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NEW: In court filing, lawyers for one of the defendants in the Haiti assassination case cite text messages between Arcangel Ortiz and his FBI handler from 2020 up until one week before the assassination.

What could possibly go wrong? "The founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, visited Haiti in April to negotiate contracts to provide attack drones and training for an anti-gang task force."

n the first three months of the year, more than 1,600 Haitians were killed. That would likely make Haiti the country with the highest homicide rate in the world.

It's official, the US has designated Viv Ansanm in Haiti as a "Transnational Terrorist Group."

This could end virtually all trade with Haiti, if actually enforced. Very little comes or goes out of Port-au-Prince without some payments being made. Humanitarian access programs would also likely cease. Can't enter a community to disperse aid without negotiations.

A Haitian government official, asked by Washington Post about civilian casualties as a result of weaponized drone operations, had this to say: “To me, it’s just a detail. As long as you’re in a zone controlled by gangs and there are attacks, collateral damage is going to happen.”

Explosive new report from @revistaraya.bsky.social, based on internal Ecuadorian police documents, showing the connections between the president's banana company and drug trafficking.

Carlos Trujillo, "a top advisor" to Trump on Latin America who also served during the first admin, has signed four new lobbying contracts in the last month: Haiti, Guyana, Georgia, and, perhaps even stranger, the intelligence agency of the Dominican Republic.

Haiti sanctions imposed by the US, Canada, even the UN ... it's virtue signaling. They are largely meaningless and have done as much to encourage corruption and violence than deter it.

In 2023, before Daniel Noboa became president of Ecuador, @folha.com reported on leaked docs showing he owned shell companies in tax havens. It would make him ineligible to hold public office. 1.5 years later, and with elections next month, he has yet to address the allegations.

“You can’t address this phenomenon strictly through force. It’s putting all of the eggs in this one basket to the detriment of other things,” @ceprdc.bsky.social's @jakobjohnston.bsky.social says. #Haiti

USAID's new obligations for Haiti related work, from January 2024 through March 2025. So far in 2025, USAID has obligated a total of about $200k. No month in 2024 saw less than $8.5m obligated.

"The fastest, quickest way to dismantle the gangs in Haiti would be to stop the flow of weapons, especially ammunition," UN human rights expert Bill O'Neill said. Instead, the US and others have spent more than half a billion importing a security force while arms keep flowing.

It's one month before Ecuador's elections and the government has just hired a DC lobbyist on a three month contract for $165,000. Agenda item #1 for the lobbyist: facilitate an official state visit between Noboa and Trump.

Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, says that the recent violence in the Catatumbo region is directly connected to the violence in Haiti. In Haiti, traffickers have "more power than the government," former president Preval once told me.

One could write a book about the framing of this.

We will see many arguments like this. Here's the problem: yes, USAID is good for agricultural producers in the US. But that is not really a good thing for the countries we are supposedly "helping." In fact, US food aid has often decimated local production.

In defending USAID, former director Samantha Power makes plain that USAID is used to gain political leverage over foreign governments, often in order to advance US commercial interests. "To help a US company enter a new market ... they say yes."

They could have read @jakobjohnston.bsky.social “Aid State” a year ago and learned that.

"Few countries across the world are as dependent on US foreign assistance as #Haiti," @jakobjohnston.bsky.social writes, and while much of it goes to Beltway contractors & undermines Haiti, "Simply stopping all aid flows overnight ... will have significant effects..." #USAID cepr.net/publications...

Wrote a book called Aid State. Seems relevant today. t.co/ciBDlgtAAb

Shedding a tear for USAID’s Beltway bandits, who get 100% of their revenue from aid contracts that are now likely frozen.

This figure has since increased to $219.3 million. The contract was extended until March 2025. That would be an average of about $20 million per month for the MSS base in Haiti.

