The Canadian Defense Ministry said on Saturday it dispatched about 70 of its troops to Jamaica to train forces from various Caribbean nations for a prospective U.N.-authorized military intervention in Haiti.
“The Canadian personnel being deployed are drawn primarily from the 1st Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment from Valcartier, Quebec,” the Defense Ministry said.
“Their deployment will last for an initial period of approximately one month. Canadian Armed Forces expects to train approximately 330 CARICOM [Carribbean Community] troops from Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas,” the ministry added.
Hailing from Quebec could be an advantage for Canadian troops sent to Haiti, as French is spoken in both places, although this would seem less relevant if the Canadians are going to remain stationed in Jamaica as trainers.
The Defense Ministry said the training operation has been dubbed “Operation HELIOS” and will include “training on core peacekeeping skills and combat first aid” for Caribbean forces, along with “validation and integration exercises.”
The training will be conducted at the Canadian Armed Forces’ Operation Support Hub (OSH) in Kingston, Jamaica. The OSH, which Canada takes pains to portray as something less than a “military base,” is one of four such facilities worldwide. The other three are located in Germany, Kuwait, and Senegal.
In addition to these training services, Canada has pledged $80.5 million to support a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti. Kenyan police were supposed to lead the mission, but Kenyan courts have stymied the plan by ruling that President William Ruto lacks the constitutional authority to send police officers overseas.
The intervention plan is also unpopular with the Kenyan people, and the political opposition has vowed to block any move to send troops to Haiti with lawsuits, but the Canadian Defense Ministry statement assumed the “Kenyan-led MSS mission” will still take place.
Canada’s CBC News said the 70 instructors departed for Jamaica on Friday. Roughly 3,000 Canadians were registered to be in Haiti when a gang revolt broke out in March, trapping Prime Minister Ariel Henry outside the country as bloody chaos filled the streets. Hundreds of murders, kidnappings, and other atrocities have been reported since then.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry (VALERIE BAERISWYL/AFP via Getty Images)
A protester burns tires during a demonstration following the resignation of its Prime Minister Ariel Henry in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 12, 2024. (CLARENS SIFFROY/AFP via Getty)
CBC News observed:
A very small number of RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] officers are deployed to Haiti now, mostly in training roles. Their number fluctuates; the terms of the deployment allow for up to 45 Mounties to be in Haiti at a time, but their current complement numbers in the single digits.
It is unclear how much a force of 330 Caribbean and Kenyan troops could do to restore order in Haiti, where heavily armed gangs fill the streets of Port-au-Prince and hold entire rural communities hostage.
The UK Guardian reported on Monday that the situation in Haiti remains unstable and might be getting worse, as the gangsters are migrating into “places long considered oases of calm.”
Some observers believe the gangs are trying to intimidate prestigious and influential Haitians out of joining the “transitional council” that is supposed to replace Henry with an interim government. The gangsters are posing as “revolutionaries” seeking to save the Haitian people from the depredations of their corrupt political elites.
Gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier with G-9 federation gang members in the Delmas 3 area on February 22, 2024, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Giles Clarke/Getty Images)
“The vacuum of governance in Haiti has left everybody scrambling for power and domination. I think that’s what we’re seeing right now,” American journalist Amy Wilentz told the Guardian.
Wilentz said that the flood of internally displaced Haitians and the steady trickle of foreigners looking for ways out of the country suggest that no one really expects a Kenyan-led multinational force to swoop in and recapture Port-au-Prince from the gangs.
“It’s a siege, it’s a war. And when people are in that kind of desperate situation, they tend to pick themselves up and go to the nearest coastline. And then they get on boats and they die in great numbers in the water,” she said.
Some Haitians are still trying to take matters into their own hands by forming vigilante squads. The Associated Press (AP) reported on Saturday that a machete-wielding mob in the provincial city of Mirebalais seized two men from police custody and hacked them to death because the mob believed they were buying guns and ammunition for the gangs.
“Police confirmed the crowd snatched the men from police custody after they were found with about $20,000 and the equivalent of about $43,000 in Haitian cash in their car, along with two pistols and a box of ammunition,” the AP said.
