The US military sent the Marines to gang-wracked Haiti to airlift embassy workers from the country as Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Jamaica on Monday for an emergency regional meeting over the crisis.
Additional American forces were brought in to bolster security at the embassy in a suburb of Port-au-Prince as bloody turmoil raged around it, fueled by cutthroat gangs threatening to topple the government and leaving a flood of decaying bodies in the streets.
It was not immediately clear how many Americans were rescued in the airlift, which came as thousands of Haitians were forced to flee their homes in the sweltering impoverished nation because of the violence that erupted Feb. 29 after a series of coordinated gang attacks that killed at least four police officers.
Gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, a k a “Barbecue,” has taken credit for the attacks and vowed to capture Haitian government officials and block the return of Prime Minister Ariel Henry from Kenya, where he was lobbying for United Nations-backed police to intervene in the gang wars.
Henry is currently trapped on US soil in Puerto Rico after he was banned from landing in the Dominican Republic for safety reasons while on his journey home. The DR shut down its land border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola over the violence.
Since the initial violence erupted, anti-government gangs have shut down Haiti’s airports and stormed two of the country’s largest prisons and freed about 4,000 inmates, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew.
Blinken was meeting Monday with Caribbean trade-bloc leaders in Jamaica to discuss possible solutions to the crisis. It was unclear if Henry was attending.
What to know about the violence in Haiti:
- Haiti has declared a state of emergency after gang violence and anarchy broke out in the Caribbean nation.
- Thousands of inmates have taken to the street after two separate prison breaks in Port-au-Prince.
- Gang leader Jimmy Chérizier — a former national police member who is known as “Barbecue” — seized power and has vowed to continue fighting until Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigns.
- Henry is currently in Kenya where he was on an official trip. He has promised to resign once a transitional council is established.
- The US military has airlifted embassy workers out of Haiti, but some Americans and other foreigners remain trapped in the embattled country.
- US missionaries have told The Post that the embassy hasn’t been helpful during the crisis.
- “My fear is that we will be caught in the middle of something really dangerous. We’re already on the front lines of it, we’re in a bad area,” Jill Dolan, who runs an orphanage, said.
“The international community must work together with Haitians towards a peaceful political transition,” US Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols wrote on X on Monday en route to the meeting.
The US embassy airlifts started Sunday, and “no Haitians were on board the military aircraft,” the military said in a statement in an apparent attempt to quell speculation that the US was assisting in the evacuation of government officials during the growing national emergency.
“This airlift of personnel into and out of the embassy is consistent with our standard practice for embassy security augmentation worldwide,” officials said in a statement.
Meanwhile, foreigners such as Canadian aid worker Richard Phillips, 65, are trapped.
“We are actually quite concerned about where this is going,” Phillips said Saturday. “If the police force collapses, there’s going to be anarchy in the streets, and we might be here a month or more.
“I’ve been shot at many times in Haiti and have bullet holes in my truck,” he said. “Personally, I’m kind of used to it. But I’m sure other people, it’s quite traumatic for them.”
The embattled prime minister is now facing calls to resign or agree to a transitional council as Haitian politicians form alliances and vie for power amid the violence and humanitarian disaster.
The country had been in disarray since Henry’s predecessor, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in 2021 in a plot believed to involve foreign mercenaries and elite Haitian police officers.
Moïse’s widow, Martine, is among more than 50 people facing charges for the assassination.
Last year, gang violence prevented the country from having democratic elections, causing it to spiral into a de-facto dictatorship as the terms of elected officials expired.
The US embassy was said to be remaining open during the evacuations.
“Our Embassy remains focused on advancing U.S. government efforts to support the Haitian people, including mobilizing support for the Haitian National Police, expediting the deployment of the United Nations-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, and accelerating a peaceful transition of power via free and fair elections,” the US Southern Command said in a statement.
“As announced in September 2023, the Department of Defense is postured to provide robust enabling support for the MSS, including planning assistance, information sharing, airlift, communications, and medical support.”
With Post wires
