WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. interagency delegation led by the top State Department official for the Western Hemisphere and including the Defense Department was visiting Haiti on Wednesday amid a humanitarian crisis worsened by violent gangs, a senior Biden administration official said.
Haiti has called for armed assistance to help combat a crisis caused by a blockade on its main fuel port by a coalition of gangs and U.S. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed an international “rapid action force” to help Haiti’s security forces.
Washington would announce new humanitarian assistance and a visa restriction policy targeting former and current Haitian officials involved in street gangs, the U.S. official added.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Matt Spetalnick and Brian Ellsworth)
