Former U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Dan Foote said the United States’ latest efforts to “re-establish security” and “build security conditions conducive to holding free and fair elections” in Haiti is part of the “same tired playbook that has failed” to bring order and reform to the Caribbean country for decades.
On September 5, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with interim Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where the pair discussed a peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country authorized by the UN Security Council in an effort to reform the country and reclaim it from violent gangs.
However, Foote said Haitians do not want a UN-led mission in their country, due to prior experiences with similar missions.
“The U.S. has found the same tired playbook that has failed at least the last five times we’ve tried it over the last 50 years, and that playbook is we wait until things get so bad in Haiti that it’s almost impossible to go in and do anything,” Foote explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“Then we come in too late with a peacekeeping mission. You’ll notice that Secretary Blinken went to Haiti. Yesterday, the U.S. and Ecuador filed something with the UN to start the process for a UN peacekeeping mission. Haitians don’t agree on much. They do agree that they do not want the UN back there because the last time from around 2006, for 15 years, the MINUSTAH peacekeeping mission was involved in atrocities, massacres, sexual exploitation of women and children, and they reintroduced Cholera in the 80s. They don’t want a UN mission,” Foote added.
Foote was appointed as special envoy in July 2021. He exited the position two months later after the Biden administration made a crooked deal with the unelected leader of Haiti – Ariel Henry – after the assassination of former Haitian President Jovenel Moïse to repatriate thousands of migrants in exchange for scuttled elections in the Caribbean country.
Regarding bringing real change to Haiti, Foote said the country will not emerge from its current state of chaos if the U.S. continues intervening in Haitian affairs.
“We didn’t ask any of the Haitians yet who they want, what they think the plan should be moving forward, etc. And until we do that and let them guide and lead international support, it’s just going to keep failing. I don’t say that because I’m some sort of savant or something. I say that because I’ve seen it happen six times since 1915,” Foote explained.
Foote also pointed out that the failed international playbook being used to bring order to Haiti will continue to drive Haitian migrants to the U.S.
“As long as the U.S. continues this flawed policy, Haitians are going to leave the island. You and I, if we were on the island right now, we’d be trying to skedaddle as quickly as possible. It’s hell. There’s no food. There’s no medical care. There are gangs everywhere… If they don’t get out, there’s a chance they’re going to get killed,” Foote stressed.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
