Haiti needs an international force to bring stability

Tragically, Haiti has become a failed state. The United States and Canada should lead the effort to deploy an international force or redeploy U.N. peacekeepers.

As violence goes unabated with more than 1,446 people killed in the first four months of this year, the people are taking matters into their own hands. Civilians are burning, lynching and taking part in vigilante killings of suspected gang members.

Armed groups control 80% of the capital. Criminal incidents are at their highest rates in nearly 20 years.

The Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights reported nearly 400 kidnappings registered in the first quarter of 2023 — a 72% increase from the same period a year ago.

The World Food Programme estimates that half the population, or 4.9 million people, are food insecure, and 6.8 million people have insufficient food consumption.

What led to this security vacuum and lawlessness?

In 2004, the U.N. created the Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) to secure and stabilize Haiti and support the Haitian National Police (HNP). However, the mission ended without achieving its goal. A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers warned that it was not the right time to pull out U.N. peacekeeping forces. I was heavily involved in those discussions as an aide to former U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., under the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Those concerns, which remain valid today, were ultimately ignored.

The National Police were not ready, and the security situation worsened once MINUSTAH left. Officers needed more training and better recruitment, vetting and equipment. They also needed to grow their numbers, which were — and remain — below the recommended ratio of police officers to population.

Increasingly desperate, Haitians are heading to the Dominican Republic, and the United States, by the way of the Mexico border or by braving the treacherous sea. Thousands of professionals, law enforcement officials, doctors, nurses and university graduates are also coming to the United States legally through a two-year humanitarian parole program. Destabilization will persist in Haiti and spill beyond its borders if the security situation is not immediately addressed.

I am not advocating for a U.S. military intervention in Haiti, but for an international force in response to the multiple repeated requests by the Haitian government and the United Nations instead. Each has noted that the country’s police force needs help. But, also, rather than repeat the errors of the past, we must learn from them and ensure that locals play an even greater role in making their communities safer.

Even though gangs in Haiti are different from Central America, place-based community policing programs targeting high-risk areas in the Northern Triangle have shown positive results. This could be a start on which to build a response for Haiti.

Lessons from these programs should help the State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau alongside the U.S. Agency for International Development implement local community-based crime and violence prevention programs, including an appropriate vetting process for the HNP. This can also open the door to bring in other essential services and much needed assistance to vulnerable communities.

The Biden administration also needs to nominate a new U.S. ambassador for Haiti. The last ambassador left in October 2021. The lack of someone in this position will hinder progress.

Contributing further to the chaos and instability is the fact that after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, there is not one elected leader left in the country. Elections are desperately needed, but until the security situation improves, elections cannot occur.

Haiti also needs a new constitution. It would help prevent the defunct Haitian parliament, or a president, from delaying any future elections and put the necessary laws in place to prevent this repeated cycle of political instability. After so many presidential and parliamentary elections where the legitimacy of any leader is called into question, a more transparent and inclusive process needs to be enacted so that the people have faith that their vote and their voice are respected.

Haitians are urgently requesting help from the international community. Last month, U.N. Special Representative Maria Isabel Salvador told the Security Council, “Time is of the essence, and the Haitian people deserve your urgent action.”

She is right. It is time their pleas are answered.

Eddy Acevedo is chief of staff and senior adviser to Ambassador Mark Green, president and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Acevedo was formerly the national security adviser at the U.S. Agency for International Development and senior foreign policy advisor for former U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. He wrote this for the Miami Herald.