As part of a lightning visit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, September 5. This is the first visit to Haiti by a US Secretary of State since John Kerry in 2015, https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-15331-icihaiti-elections-john-kerry-will-meet-again-with-president-martelly.html who led US diplomacy between 2013 and 2017, during Barack Obama's second term.

The limits of US confidence in the Haitian government's ability to ensure the security of the US delegation were clearly displayed during Blinken's short stay. The Secretary of State’s motorcade was confined to armored vehicles, and the meetings were all held exclusively in locations under full U.S. government security control, the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy and the ambassador’s residence in the hills above the capital.

During his several-hour visit, Blinken opened his busy schedule with a meeting with Edgard Leblanc Fils, the rotating president of the Transitional Council (CPT). Immediately after, he met with Prime Minister Garry Conille (at the residence of the American ambassador), and finally, he met together with 9 representatives of organizations and political parties at the American Embassy : Magalie Comeau Denis for the Montana Accord, Maryse Narcisse and Joël Vorbe for Fanmi Lavalas, André Michel and Pascal Adrien for the December 21 Agreement, Jerry Tardieu for the En Avant party, Clarens Renois for the January 30 Collective, Jean-Charles Moïse for the Pitit Desalin party and Claude Joseph for the "Engagés pour le Développement" (EDE) party.

He concluded his brief stay in Haiti with a visit to the base of the Multinational Mission for Security Support (MMSS), whose deployment began last June and which currently hosts nearly 400 Kenyan agents out of the 2,500 from different countries who are to participate in the Mission.

While acknowledging that the MMSS lacks stability, because the international community’s contributions are "voluntary" Blinken said "[...] the security situation is better than it was at the beginning of the year [...] We have come a long way since those dark days. We now have a joint operation between the MMSS and the Haitian National Police (PNH) [...] We are fighting gangs and their leaders in a way that has not been seen in years [..] now that the MMSS has received armored vehicles..."

In short, there were no major announcements. Blinken wanted to be positive about the future, he especially listened to Haitian political actors talk about the situation in Haiti and distributed encouragement...

After his visit to Haiti, Blinken continued his trip to the Dominican Republic where he is scheduled to meet with re-elected President Luis Abinader on Friday, with whom he will discuss security issues in Haiti and discuss the need to normalize relations between Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince, said Brian A. Nichols, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, who is accompanying Blinken on his tour.

HL/ HaitiLibre