Rubio says Trump won't intervene in Haiti but will support current mission: 'No easy answer'

Michael Wilner and Jacqueline Charles, McClatchy Washington Bureau on Jan 15, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the answer to Haiti’s gang-fueled security crisis will not come from U.S. military intervention, but could still come from a multinational support effort spearheaded by the Biden administration, indicating President-elect Donald Trump will stay the current U.S. policy course on the Caribbean nation’s persistent emergency once he takes office next week.

The remarks by Trump’s nominee for secretary of state — made during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — are the first high-level signal of Trump’s burgeoning policy toward one of the most pressing and intractable crises in the Western Hemisphere. But whether the president-elect himself chooses to follow Rubio’s policy vision remains unclear.

Some leading Republicans have been concerned about the deployment of Kenyan troops to the hemisphere and the vulnerability it presents for fighting terrorist groups on the African continent, and domestically for Kenyan President William Ruto.

But Rubio said there were no easy answers for Haiti, warning its prolonged security crisis risks destabilizing the neighboring Dominican Republic and exacerbating regional challenges over historic levels of migration.

The new U.S. administration will support the multinational mission, led by Kenya, and will encourage foreign partners to provide police assistance to Haiti, Rubio told senators.

“I don’t think anyone can tell you they have a master plan for how you fix that overnight,” Rubio said.

The Biden administration has provided more than $600 million in assistance for the foreign mission — mostly over the objections of leading Republican lawmakers charged with confirming Rubio, and who opposed the deployment of Kenyan police to Haiti with U.S. funds.

Despite an extension of the mission by the United Nations Security Council until October, the Biden administration has been pushing for the current 574-member force to be transformed into a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission so that funding would be guaranteed and the number of security personnel can be augmented.

Getting the Kenyan mission to become a U.N. peacekeeping force requires the vote of the Security Council. China and Russia, which have veto power, have both balked at the idea.

“I do think it does begin with stability and security,” Rubio added. ”You’ve got to establish some baseline security, and it’s not going to come from a U.S. military intervention. So, to the extent that we can encourage foreign partners — and I would include foreign partners in the Western Hemisphere, who should be contributing to this effort — to provide some level of stability and security in Haiti, so that you can explore the opportunities to have a a transitional government that has legitimacy that can ultimately lead to the conduct of elections.”

“But it’s going to take a long time,” he added, “and I say this with sadness in my heart.”

In an address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres mentioned Haiti, where armed gangs last year killed more than 5,600 people and have now forced over 1 million people from their homes and neighborhoods. Guterres has been asked by the Security Council, at the request of the United States, for a report on what a formal peacekeeping operation would look like in Haiti, where the last force left the country during the first Trump administration.

”At the very least, we must ensure that the Multinational Security Support mission receives sustainable and predictable funding,” Guterres said.

Calling Haiti’s crisis “globally complex,” Rubio said the fundamental problem there was that governing bodies have no legitimacy or authority. The country last held elections in 2016 and has no elected officials in office.

Rubio, however, praised the Haiti National Police for their “extraordinarily brave” fight against gangs in the country that have outgunned and out-manned them.

“These are bad gang elements that are operating within Haiti, and have destabilized not just Haiti, but threatened to destabilize the Dominican Republic — not to mention the migratory pressure that it places on the United States on the Bahamas and on other places in the region,” he said. “There is no easy answer.”

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