Shameful! Latin America is a no-show in multinational security force for Haiti | Opinion

This week will mark a new a new milestone in Latin America’s long history of political surrealism: Kenyan troops are scheduled to fly all the way from Africa to lead a United Nations-backed multinational force to help defend Haiti’s government against violent gangs that have taken over much the Caribbean country.

But, shamelessly, no major Latin American nations have been ready — or willing — to participate in the six-country international force. Despite their frequent grandiose speeches about regional brotherhood, most Latin American leaders — with a few exceptions — have so far refused to come to the rescue of a small neighbor that is asking for help.

The 2,500-troop Multinational Security Support Mission will include 1,000 Kenyan police agents, alongside others from Bangladesh, Benin, Chad, Jamaica, Bahamas and Barbados. The police-support force, which was first requested by Haiti in late 2022 and approved by the United Nations last year, will be largely funded with a $300 million pledge from the United States.

Most Haitians desperately want the international security forces to come to the country as soon as possible, despite their country’s rocky history of foreign interventions, people familiar with the situation tell me.

An insurgency by armed gangs has paralyzed much of Port au Prince, Haiti’s capital. More than 2,500 Haitians have been killed or injured by gang members in the first three months of this year, and more than 360,00 have been forced to flee their homes over the past three years.

“When you talk to the Haitians, they can’t leave their homes, they can’t go to school, they can’t go to the doctor,” Mark L. Schneider, an expert with the Center of Strategic and International Studies, told me. “Most Haitians would be happy to get whatever foreign help it takes to stop the gangs from creating havoc in their neighborhoods.”

U.S. and U.N. officials have been trying for months to convince Brazil, Chile and other Latin American countries that had played key roles in previous U.N. peace-keeping missions in Haiti to join the current multinational force. But, while conversation with several of these countries continue, so far they have not decided to participate, U.S. officials and U.N. sources told me.

Brazil has the most experience with peace-keeping missions in Haiti, because it led the military component of the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH) from 2004 to 2017. And many Haitians have good memories of the time when Brazilian police forces set up soccer academies and computer training camps to help divert young people away from organized crime gangs.

Asked why Brazil, Chile and other former prominent players in MINUSTAH are now-shows this time around, several Haiti experts told me it’s largely because governments fear a political backlash at home if they send police forces abroad while their own countries have record crime rates.

In addition, several Latin American countries feel they did not get enough international recognition for their past missions to Haiti. And in Brazil’s case, I’m told that leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is reluctant to commit troops to the multinational force because such move is largely supported by military officers believed to be close to former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro.

“In addition, there is ‘Haiti fatigue’ element,” Keith Mines, vice president for Latin America with the United States Institute of Peace, told me. “In Brazil and Chile, there is a sense that they’ve done it before, and it didn’t result in a lasting solution.”

To be fair, at least two Latin American governments, Argentina and El Salvador, have taken steps to help Haiti. Argentina’s government has presented a bill to send up to 200 police and military personnel to Haiti, but it has yet to be approved by the Argentine Congress, Argentine officials told me. El Salvador is preparing to send medical evacuation helicopters, U.S. officials say.

But there is no excuse for most other Latin American countries to look the other way. It’s in their own interest to come to Haiti’s rescue. If the gangs end up controlling Haiti, the country will become — more than it already is — a haven for transnational crime groups. Helping Haiti defend itself against the gangs shouldn’t just be a matter of being good neighbors, but one of self-protection for Latin American countries.

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