Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urges Biden not to send troops to Haiti

The congresswoman warned that the Caribbean nation’s situation is ‘extremely fragile’

Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York (Getty Images)

US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said that sending American troops to Haiti could worsen the country’s political crisis.

Following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse at his home in Port-au-Prince last week, the interim government asked the United States to send troops to help secure key infrastructure.

The request provoked outcry in many quarters, due to the US’ highly controversial history of intervention in Haiti.

So far the Biden administration has not committed to sending military support, instead sending  a delegation of FBI and homeland security officials to "see what we can do to help them in the investigative process”, according to Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby.

Speaking to Democracy Now, Ocasio-Cortez said: "This situation is extraordinarily delicate and extremely fragile. I do not believe right now that the introduction of US troops, particularly without any sort of plan, sets any community – whether it’s the US or whether it’s Haitians – up for success."

She went on to say: "Our role should be in supporting a peaceful transition and a peaceful democratic process for selecting a new leader and avoiding any sort of violence."

The New York Democrat’s comments came in the wake of the arrest of a Florida-based doctor, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, who was allegedly involved in the plot to kill President Moïse.

Mr Sanon is the third Haitian-American to be suspected of involvement in the assassination.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez added that the role of the administration should be ‘supporting any due process for justice here in the United States for any actors that may have been complicit on U.S. soil.”

According to rawstory.com, Sanon is thought to have worked with a Miami-based private security firm to hire the mercenaries who shot President Moïse. Footage shows that assailants posed as officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to access Moïse’s private residence.