WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s foreign policy is facing a critical test as he is confronted with two international crises at the same time.
Biden has been huddling at Camp David with aides, receiving video briefings from his secretary of state and national security adviser on Afghanistan’s unraveling and on a deepening crisis in Haiti. The Caribbean nation in a matter of weeks has been hit by an earthquake, the assassination of its president and a crushing coronavirus surge.
The first order of business for Biden was the most pressing challenge to his presidency: the march of the Taliban across Afghanistan, their arrival in Kabul and the hurried evacuation of America’s embassy there after 20 years of war.
But once again, Haiti was on the agenda, this time faced with a natural disaster that has left hundreds dead and hospitals overwhelmed.
A 7.2 magnitude earthquake, larger than the devastating event of 2010, leveled buildings across Southwestern Haiti. With a tropical storm coming, Haitian and U.S. disaster teams are working with precious time to mount a search-and-rescue mission.
A senior administration official told McClatchy that Biden’s immediate reaction to the tragedy — appointment of USAID Administrator Samantha Power to lead the response, statement expressing condolences and requests for updates and briefings — shows that Haiti remains a “top priority” for his administration.
USAID officials held back-to-back meetings throughout the weekend to coordinate the response, deploying a 65-person search and rescue team to the Caribbean nation to join its disaster response team already on the ground.
Delegating the Haitian crisis to Power also allowed Biden to turn his attention to the mounting pressure he faces over the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and his assessment just weeks ago that the Taliban was “highly unlikely” to take over the country.
The earthquake is just the latest in a series of challenges in Haiti that have challenged Biden as he has tried to turn his focus toward greater strategic crises.
The poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere faced one of its worst outbreaks of COVID-19 and was the last in the region to receive vaccines. Haitians fear that storms and earthquakes will further exacerbate the pandemic there.
And the July 7 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse still has the country reeling.
National security officials say the security dynamic in Haiti is a persistent concern within the administration and fear that Haiti’s gangs remain stronger than its national police, who before Saturday’s earthquake were already overwhelmed by the sprawling investigation around Moïse’s murder.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security have increased preparations in the event that mounting pressures on Haiti lead to an exodus of refugees across the Florida Strait.
Immediately after Moïse’s assassination, Haiti’s interim government asked the Biden administration to deploy U.S. troops to the country to help secure its critical infrastructure, including its air and sea ports. Biden rejected that call, providing only supplementary security to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and investigative assistance in the Moïse probe.
The last time the United States sent troops to Haiti was in 2010, after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake left tens of thousands dead.
At that time, President Barack Obama decided on a broad government approach to aid Haiti that drew on State Department and Pentagon resources. He sent in 3,500 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to take part in a massive international relief effort.
The 82nd Airborne Division was recently deployed to evacuate Americans and their allies from Afghanistan.
The question of sending U.S. troops to aid Haiti now that an earthquake has further destabilized the country is likely to be revisited.
USAID’s disaster response team will make an initial assessment of the situation on the ground before the administration considers a U.S. troop deployment, an official said.
“In what is already a challenging time for the people of Haiti, I am saddened by the devastating earthquake that occurred in Saint-Louis du Sud,” Biden said on Saturday. “We send our deepest condolences to all those who lost a loved one or saw their homes and businesses destroyed.”
He added: “The United States remains a close and enduring friend to the people of Haiti, and we will be there in the aftermath of this tragedy.”
