Society's Child

US mulls deploying Marines to Haiti amid unrest, port closes blocking 'main source of food and medicine'

Irene Loewenson
Marine Corps Times
Thu, 07 Mar 2024 22:38 UTC

© Sgt. Richard Andrade/ArmyA Marine from the 1st Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team stands guard outside the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 2010 after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the country.

The United States is considering deploying an elite Marine security team to Haiti because of a deteriorating security situation there, according to a defense official.

The Marines would be deployed at the request of the State Department, according to the defense official. Marine Corps Times asked the State Department for further details Thursday and didn't receive a response.

"Deploying a FAST platoon is one option at the DoD's disposal should the DoS request assistance with security at the U.S. Embassy in Port Au Prince," Maj. Mason Englehart, a spokesman for Marine Corps Forces South, wrote in an email to Marine Corps Times on Friday.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry is struggling to stay in power as he tries to return home, where gang attacks have shuttered his country's main international airport and freed more than 4,000 inmates in recent days.

Henry remained in Puerto Rico as of midday Wednesday. He landed in the U.S. territory on Tuesday after he was barred from landing in the neighboring Dominican Republic, where officials closed the airspace to flights to and from Haiti.

Comment: They could have made an exception for the Prime Minister, and so that they didn't is notable.

In 2023, more than 8,400 people in Haiti were reported killed, injured or kidnapped, more than double the number reported in 2022. The U.N. estimates that nearly half of Haiti's 11 million people need humanitarian assistance, but the 2024 humanitarian appeal for $674 million has received just $17 million — about 2.5% of what's needed.

Comment: Lest we forget the Clinton's role in the 'disappearance' of, allegedly, over $10 billion intended for Haitian works.

On Wednesday, the U.S. embassy in Haiti urged Americans in the country to depart as soon as possible and said it would be on limited operations Thursday.

"Embassy operations may be further affected during the week because of gang-related violence and its effects on transportation and infrastructure," the embassy said in the security alert.

The Corps' fleet antiterrorism security teams, often known as FAST, are deployed around the world for limited periods of time to reinforce or recapture U.S. assets.

FAST Marines receive specialized training on noncombatant evacuation operations, close-quarters battle, military operations in urban terrain, convoy operations, shipboard operations and specialized security operations, according to a page on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

The teams are part of the Yorktown, Virginia-based Marine Corps Security Force Regiment.

In 2019, fleet antiterrorism security team Marines embarked a U.S. merchant vessel to provide security as it transited the Strait of Hormuz, located between Oman and Iran.

In 2010, after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, they were sent to assist the Marine security guards who already had been guarding the U.S. embassy in the capital Port-au-Prince.

At a press conference Wednesday, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, denied that the United States was considering sending U.S. forces to Haiti.

Jean-Pierre said noted that Kenya had agreed to send police officers on a security mission to Haiti.

"So, that was recently signed, and that's going to move forward," she said. "But there is no plan to bring U.S. forces into Haiti."

In 2021, President Joe Biden sent Marines from the Marine Security Guard Security Augmentation Unit to the Port-Au-Prince embassy "out of an abundance of caution" following the assassination of the Haitian president but insisted sending U.S. forces to stabilize the country was "not on the agenda."

Comment: Voice of America provides an update on the situation in the country:

Haiti's Main Port Closes as State of Emergency, Curfew Extended

Haiti's main port was closed on Thursday after an attack by armed gangs, said the port operator, Caribbean Port Services.

CPS said 'malicious acts of sabotage and vandalism' led to the decision after armed men broke into the port and looted containers, Reuters reported, citing local media.

The United Nations said the port 'is currently the only means of transporting food and medical supplies for humanitarian and development organizations from Port-au-Prince to other parts of the country.'

Which is likely only going to exacerbate unrest.

Earlier Thursday, the government extended a state of emergency and nighttime curfew, as gang violence continued to escalate in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The government says it is taking the actions to 'reestablish order and take appropriate measures to retake control of the situation,' as scores of people died this week as allied gangs seek to take power.

The curfew has been extended until March 11 and the state of emergency has been extended until April 3, according to Haiti's official gazette.

The state of emergency was initially announced by authorities on Sunday, when armed gangs helped thousands of prisoners to break out of prison and tens of thousands of people fled the capital violence.

The state of emergency bans public protests and allows security forces to use 'all legal means' to enforce the curfew. Among those excluded from the curfew are some journalists, security forces and emergency services.

The U.S. has sent a security team to protect the U.S. Embassy.

Despite the curfew imposed over the weekend, gangs continued to attack police stations, setting at least 10 on fire, the police union said.

The situation in Haiti took this violent turn after Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced last week at a meeting with Caribbean leaders that general elections would be held in 2025.

After the meeting, he went to Kenya and met with President William Ruto. During the meeting he urged the president to provide support from a U.N.-backed Kenyan police force, which a Kenyan court has ruled is unconstitutional.

While he was traveling, gangs attacked and effectively shut down Haiti's international airport to prevent him from returning to the country. Many of them are frustrated with Haiti's lack of an election in nearly a decade and the fact that Henry was never elected.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Henry on Thursday, urging him to speed up a transition to a new government.

According to prominent gang leader Jimmy 'Barbeque' Cherizier on Tuesday, 'If Ariel Henry doesn't step down, they will lead us directly into a civil war that will end in genocide.'

Violence in Haiti killed about 4,700 people last year, according to United Nations estimates. In Cite Soleil, a part of the capital hit particularly hard by violence, 2,300 people were killed in 2023, Doctors Without Borders said on Thursday.

