Country Snapshot

Population: 7,527,817  Size, comparable to U.S.: slightly smaller than Maryland Per Capita GDP, not adjusted for PPP (year): Per capita GNP (FY 2002): $425 Ranking, Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index: 13 out of 133 Defense Expenditure as a percentage of GDP: 1.3% (FY 2000) Size of armed forces: …,000 (2001-2002) U.S. military personnel present: 13( 2003)

U.S. Support Group Haiti

The U.S. military has maintained a constant presence in Haiti since “Operation Uphold Democracy” helped restore elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in 1994. While U.S. combat and peacekeeping contingents have long since left Haiti, a U.S. “Support Group” based in Port-au-Prince has maintained the U.S. presence. This presence is scheduled to end in early 2000, as both the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom), which coordinates all U.S. military activities in the hemisphere, and Congress have called for its termination. Once the Support Group leaves, the U.S. military will maintain a less permanent presence in Haiti through periodic Humanitarian Civic Assistance (HCA) deployments.

In March 1999 the commander-in-chief of Southcom, Gen. Charles Wilhelm, recommended that the Support Group be withdrawn for security reasons.

" ">[A]t this point, I am more concerned about force protection than cash outlays. The unrest generated by political instability requires us to constantly reassess the safety and security environment in which our troops are living and working. I have recommended that we terminate our permanent military presence in Haiti, and conduct routine periodic engagement activities.¹

Congressional Republicans joined the call to bring troops out of Haiti, inserting Section 1232 into the 2000 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 106-65). Section 1232 prohibits the Department of Defense from funding any continuous presence of U.S. forces in Haiti as part of "Operation Uphold Democracy" after May 31, 2000. While it allows temporary deployments to take place after May 31, the new law requires the President to report them to Congress within 96 hours of their inception. The report must specify the purpose and expected end date of each deployment.

The Support Group handled logistics for a steady series of military Humanitarian Civic Assistance (HCA) activities. Chiefly construction projects and medical services, these activities occurred within the framework of Southcom’s region-wide “New Horizons” series of HCA exercises.

Between the Support Group and the HCA projects, an average of 496 U.S. military personnel were present in Haiti on an average day in 1998. The Southern Command estimates that the U.S. presence in Haiti cost the Defense Department $20,085,000 in 1998. The funding has been drawn from the military services’ operations and maintenance accounts.²

Police aid

After Haiti’s military disintegrated upon Aristide’s return, assistance from the United States and other donor countries helped establish a police force to keep order. Particularly out of concern for drug transshipments through Haitian territory, the United States remains heavily engaged in efforts to strengthen and develop the recently created force. In its 2000 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, Congress urged the administration to place a high priority on “aggressive action to support the Haitian National Police (HNP), including support for efforts by the Inspector General to purge corrupt and politicized elements.”

According to the State Department’s 2000 Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, the main targets of police aid are the Haitian Coast Guard (HCG) and a “fully vetted and polygraphed” Counternarcotics Unit (CNU). Smaller amounts of assistance go to a border patrol unit and a Joint Intelligence Coordination Center.³

Most U.S. police assistance for Haiti is funded through the State Department’s International Narcotics Control (INC) program, the Caribbean Regional Fund of the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, and the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program.

Recent support for the 96-member, eight-boat Haitian Coast Guard (HCG) includes equipment (particularly three 40-foot patrol boats), infrastructure improvements, and training.⁴ In 1998, the State Department’s February 1999 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) estimated, the HCG received infrastructure development services worth $350,000 and training worth $300,000.⁵ Among the U.S.-funded infrastructure improvements are base renovation and construction at Les Cayes, Cap Haitien, and Jacmel, and the construction of a police inspection point on the Dominican border at Malpasse.⁶

Since April 1996 the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards have conducted a full time training and advisory program for the HCG. Under the terms of a 1997 maritime counternarcotics agreement – which Haiti’s deadlocked Parliament never formally ratified – U.S. Coast Guard craft with Haitian officials aboard as “shipriders” carry out narcotics seizures in Haitian territorial waters.⁷ Shipriders are also used in “Frontier Lance,” a periodic Coast Guard anti-drug operation involving both Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which increased its staffing in Haiti from two to seven in 1998, has been involved in many of the Haitian National Police’s anti-drug initiatives, from the creation of units to the installation of computer networks. DEA also coordinated Operation Genesis, a drug interdiction initiative involving Haitian and Dominican forces along the two countries’ common border. According to the INCSR, the operation “resulted in unprecedented exchanges of law enforcement cooperation between the two countries.”⁸

The 2000 Congressional Presentation notes that the Justice Department’s International Criminal Investigations Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) “completed training of 6,500 recruits to the newly-formed HNP. Training continues as the force continues to grow and improve its capabilities.”⁹ Coast Guard students made up the majority of trainees funded by the IMET program.

Haiti is not a significant customer for U.S. arms, though small amounts of small weapons, ammunition, and communications equipment have been purchased recently through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) programs.

---

Sources:

Sources for "country snapshot":

United States, Department of State, Background Notes: Haiti, (Washington: Department of State: March 1998) <http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/haiti_0398_bgn.html>.

United States, Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook 1999, (Washington: Central Intelligence Agency: 1999) <" " lang="ES-CR">http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ha.html>.

¹ United States, U.S. Southern Command, “Posture Statement Of General Charles E. Wilhelm, United States Marine Corps Commander In Chief, United States Southern Command Before The Senate Armed Services Committee,” March 4, 1999.

² U.S. Southern Command, March 4, 1999.

³"MS Mincho"; ">U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998, (Washington: Department of State: February 1999): <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1998_narc_report/major/Haiti.html>.

United States, Department of State, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000, (Washington: Department of State: March 1999): 896-7.

⁴"MS Mincho"; ">Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.

Department of State, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000 896.

⁵"MS Mincho"; ">Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.

"MS Mincho"; ">⁶ Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.

"MS Mincho"; ">⁷ Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.

"MS Mincho"; ">⁸ Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.

"MS Mincho"; ">⁹Department of State, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000 897.