Latest Update From Embassy Haiti: Still Evacuating Non-Essential Staff

At 3PM Eastern time the embassy website posted this update: U.S. military conducts operation to augment security of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti 

At the request of the Department of State, the U.S. military conducted an operation to augment the security of the U.S. Embassy at Port-au-Prince, allow our Embassy mission operations to continue, and enable non-essential personnel to depart.

This airlift of personnel into and out of the Embassy is consistent with our standard practice for Embassy security augmentation worldwide, and no Haitians were on board the military aircraft.

Our Embassy remains focused on advancing U.S. government efforts to support the Haitian people, including mobilizing support for the Haitian National Police, expediting the deployment of the United Nations-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, and accelerating a peaceful transition of power via free and fair elections.

As announced in September 2023, the Department of Defense is postured to provide robust enabling support for the MSS, including planning assistance, information sharing, airlift, communications, and medical support.

Haitians please note that "no Haitians were on board," meaning, we are not taking sides in your local conflict. 

U.S. voters please note that "our Embassy remains focused on a laundry list of highly unlikely, not to say laughable, ways to fix Haiti." Anyway, that's my free interpretation of the third para in that update. 

Meanwhile, I'm sticking with my favorable impression of Jimmy 'Barbecue' Chérizier. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

     

'Barbecue' and his gang are showing impressive muzzle discipline in that photo, and I even see some of them with fingers straight and off the trigger. They have my vote for next government leaders. https://t.co/KWUal8mz91

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) March 10, 2024

 

Haiti: Local Staff Update

Thanks to Diplopundit for locating an official update on U.S. Embassy Haiti's local staff. The status so far: six killed, nine injured, and 28 still unaccounted for. Of course, we should add to that the still-unknown number of family members of our local staff who surely were also killed or injured.

The human impact of that loss needs no comment. As an aside, the loss of so many local staff also hinders the embassy's recovery efforts as administrative functions - even such things as processing purchase orders so that emergency funds sent to post after the earthquake can be spent - go undone as the Foreign Service staff and TDYers concentrate on more immediate concerns.

Is there such a thing as Locally Engaged Staff TDYers who could be sent to fill in after a crisis? Maybe, but I suspect that most of our local staff are truly irreplaceable due to their unique personal relationships with and vernacular understanding of the local environment.