The death rates in Cite Soleil alone are similar to those in Syrian war zones and among Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, it added.

With Henry away, police forces are struggling to contain violence because of limited resources.

On Wednesday, the Caribbean Community issued a statement saying that leaders had met many times but still have not reached a consensus on how to handle the conflict.

The statement said Haitian stakeholders are being urged to reach a consensus, given the importance of a 'Haitian led and Haitian owned' solution.

Reader Comments

Buffalo_Ken · 2024-03-08T23:12:03Z

Based on the headline only - I send my support to the rebels!

Everything the "US mulls" lately turns to rubbish - so that is the basis of my support.

Is there not a more effed up place that Haiti?

So really - who is at fault in that regard?

I send support to those trying to remove somebody beholden to nefarious entities in Haiti and elsewhere.

Highlander · 2024-03-09T16:08:55Z

Buffalo_Ken The tens of millions of dollars from the American Red Cross, I wonder which Americans benefitted financially for that little nest egg? Or the English charity, who were abusing the kids in Haiti, and the efforts in an attempt to hide it from the English public! If you don’t know their name, then they succeeded! Well do you? If America wants it, it’s for greed….!

ReRan · 2024-03-08T23:31:14Z

Did I miss the explanation of why the gangs are fighting? Is this possibly a rebellion? Who put Henry in power?

Oldfart · 2024-03-09T02:25:42Z

What is so special about Haiti that the Jewnited States needs to keep invading the place?

Psstoffgoy · 2024-03-09T08:14:25Z

Oldfart It's an Ork breeding location, NGO's can import them to US soil when needed.

Highlander · 2024-03-09T16:15:22Z

Psstoffgoy I think you are confused…… orc…..they serve a relatively simple purpose: they’re the bad guys, who serve badder guys. While they have a more “human” line of thinking than elves do, they ultimately lack any desire to do good, as they are somewhat of a “fallen” race. Yes, this is all sounding very biblical, but that’s the short and simple of it.

sounds to me of England and there aristocracy, and Americans politicians judges and military types! No need to go to Haiti for orcs breeding stations!

St.Ranger · 2024-03-09T03:23:04Z

i trust/ hope (?) the Marines will do a better job than "U.S. missionaries"

.

U.S. missionaries in Haiti charged with child kidnapping February 4, 2010 [Link] earthquake

.

Kidnapping suspects go free in Haiti FEB. 18, 2010 [Link] only after a certain saxaphone player and wife had a "talk" with the authorities .

Highlander · 2024-03-09T20:24:30Z

St.Ranger Well, we saw what the marines could do in Abu Ghraib prison 2003 in Iraq. The American military systematic torture, rape, buggery, sodomy and murder of Iraqi men women and even children. Men's genitals ripped off by American dogs! Electricity used to torture! Aye, that marines making a difference, doubtful!

No I wont mention the American black sites, secret prisons where American torture murder and where violence to innocent men women and children is an everyday occurrence!

You live in a fascist state, the new and better, Sodom and Gomorrah!

DeliciousTears · 2024-03-09T03:41:53Z

Haiti is probably the leading and closest source of adrenochrome for the Lizard folk... They need chaos there to juice the kiddie organs.

Buffalo_Ken · 2024-03-09T16:52:01Z

DeliciousTears - I think your speculation may be " close to the target " -

After all the natural disasters that have happened there in Haiti - [Link]
(maybe it was "testing grounds" for that as well - I mean it is not out of the question given how sick the sickos are..._

~

..... holy-moly. ....if the " rebels " want to kick out the trouble-makers and reclaim their land, I suspect they have principle fair and well-founded on their side relatively speaking.....what has happened there is so sick and so sad with so much suffering - tis ignominy from "outside harmful forces" at root seems evident.

.....

JohninND · 2024-03-10T11:44:51Z

Buffalo_Ken Agreed. I also recently read that Haiti was rich in gold, which somehow was never a big story. So it's a self sustaining cage. Those poor souls.

Buffalo_Ken · 2024-03-11T13:55:22Z

JohninND - I can't stand "self-sustaining cages" - I think the rebels ought break out of it.

tekdude · 2024-03-09T03:49:59Z

Evil. Clintons. Third world. "They (too) have 'names and addresses" Utah Phillips.

When will we grow a set? It's past time to render them useless and I'll be rendered a threat for speaking the truth. Free speech was my cousin Bens forte. What a time to lose your stones... Wake the fuck up- it's never too late, just too unpopular.

Psstoffgoy · 2024-03-09T08:35:06Z

[Link] Stack breaks it down pretty good on Blackpilled, simply put, Haiti will never be civilised unless the race of the population changes dramatically. The PTB know this very well, many studies have been done to prove it in other countries and in US cities, it just goes against the current agenda to say it publicly.

JohnDukes · 2024-03-09T15:42:25Z

Don’t fall for the propaganda. Haiti is trying to free itself from the Western Hegemon. Dan Cohen has done excellent reporting on this situation from a non-partisan perspective. And his reporting will lead you to other reporters who are trying to tell the real story of Haiti.

JTF Truth · 2024-03-09T17:33:29Z

I see the rich Haitians are still profiting from exploiting their country and people. There's only about 5000 of them and they are outnumbered by the rest of their population.

So they call for help from the country that pillages their country and steals their children.

uniduo · 2024-03-09T17:46:22Z

US needs to handle it self. There was a big earthquake few decades ago, I do not remember which country was affected, but I do remember they refused help from US. They stated US comes, and never leaves.