US officials are “analyzing” the Haitian government’s request to send troops to help stabilize the country following the assassination of its president last week but have not yet decided whether to send them.
“We’re analyzing it, just like we would any other request for assistance here at the Pentagon. It’s going through a review,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby during an interview with “Fox News Sunday.”
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his private Port-au-Prince residence early Wednesday. His wife, first lady Martine Moïse, was also injured in the attack but is recovering at a Florida hospital.
Haitian officials last week requested military assistance from the US and from the UN, the Associated Press reported.
“What do we do? Do we let the country fall into chaos? Private properties destroyed? People killed after the assassination of the president?” Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s elections minister, told the AP. “Or, as a government, do we prevent?
Pierre told the outlet that officials weren’t asking for “occupation of the country.”
“We’re asking for small troops to assist and help us. … As long as we are weak, I think we will need our neighbors,” he said.
Pierre previously told The New York Times he feared “urban terrorists” could attack the nation’s infrastructure in the coming days.
“The group that financed the mercenaries want to create chaos in the country,” he said. “Attacking the gas reserves and airport might be part of the plan.”
The assassination came amid rising political tensions in the country and a surge of COVID-19 cases and gang violence.
Kirby said an interagency team comprised of officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were traveling to Haiti on Sunday to assist them in investigating Moïse’s assassination.
“I think that’s really where our energies are best applied right now in helping them get their arms around investigating this incident and figuring out who’s culpable, who’s responsible, and how to best hold them accountable going forward,” Kirby told Chris Wallace on Sunday.