Haiti asks US, UN to send troops as fears of ‘chaos’ grow after president’s assassination
- President Jovenel Moise was this week shot dead in his home, opening up a power vacuum in the crisis-hit Caribbean nation
- Some people have gathered outside the US embassy to call for visa amid security fears, while others are stocking up on food and supplies
Haiti has asked Washington and the United Nations to send troops to help it secure its ports, airport and other strategic sites after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, a government minister said.
“We definitely need assistance and we’ve asked our international partners for help,” Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph told the AP in a phone interview late on Friday. “We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation.”
The US has already said it will send FBI and other agents to Port-au-Prince, two days after Moise was brutally killed by gunmen in his home, opening up a power vacuum in the impoverished and crisis-hit Caribbean nation.
In the wake of the slaying, elections minister Mathias Pierre said: “We thought that the mercenaries could destroy some infrastructure to create chaos in the country. During a conversation with the US Secretary of State and the UN we made this request.”
The stunning request for American military support recalled the tumult following Haiti’s last presidential assassination, in 1915, when an angry mob dragged President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam out of the French Embassy and beat him to death.
In response, US President Woodrow Wilson sent the Marines into Haiti, justifying the American military occupation – which lasted nearly two decades – as a way to avert anarchy.
