Credit Photo: Chery Dieu-Nalio | PA
By Ricardo Lambert, Juno7, Sept. 23, 2022
According a statement by Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols provided to the Miami Herald newspaper, the United States is preparing to submit a resolution to the United Nations Security Council next week that would establish a new framework for sanctioning Haitian gang leaders, and does not rule out the possibility of international intervention.
This senior State Department official said in this interview that the gang leaders who are fueling the country's worst security crisis in decades "are in the crosshairs of the United States, and their actions to destabilize Haiti will be sanctioned by international travel and financial sanctions”.
Nichols hinted that the Biden administration hopes for a quick passage of the resolution "in the coming days." “The resolution will create a United Nations framework to impose sanctions on gang leaders and those who support, facilitate and finance their activities. These sanctions would target their financial resources and their ability to travel,” he continued.
As for the fact that such an initiative would require the return of Haiti to Chapter 7, an article of the United Nations Charter which allows the Security Council to deploy international forces as part of a peacekeeping mission. Nichols asserted that “the international community would certainly consider such a request. But Haitian authorities have not requested boots on the ground and there is currently no discussion of a response to the situation in Haiti under Chapter 7,” he added.
In January 2021, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Jimmy Cherizier and two former members of then-President Jovenel Moïse's government for their alleged involvement in a 2018 massacre in the La Saline neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.
Translated by CHIP editors
Posted Sept. 28, 2022