On Thursday, US President Joe Biden said sending US troops to Haiti, as the de facto government has requested, is “not on the agenda at this moment,” although the US has sent senior FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials to the Caribbean nation to assist police in their investigation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise's murder.
The US Department of Defense has confirmed that some of the Colombian ex-soldiers arrested in Haiti last week in connection with Moise's killing had received training from the US military during their time in the Colombian military.
He added that US foreign military training is intended to promote “respect for human rights, compliance with the rule of law, and militaries subordinate to democratically elected civilian leadership.”
Two Americans were also arrested, one of whom is a former security guard at the Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince and another who is a former informant for the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), a federal police force that also works closely with Colombian authorities as part of the US' War on Drugs.
Since Moise's killing, acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph has been recognized by the US and United Nations as the de facto leader of the country, although his successor was appointed by Moise just a day before Moise was killed. Joseph declared a state of emergency and appealed to the US and UN for support, including deployments of troops to defend key infrastructure against armed gangs. While the…
