At a time when media is announcing a freeze in the US funding to the UN-backed security mission mainly concentrated in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, El Salvador announced a military contingent was sent to Haiti to bolster the UN-backed mission primarily made up of 600 Kenya soldiers. The 70-soldier El Salvador contigent was sent a day after US Secretary of State visited El Salvador and met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele who has successfully solved gang violence in El Salvador.
When visiting in Costa Rica, US Secretary of State wh acting director of USAID spoke of the waivers in place to the funding freeze.
So far, Haiti has not yet been included in the waiver similar to that which is enabling the US to continue programs for emergency food assistance and foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt. The Dominican Republic is the most impacted by the multidimensional crisis in Haiti with a decline in trade and an increase in demands for free social services and security costs the Haiti situation has created.
US Secretary of State is now in Guatemala on 5 February and from there he is scheduled to travel to the Dominican Republic, departing on 6 February.
The US Secretary of State has been stressing US support to country friends. Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia seemingly are not on the list of US friends. Recently, Colombian President Gustavo Petro (2022-2026) visited Haiti and declared he preferred to visit that country and not Davos. Petro has ambiguous relations with Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
Regarding the freeze on aid programs, Rubio stressed that what is in place is “a 90-day freeze through which it allows us now to review programs.”
In explaining the decision to freeze the programs, he said:
“In some cases, with USAID, 10, 12, 13 percent, maybe less of the money was actually reaching the recipient and the rest was going into the overhead and the bureaucracy. This isn’t my money. This is taxpayer money. So, we’re not going to eliminate foreign aid. We’re going to have foreign aid that makes sense. We’re going to have foreign aid that works. We’re going to have foreign aid that furthers the national interest. We’re going to have foreign aid that benefits our trusted partners and our allies.”
President Luis Abinader said that the US aid to Haiti was on the agenda when he would meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on 6 February 2025 in Santo Domingo.
Diario Libre has reported that spokesperson for the United Nations secretary general, Stéphane Dujarric, has said the United States had committed US$15 million for the trust to finance the security mission in Haiti of which only US$1.7 million have been disbursed and the rest of the money, or US$13.3 million is now frozen.
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
5 February 2025