The United States on Friday rebuffed Haiti's request for troops to help secure key infrastructure after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise by suspected foreign mercenaries, even as it pledged to help with the investigation, Reuters reports.
Washington is not going to ‘presently’ provide such assistance to Port-au-Prince. Earlier, a spokesman for the State Department confirmed to TASS that the Haitian authorities had asked the American government for help in the field of security, as well as with an investigation into the circumstances of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
“And we remain in regular contact with Haitian officials to discuss how the United States can help,” said a foreign policy official, not giving details.
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki previously said at a regular briefing that the US administration is sending a group of employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of Homeland Security to Haiti.
Psaki found it difficult to specify exactly how many people from among the employees of the US competent authorities were sent to Haiti.
Earlier Haiti has requested that the United Nations and the United States send troops to help secure key infrastructure after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise plunged the country into political turmoil, according to several reports, Al Jazeera reports.
A letter from the prime minister’s office to the UN offices dated July 7 – the day Moise was shot dead in his home – said the aim was “to support the efforts of the national police aiming to reestablish security and public order in the whole territory”. The letter was reviewed by the Reuters news agency.
The 15-member UN Security Council would need to authorize a deployment of UN peacekeepers or police to Haiti.