Biden team visits Haiti amid power struggle and request for troops after assassination
President Joe Biden dispatched a delegation of U.S. officials to Haiti on Sunday after its interim government requested U.S. security and investigative assistance, including American troops, in the wake of President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination.
The “technical team” of U.S. officials visited Haiti at a pivotal juncture in a power struggle in Port-au-Prince between three men claiming to be the leader of the country.
The U.S. delegation met with all three who are jostling for control over Haiti’s government, according to Haitian officials.
The group will brief Biden on its findings when it returns to Washington, a senior administration official said, as the White House considers how to respond to the interim government’s request for a troop deployment amid a political crisis.
“We are engaged with the Haitian government to learn more about their needs — and we are sending a technical team today to that end,” the U.S. official said. “The President will receive a briefing from that team when they return and then make decisions about the way forward.”
Officials from the White House National Security Council, the State Department, the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security are on the trip.
The White House previously said it was sending FBI and DHS officials to help investigate what happened at a suburban home outside Haiti’s capital in the early hours of Wednesday, when gunmen stormed Moïse’s residence, killing him and wounding his wife.
Two letters sent by the Haitian government in the immediate aftermath of Moïse’s assassination requested troops from the United States and United Nations to help secure the Caribbean country’s sea, air and oil ports.
“We will also be consulting with regional partners and with the U.N.,” the senior U.S. official said.
The Biden administration is working with Claude Joseph, the acting prime minister, who has requested the assistance. But Moïse’s assassination opened a power struggle in Port-au-Prince.
Ariel Henry, who was appointed prime minister by Moïse shortly before his death, claims that he is the head of government. A third Haitian politician, Joseph Lambert, is also now asserting himself into the power struggle.
Moïse had tapped Henry, a neurosurgeon and former government minister involved in the 2004 transition, to take Haiti to elections. Lambert, the current head of the Senate, was voted provisional president by his fellow senators days ago.
Once 30 members, the Senate has been reduced to 10 lawmakers but remains the only constitutional body in the country where the entire lower chamber doesn’t exist due to elections not happening on time. All of the mayors and local offices are headed by non-elected individuals appointed by Moïse because of overdue elections.
On Saturday, an announced swearing in of Lambert as interim president was aborted.
Before meeting with the U.S. delegation Sunday, Lambert told the Miami Herald that he would argue to the Americans that Joseph’s term should have expired by now. But tweets posted on his account after the meeting suggest that he was dissatisfied by the outcome.
“If we were in a normal situation,” Joseph’s 30-day tenure as acting prime minister would be up as of Monday, Lambert told the Herald earlier Sunday.
Joseph was appointed prime minister on a 30-day basis in April after the last prime minister resigned, and “was fired by President Jovenel before his assassination, and had his legitimacy transferred to Prime Minister Ariel [Henry], who was designated prime minister by presidential decree, which was published in the official journal,” Lambert said.
Joseph said while he welcomes the arrival of the delegation, what interests him most is answers and Haiti’s future.
“What matters to me is the investigation, the funeral of the president and how how family is coping. Elections is of utmost importance for the functioning of the Haitian institutions,” he told the Herald.
Adding to the complicated political situation is Supreme Court Justice Joseph Mécène Jean-Louis, who as the oldest member of the court was appointed transition president in February by a group in the opposition who said they no longer recognized Moïse because his term constitutionally expired on Feb. 7.
McClatchy correspondent Michael Wilner reported from Washington.
This story was originally published July 11, 2021 at 11:27 AM with the headline "Biden team visits Haiti amid power struggle and request for troops after assassination."
