Pentagon ‘analyzing’ Haiti’s request for US troops after assassination, spokesman says

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the United States is “analyzing” a request for troops from Haiti‘s government after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home last week.

On Friday, Haiti’s interim leadership asked U.S. authorities for military personnel to protect key infrastructure and ensure stability in the embattled nation. The plea came two days after Moise was shot dead and his wife, Martine, was injured by multiple armed men at his residence outside of Port-au-Prince.

“We are aware of the request by the Haitian government,” Kirby said two days later during a segment on Fox News Sunday. “We’re analyzing it, just like we would any other request for assistance here at the Pentagon. It’s going through a review. I’m not going to get ahead of that process.”

HAITI’S INTERIM PRIME MINISTER CONFIRMS REQUEST FOR US TROOPS TO COUNTRY

Kirby revealed that a team, made up of FBI and Homeland Security agents, has already been deployed to the area.

“And today, an interagency team, largely from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, are heading down to Haiti right now to see what we can do to help them in the investigative process,” he said. “And I think that’s really where our energies are best applied right now — in helping them get their arms around investigating this incident and figuring out who’s culpable, who’s responsible, and how best to hold them accountable going forward. That’s where our focus is right now.”

Kirby said the issue in Haiti is likely not a U.S. national security threat.

“I think we are watching the situation very closely, Chris,” the spokesman said. “I don’t know that we’re at a point now where we can say definitively that our national security is being put at risk by what’s happening there. But, clearly, we value our Haitian partners. We value stability and security in that country. And that’s why we want to send a team down there today to help them get their arms around exactly what happened and what’s the best way forward.”

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Moise was shot 12 times with high-powered rifle cartridges, and his wife, Martine, has since been transported to a hospital in Miami, Florida, where she is expected to survive. The attackers claimed to be members of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and were heard posing as agents during video footage of the crime, though State Department spokesman Ned Price has said it’s “absolutely false” that DEA authorities were present.

A total of six people, including at least two U.S. citizens, have been arrested in connection to the plot, while four have been gunned down by national police authorities. The pair of U.S. citizens, James Solages and Joseph Vincent, have claimed to be only translators as they insisted they were not in the room when Moise was slain, a Haitian judge said on Friday.

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