Alarm is growing in Washington, as Viv Ansanm (Let’s Live Together), a coalition of greater Port-au-Prince’s armed neighborhood groups, continues to maintain the initiative and make gains against the ineffectual, unelected, and corrupt Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) which former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken set in place 13 months ago.
The UN Security Council-endorsed, Kenyan-led, Washington-funded Multinational Security Support mission (MSS), which deployed to Haiti last June, has had no success in rolling back or even slowing Viv Ansanm’s advances, while tens of thousands of Haitian refugees have been repatriated (with more about to be) from the Dominican Republic and the U.S. in 2025.
On May 13, the Washington Post published an editorial entitled “The U.S. needs a plan to stop Haiti’s free fall” in which it argued that the Trump administration has a “piecemeal” and “contradictory approach” to Haiti, having “taken actions that risk making the awful situation worse.” These include its “plans to end the temporary protected status [TPS] that allows Haitians to live and work legally in the United States” as well as “curtailment of foreign aid” which has closed health clinics and nutrition programs across Haiti.
On May 12, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio which made the same points as well as several recommendations including to “Strengthen Support for the MSS” by increasing the force from the current 1,077 to “2,500 – 5,000″ and “to expand the number of military personnel with counter-insurgency expertise and ensure sufficient staff and budget to create the 12 operational bases established in the 2024 Concept of Operation agreed to by the United States and Kenya.”
Shaheen also called on Rubio to “ensure a steady flow of critical assistance to Haiti,” to “sanction Haitian armed criminal actors and their political and economic enablers” in Haiti’s bourgeoisie, to “improve illicit firearms tracing and recovery in Haiti,” to “address serious, credible allegations of corruption” in the CPT. In short, it was a rehash of suggestions made and actions taken by other officials in recent months, reflecting Washington’s stymied, hapless response to Haiti’s events.
Analyst Robert Muggah also weighed in via the U.S. Deep State’s “Americas Quarterly,” in which he warned that “Haiti is sliding into the abyss” but in the end could only offer similar platitudes.
“Haiti’s decline into anarchy… can be halted through more accountable policing, a strengthened criminal justice system, and an inclusive transitional government,” he concluded, avoiding the obvious question of whether there should be dialogue with Viv Ansanm, as the coalition has repeatedly requested. “Sustained efforts to curb the flow of illicit arms and funds that finance the gangs and their supporters will be equally vital.”
Meanwhile, Haiti’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC) on May 8 issued six reports that outlined how government officials had embezzled close to $2 million from public coffers, revealing once again the depth of corruption in Haiti’s de facto regime.
The ULCC accused former Director General of the Office for the Protection of Citizens (OPC) Renan Hédouville of collecting about $127,630 in per diems and plane tickets for ten official trips – that were never actually taken – between 2019 and 2024.
Another ULCC report charged that former director of the Workplace Accident, Sickness, and Maternity Insurance Office (OFATMA), Carl François, chose two catering companies, Valcuisine and Oley Event and Food Services, without a bidding process to provide $828,025 of food service from 2022 to 2025. One of Valcuisine’s co-directors, Valérie Nadia Victor, is a member of businessman Réginald Boulos’ Third Way Movement (MTV) political party along with François. Valcuisine received 95% of OFATMA’s catering budget in those four years, and the ULCC is recommending prosecution for conflict of interest, forgery, and embezzlement.
Also, Immigration Director Stéphane Vincent, who held the post for only four months, is accused of authorizing 556 passports without collecting tax payments on them, thereby costing the Haitian state $28,120. The ULCC alleges that Vincent and several other officials used a fake user account under the alias Fernando Victor to approve passport applications without payments being made to the state.
Another three ULCC reports breakdown the embezzlement of some $904,000 via the theft of passport fees, no-bid contracts, the depositing of state monies into personal accounts, unauthorized salaries and per diems, as well as the theft of farmland using falsified documents.
Haitian authorities have become so crooked and useless that Kenya signed an accord this week with the Dominican Republic to provide medical evacuation and treatment by Haiti’s neighbor as well as to fly back to Africa dead or wounded Kenyan police officers. Twenty Kenyans have already received medical attention in the DR.
“Your support has been invaluable, enabling us to evacuate our personnel when they require medical attention and other critical assistance,” Kenya’s First Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Secretary Musalia Mudavadi told Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez during the agreement’s signing in Santo Domingo on May 12. “This mission requires significant cooperation, particularly in sharing intelligence and critical information, and [the Dominican Republic] has provided invaluable support.”
Support for the Kenyans is perhaps forthcoming, but not for Haitians (or Dominicans of Haitian descent) in the DR. According to the Dominican Directorate General of Migration (DGM), President Luis Abinader’s government has deported 119,003 Haitians from January to April 2025. This figure represents a 71% increase compared to the first four months of 2024.
Most Haitians were arrested in Santo Domingo, followed by La Altagracia and Santiago. Under Abinader’s directive, the DR’s National Security Council decided on Oct. 2, 2024 to step up the expulsion of Haitians, and since then, an average of 30,511 have been sent back across the border monthly.
