Haiti’s interim government, the so-called Transitional Presidential Commission (TPC), has reportedly hired mercenary kingpin Erik Prince, of notorious Blackwater fame, to combat the violent gangs that have effectively taken over most of the capital of Port-au-Prince as well as increasing portions of the Artibonite region, the New York Times reported May 28. Other foreign contractors have also been hired. To hire someone of Prince’s filthy, scandal-ridden background to help take back the country from the gangs is insane, certain to exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis and worsen violence.
The TPC, however, is said to be “desperate.”
Details of Prince’s operation will be discussed in future reports. What is known now, is that his team has been operating in Haiti since March to create a secret task force to deploy drones that will target gang members. It’s unclear whether there will be any extensive training of the under-manned, under-equipped, and under-paid Haitian National Police. Although Prince’s people have been operating the drones since March, they have yet to kill or capture a high-value target.
Prince is anxious to recruit Haitian-American military veterans for this operation—given the history of U.S. military invasions of Haiti, white Americans would not be welcome—and has recently shipped a large cache of weapons to Haiti, according to two experts cited by the Times. But Haiti is already awash in sophisticated weapons, thanks to the flourishing weapons trafficking into the country from south Florida. At least 150 mercenaries are expected to be in Haiti during the coming summer. Prince also plans to send private soldiers and three helicopters from El Salvador to Haiti, based on his good working relationship with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
Prince insists that the U.S. government is not paying for his operation. How Haiti can pay Prince anything is unknown. However, according to the May 29 Haitian Times, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime signed a contract Feb. 7 with the Washington, D.C. lobbying firm Continental Strategy, run by Carlos Trujillo, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States and a key operator for President Donald Trump in everything pertaining to Latin America. Haiti is paying a $35,000 monthly retainer to Trujillo’s outfit for “government relations services” for a year.
Reports of Prince’s activity in Haiti came just after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 20 that the OAS should put together an inter-American military force to intervene in Haiti. It is the OAS’s duty to act, he said, because Haiti is a “regional problem that requires a regional response.” He failed to mention that the OAS has no mandate to carry out such military operations. He announced that the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) put together by his predecessor Tony Blinken, was incapable of dealing with the Haitian crisis. The MSS, however, was underpaid, under-manned and under-equipped like the Haitian police it was supposed to support.