"A small group of individuals has maintained considerable influence over Haiti's drug trade from the 1980s until today." 👀👀👀

"Some reports indicate that powerful political and economic figures in Haiti use the eel industry to launder drug profits," head of UNODC tells the Security Council.

In two months, Haitian police were responsible for at least 55 summary executions. 603 have been killed in police operations but 43% of those were people "not involved in acts of violence." Lots of talk about strengthening police, but little about ending police abuses.

For far too long, the Latin American left has largely betrayed Haiti, simply following US policy. Hopefully Colombian president Gustavo Petro's visit to Jacmel today will be the beginning of a new chapter. Haiti needs new "friends."

The disconnect between how the Kenyan government tries to portray its Haiti intervention at home vs. how things are actually going in Haiti is …. Something.

Well, that didn't last long. Yesterday, the court granted the defense's motion for a mistrial. A new trial is set to begin late next month. bsky.app/profile/jako...

An arms trafficking trial is set to get underway today in south Florida. According to an exhibit list filed by the US, there are text messages and phone calls between the defendant and Renel Destina aka Ti Lapli. 2 others were charged in the case and have already pleaded guilty.

Jean Robert Casimir, a Haitian police officer, was arrested in Florida last month on arms trafficking charges. Casimir is a naturalized US citizen and also runs a private security company in Haiti. Records indicate he purchased at least 87 firearms in the last couple of years.

Some 20 Kenyan officers have resigned from the Haiti mission, citing lack of pay and poor working conditions. Report from Edwin Okoth of Reuters:

Below is what the UN sanctions committee had to say about Reynold Deeb. But there is perhaps no single family that the Haitian state relies upon more than the Deebs. The country's largest importers, last year, the family's companies paid the state some $100M in custom duties.

Last week, the Haitian government ordered off air one of the main radio shows that BBQ and other armed group leaders call in to live. I'd guess it is more about high-level government officials and police getting named by these guys on a regular basis than anything else.

There is a narrative that transitioning to a UN PKO in Haiti will ensure funding. Why? The US owes around $1B to the UN for PKO and that sum is likely to increase under Trump — who cut funding when last in office. Troop contributing countries are already struggling to get paid.

Useful background ahead of tomorrow's USNC discussions about Haiti. www.securitycouncilreport.org/whatsinblue/...

What explains the recent escalation in Haiti? There are a number of likely factors but it is telling that Cherizier, as spokesperson for Viv Ansamn, is explicitly calling for the dismissal of the presidential council and placement of a judicial official into the presidency.

The 450 foreign troops in Haiti are based right next to the airport in Port-au-Prince. The US has allocated more than $130 million for building and operating the base. But they haven't even been able to keep the airport open. Maybe its time to come up with a better plan.

Remember when the DR government got really angry because a few members of the US congress wrote a letter that mentioned the DR as a source of illegal arms trafficked to Haiti. lol

The OAS adopted a resolution by consensus in support of a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti. But Colombia added a footnote to clarify its own position. While not blocking the resolution, Colombia makes its opposition clear.

Carlos Trujillo is rumored to be the next Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. This should concern anyone who supports the sovereignty & self-determination of LAC countries, and who opposes US intervention in the region.🧵 cepr.net/who-is-carlo...

Fred Mitchell, foreign minister of the Bahamas, speaking about troops his country sent to Haiti as part of the MSS: “no one is going to be in harm's way” and they are free to leave Haiti at any time. jamaica-gleaner.com/article/cari...

Trump's Latin America policy is likely to be run by far-right regime changers: Rubio, Claver-Carone, Trujillo. Last time we saw them, they promoted a military coup in Bolivia, pressured the IMF to support the right in Argentina, and levied draconian sanctions on Venezuela. Bad.

Haitian police and members of a self-defense group executed two wounded patients that @msf.bsky.social was transporting to a hospital.

After strongly backing Haiti prime minister Conille through his long-running power struggle with the transition council, something happened in recent weeks to turn the US against him. www.cepr.net/haitian-gove...