege” in the nation with curfews, border closures and stricter media controls imposed nationwide, while soldiers have been deployed to police the streets.
According to a source of The Hill’s in the Congress, the request for forces from Haiti was generically mentioned while another source pointed there was confusion over the request, noting that the French word for “troops” can also refer to police.
Both Columbia and the US – whose citizens are involved in the assassination- pledged on Thursday to help Haiti authorities with the investigation, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki saying that US will send senior officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security as soon as possible, adding that the U.S. would also be providing financial resources.
Be the first to comment