Two U.S. Senators write to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken regarding the security situation in Haiti.
In a letter to the head of U.S. diplomacy Marco Rubio (Republican of Florida) and Raphael Warnock (Democrat of Georgia) express their concern about the deteriorating security situation in Haiti.
“We represent many Haitian families who are concerned about the political instability and the rise in gang violence in their country,” the two U.S. lawmakers wrote, adding that “many of our constituents have family members and businesses in Haiti and are unable to travel to Haiti due to the violence.
Raphael Warnock and Marco Rubio say they have received reports from several American investors who describe a situation so distressing that “they are being forced to leave Haiti for other countries. The parliamentarians cite as an example the case of Doctors Without Borders, which recently announced the suspension of their operations in Haiti. If the violence continues, it could complicate Haiti’s already precarious situation, the two Republican and Democrat senators warned.
According to reports from human rights organizations, between five and 10 people are kidnapped in Haiti every day. In the first three months of 2022, there were 225 cases of kidnapping, the two U.S. officials lamented, demanding that much more funding be allocated to professionalizing and strengthening the Haitian National Police in the U.S. government budget.