The current issues plaguing Haiti are being attributed by a former special envoy to what he perceives as former President Joe Biden’s disengaged decision-making approach.
In 2021, Daniel Foote held the position of special envoy to Haiti but chose to resign in protest, citing the administration’s ineffective strategy of supporting unpopular and unelected leaders.
According to Foote, none of the governments endorsed, appointed, or enforced by the U.S. in the past 110 years have truly represented the Haitian population. He specifically called out the Biden administration for endorsing then-unselected Prime Minister Ariel Henry based solely on his loyal demeanor, raising concerns about the circumstances of Henry’s ascension to power.
Police stop a motorist in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Biden’s spokesperson and Sison did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Nuland rejected Foote’s accusations, calling them “completely false” and referred Fox News Digital to former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols.
“What I observed that there was intense coordination, and there was not one person or two people who would make a significant decision on the policy,” Nichols said, noting that he got the job roughly a week before Foote resigned on Sept. 21 and so was not involved in earlier decisions. “All issues were debated extensively internally at multiple levels, all the way up to the principals, that’s the Cabinet secretary level.”
Foote said that in the past he felt no need for security while walking around Haiti because Americans were widely welcomed. Things are not the same anymore.
“Now the Haitians are looking at China, looking at Russia,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Somebody help us. The Americans just keep screwing us over,’ yet they still want the Americans to help them.”
A member of the G9 and Family gang patrols a roadblock in the Delmas 6 neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 11. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
The Biden administration committed around $600 million to fund an international security force, known as the multinational security support mission (MSS), composed of personnel from countries like Bangladesh, Kenya, Chad and Guyana. But Foote said he sees the MSS strategy as a waste of taxpayer money.
“They don’t have the security backbone to take on the gangs,” he said. “They need help. And that help is not 5,000 random police officers from a mishmash of 10 different developing countries led by the Kenyans, who have never led a security mission in history.”
Police from Kenya stand on the tarmac of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport after landing in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on June 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Marckinson Pierre)
Nichols defended the MSS, declaring their efforts “incredibly heroic.”
“Having seen them on the ground in Haiti, it’s an extremely professional force, extremely courageous and one committed to the mission,” he said.
Foote recommends that President Donald Trump send 60 U.S. special forces personnel to train an elite anti-gang unit in Haiti and reestablish a signals intelligence program to monitor gang communication. Without such action, he said, the consequences would extend far beyond Haiti’s borders.
“It’s just going to continue to create chaos right off the U.S. shores and create a massive surge in migration,” he said. “Because if you walk down the street in Port-au-Prince, you look around and think, ‘I can understand why people leave. Humans can’t live in these conditions.'”
President Joe Biden addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Jack Brewer, who played in the NFL before founding a global foundation that has been in Haiti since the devastating 2010 earthquakes, echoed Foote’s assessment.
“People are being burned alive, police officers are getting their heads bashed into the pavement – bloody, torturous deaths,” Brewer said. “One of my doctors had five of his close friends and relatives murdered. This all just happened this week.”
Brewer said that any real change can come only from within Haiti.
“I’m talking about a culture that doesn’t accept stealing and doesn’t accept corruption,” he said. “Right now, culturally, it’s acceptable to steal, and that has to change. Until you fix the moral fabric of a nation and reinstate law and order, it doesn’t matter what America does.”
