Haitian officers have requested the US to send navy troops to the nation to assist safeguard its airports and oil reserves — as a “shadow of violence” threatens the impoverished nation after the assassination of its president.
“We undoubtedly want help and we’ve requested our worldwide companions for assist,” Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph instructed The Related Press on Friday.
“We imagine our companions can help the nationwide police in resolving the state of affairs.”
The nation’s minister of elections instructed the New York Instances earlier Friday that the Haitian authorities made the plea to President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“The group that financed the [killer] mercenaries need to create chaos within the nation. Attacking the gasoline reserves and airport is perhaps half of the plan,” mentioned elections Minister Mathias Pierre.
State Division officers didn’t verify the request, the Instances reported. A senior US administration official instructed Reuters there aren’t any plans to present navy help to Haiti “at the moment.”
White Home Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday mentioned solely that the US plans to send FBI brokers and different federal investigators to help within the probe into President Jovenel Moïse’s homicide.
“The US stays engaged and in shut session with our Haitian and worldwide companions to help the Haitian folks within the aftermath of the assassination of the president,” Psaki mentioned.
Haiti has for years been suffering from gang violence, poverty, political corruption and authoritarianism — and lots of worry the instability created by Moïse’s assassination may sow additional chaos within the nation.
Residents have been flocking to grocery shops and different retailers to replenish on meals and water after the chief’s slaying.
A “shadow of violence” and “sense of uncertainty” has descended on the nation’s capital metropolis, mentioned Robenson Geffrard, a longtime reporter for one of the nation’s newspapers, to the Instances.
The nation additionally faces a governmental disaster, with a dysfunctional parliament that’s not stuffed to capability and uncertainty about who ought to rightfully wield govt energy.
President Moïse was shot to dying in a daring, pre-dawn raid Wednesday allegedly carried out by a 28-member hit squad made up of a quantity of Colombians and two People, officers mentioned.
After their arrests Thursday, the People, James Solages and Joseph Vincent, claimed to a choose investigating the homicide that they have been solely there to act as translators for different members of the hit staff, the New York Instances reported.
The pair additionally instructed the choose that the hit squad had labored for a month to plan the raid — and met repeatedly in a ritzy resort in suburban Port-au-Prince.
The People additionally claimed to the choose that the squad didn’t intend to kill Moïse and as a substitute wished to arrest him and produce him to the presidential palace.
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