More ominously, one of the most prominent and powerful gang leaders, Jimmy Cherisier, known as “Barbecue,” said the myriad feuding gangs were now working together to topple the government of the unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry. The gangs launched their offensive — really an attempted coup — as Mr. Henry was in Nairobi trying to jump-start a plan, stalled by Kenya’s courts, for 1,000 armed Kenyan police to be dispatched to Haiti under a directive from the United Nations to restore order. It was unclear as of this writing when and whether Mr. Henry, who recently arrived in Puerto Rico, would be able to return to Haiti.
Mr. Henry was sworn in after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. He owes his position to the backing he had from Washington and other outside powers, not any mandate inside Haiti. His government is widely seen as illegitimate and ineffectual. Most Haitians would probably not be sorry to see him go. But they also certainly want an end to the anarchy and misery that has ruled their lives since Moïse’s assassination.
What Haiti needs is something the Kenyan-led security force alone cannot bring: a pathway to elections and a return to democracy. Mr. Henry pledged to hold elections by late August 2025. That timeline might be the quickest practical, given the current level of violence. But it seems too long to put a government in place with more popular support and legitimacy than Mr. Henry has now.
Security has to come first. But that’s a difficult challenge. The proposed Kenyan-led force, which would include a smattering of other nations, including Chad, the Bahamas, Bangladesh and Benin, which has pledged 2,000 troops. But the planned force appears far too small and ill-equipped to take on the roughly 200 gangs, which control about 80 percent of the capital. The Kenyans are intended to lead the mission to protect critical infrastructure and government buildings, while also training the Haitian police. But there is no provision to tackle the root of the problem, which would mean engaging and disarming the criminal bands that now roam and rule with impunity. The intervention, as planned, sounds doomed. It needs to be more robust, with a broader mandate to enforce peace.
Mr. Cherisier said his fighters would welcome foreign troops if they came to restore order and arrest corrupt politicians. But he warned that Haitians would rise up against foreign troops if they committed abuses, as has happened in the past. Haiti has a checkered history of foreign military interventions, including U.N. troops sexually exploiting Haitian women and spreading cholera into the water system because of poor sanitation at their encampments. The Kenyans need to be mindful of that past.
The Biden administration has pledged $200 million for the Kenyan-led mission. That’s assuming it can get off the ground. The Kenyan courts halted the deployment, in part because the judges said there was no reciprocal agreement between Haiti and Kenya. Mr. Henry and Kenyan President William Ruto signed a reciprocal deal in Nairobi, so that obstacle should be resolved.
President Biden needs to show more leadership on a crisis in America’s neighborhood. The administration has extended temporary protected status to Haitians in the United States whose visas have expired. But that applies only to people with continuous residence in the United States back to November 2022. Other Haitians have been subject to deportation proceedings, and some have been forcibly placed on flights back. The State Department has urged Americans to leave Haiti, so it’s unconscionable to send Haitians back now. Immigration is a politically tough issue for Mr. Biden, but this is a case in which he would be fully justified to grant relief to Haitians temporarily in the United States.
More broadly, the United States and other countries need to help Haiti develop a long-term political strategy to establish on-the-ground conditions for holding free elections. The Security Council has already established the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti, but its mandate could be strengthened. Reining in the gangs and building a capable police force are the immediate challenges. But planning for the election of a credible government and rebuilding Haiti’s shattered public institutions are longer-term and costlier projects. The planning needs to start now.
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