The Trump administration is set to declare members of Haitian gangs and people financing them "terrorists," a move that could pave the way for sanctions and tougher measures against the criminal groups wreaking havoc in the besieged Caribbean country, the Miami Herald reported.
The outlet detailed that the State Department is working on the measure, which would either equate Haitian gangs to Tren de Aragua and several other Mexican cartels, recently declared foreign terrorist organizations, or a less severe category: "specially designated global terrorist." Those targeted are members of the Viv Ansanm goalition and Gran Grif.
The designation would allow U.S. authorities to send alleged gang members to El Salvador's infamous prisons, as the Trump administration is already doing with alleged Tren de Aragua members. "Haitian gang leaders and members could end up at CECOT, alongside fellow designated terrorists from MS-13 and Tren de Aragua," a State Department official told the outlet.
However, a regional analyst warned that the "goal of the designation is less about a security strategy for Haiti and more about creating a justification to deport Haitians to El Salvador." James Bosworth, author of the Latin America Risk Report newsletter added that the "immediate policy may be more focused on the deportation agenda than security, but it opens the door for a more aggressive security agenda in the future."
It is not the only potential development regarding the country by the Trump administration. Dorothy Camille Shea, interim chargé d'affaires at the U.S. mission at the UN, signaled the administration could be close to cutting aid to the country as it teeters on the brink of collapse.
"America cannot continue shouldering such a significant burden," she said. Shea then requested other countries to increase their support for the Caribbean country, going through a deep crisis that has no perspective of improving.
Maria Isabel Salvador, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' special representative in Haiti, told the Security Council that the situation on the ground is increasingly critical as gangs move onto the few areas in Port-au-Prince that are not under their control.
"We are approaching a point of no return. As gang violence continues to spread to new areas of the country, Haitians experience growing levels of vulnerability and increasing skepticism about the ability of the state to respond to their needs," Salvador said.
"Without timely, decisive and concrete international assistance, the security situation in Haiti may not change... Haiti could face total chaos and any delay in your support could be a direct cause of such stark deterioration," she added.
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