Burnt police station near Port-au-Prince airport, Dec. 2023. (Diego Da Rin/International Crisis Group)
(Tribune News Service) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit the island of Hispaniola on Thursday and Friday, where he will reaffirm the United States’ commitment to both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island.
In Haiti “our goal is to recognize the positive progress made towards improving security and encourage efforts to appoint the Provisional Electoral Council so Haiti can move toward elections,” Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters ahead of the visit to Port-au-Prince. “In the Dominican Republic we will reinforce our shared priorities such as promoting democratic governance, supporting free and fair elections in the region, and fighting corruption.”
Blinken’s visit to the island comes amid tense relations between the two countries. The Dominican Republic, upset over the construction of a privately funded irrigation canal near its border in northeast Haiti that it claims is diverting water away from its farmers, has blocked most commercial air traffic from Haiti.
The tensions led Haiti’s leaders last month to boycott the swearing-in of Dominican President Luis Abinader, who was elected earlier this year to a second four-year term.
Blinken will arrive in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, where the multinational security force led by Kenya and largely funded by the U.S. has been hobbled by lack of money and equipment. And an ongoing bank bribery scandal is threatening the U.S.-backed political transition while undermining efforts to finally organize long-overdue elections.
Nichols said Blinken, who will meet with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille and Edgard Leblanc, the current head of the presidential council, plans to discuss “Haiti’s return to a democratic path and the urgent need for elections.”
Nichols said Haiti has come a long way since its “dark moments” earlier this year when a violent insurgency by armed gangs forced the closure of the international and domestic airports in Port-au-Prince for nearly four months, led to the escape of more than 4,000 prison inmates and blocked thousands of containers containing humanitarian aid at the seaport. The chaos also prevented the prime minister at the time, Ariel Henry, from returning to the country after he visited Kenya to secure the agreement for the mission’s deployment.
“We have seen Haiti take important steps forward in the last few months,” Nichols said, highlighting April’s installment of the presidential council and its selection of Conille, a longtime U.N. technocrat, to head a new government. “We’ve seen tangible signs of progress on the ground, including the opening of the airport and resumption of commercial flights, increased economic activity and movement in pockets of Port-au-Prince and the deployment of the U.N. authorized Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission, which is working in close partnership with the Haitian national police.”
The mandate of the security mission, which was authorized for a year by the U.N. Security Council, expires on Oct. 2. The council is expected to debate its renewal on Sept. 30.
Though Haitians have been frustrated by the slow progress of the security mission and its lack of visibility on the streets, Nichols highlighted an ongoing joint operation involving members of the mission, along with specialized SWAT units of the Haiti National Police and soldiers in Haiti’s small army.
They are “going after gangs and their leaders in a way that hasn’t happened in eight years,” Nichols said. “From a security standpoint, that is a major step forward.”
Nichols confirmed a Miami Herald and McClatchy exclusive report that the U.S is exploring transferring the mission, which relies on voluntary contributions for its operations, to a more formal United Nations peacekeeping force or some other hybrid that would allow for its financing and staffing to be more reliable.
“Our challenge going forward is to make sure that there’s a reliable, sustainable source of funding for the MSS to take it through stabilization, elections and the growth of the Haitian national police,” Nichols said. “We will be working and coordinating with our partners around the world, particularly in the Security Council and in the region, to figure out how we best address that.”
Another concern is the slow progress on the political front. Haiti hasn’t had an election since 2016, when late President Jovenel Moïse was elected in a controversial vote. The current efforts to organize general elections have been hampered by arguments over which sectors of Haitian society should be represented on the electoral council, as well as the bank-bribery scandal.
On Tuesday, an effort by four of the seven voting members of the presidential council to take steps against three of its members who have been accused of shaking down the director of a state-owned commercial bank failed. The vote resulted in a deadlock because the council needs five out of seven votes for major decisions.
Blinken, who will meet with some of the political and civil leaders involved in forming the presidential council, is expected to discuss the scandal and the importance of having Haitian officials investigate the allegations.
“The Haitian people deserve transparency and good governance,” NIchols said.
Blinken will also travel to the Dominican Republic, where he will discuss three main priorities with Abinader: strengthening the U.S.-Dominican economic ties, respect for human and labor rights and promoting increased security in the region, particularly in Haiti, Nichols said. The two leaders will also discuss the 2025 Summit of the Americas, which the Dominican Republic is hosting.
Nichols said the U.S. hopes to see more normal relations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
“The countries are inexorably linked,” he said. “We’re very cognizant of the fact that the Dominican Republic is providing significant assistance to Haiti and to the MSS, and that we more broadly, hope to see the ties between the two countries operate in a normal fashion in the future.”
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