Gang Terror in Haiti: Rubio Calls on OAS to Intervene

Facing the overt failure of the international mission led by Kenya in Haiti, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls on the OAS to intervene to stop the gang violence plunging the country into chaos.

Haiti continues to sink under armed violence. Heavily armed gangs, uncontrolled territories, displaced population: the security situation is becoming uncontrollable. Noting the partial failure of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio advocated, on Tuesday, May 20, for a more robust intervention by the Organization of American States (OAS).

“This mission alone will not solve this problem,” Rubio declared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. According to him, the crisis in Haiti is a regional threat that requires a collective response. He calls on the OAS to resume a military initiative, as in 1965 in the Dominican Republic where a force of 1,700 agents under Brazil's direction was deployed to thwart a civil war.

Rubio, who now represents American diplomacy, believes that the United States cannot continue to bear the burden of responding to this crisis alone. He invites countries in the region to get concretely involved, recalling that no Latin American country has yet contributed financially to the ongoing mission, and very few have sent troops.

“Why do we have an Organization of American States if it is incapable of collectively responding to a serious catastrophe in our hemisphere?” hammered the number 1 of American diplomacy.

For Rubio, the current mission must be strengthened, but above all supported by a broader strategy. He states that gangs in Haiti — between 25,000 and 30,000 members — seek only to control roads, loot, kidnap, and circulate weapons and drugs throughout the region.

He therefore urges OAS members to mobilize to prevent the Haitian crisis from overflowing and threatening the stability of the entire hemisphere.

The editorial team