Against the Militarization and Imperialist Occupation of Haiti & Our Americas

Against the Militarization and Imperialist Occupation of Haiti & Our Americas

On Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025, the UN Security Council voted to adopt a resolution drafted by the U.S. and Panama that would create a so-called “Gang Suppression Force” (GSF) to invade Haiti. The resolution was adopted with 12 votes in favor and 3 abstentions (China, Russia, and Pakistan). The Popular Steering Committee for a Zone of Peace in Our Americas strongly condemns the adoption of this resolution.

The resolution for the “Gang Suppression Force” (GSF) authorizes the deployment of up to 5,550 personnel, foreign police and soldiers, with powers to “neutralize, isolate," and detain and imprison Haitian civilians – independent of the Haitian police and government. The GSF, then, is a further step in the destruction of Haitian popular sovereignty, pushing the country into militarized, neocolonial servitude. 

As the Haitian Popular Press Agency, a collective made up of many social movements and civil society organizations, stated recently:

“Everyone knows that this new occupation force will not be deployed to solve the problem of criminal gangs. The political hand of the United States is behind the armed gangs. So, the United States has no interest in solving the problem they have created. The problem of criminal gangs will be solved only when progressive and revolutionary forces take the direction of the country.”

The GSF resolution was drafted and passed with the consent of the Transitional Presidential Council in Haiti, which is illegitimate, unelected, and without a popular and democratic mandate. The resolution was further justified through the complicity of regional states and bodies, such as the OAS, which will have a role in overseeing this force, and CARICOM, many of whose member states will contribute to this occupation. Once again, the fate of Haiti is decided in the West with no legitimate forces representing the Haitian masses in the room. 

The governments of the Caribbean and Latin America must stand up in legitimate solidarity with the people of Haiti and popular movements. This would mean rejecting the neocolonial GSF and further U.S.-sponsored militarization of Haiti. This would mean taking a principled stand against the normalization of Western-backed occupation of Haiti, just as governments and movements around the region have taken principled stances against the Zionist and U.S.-financed genocide in Gaza. It is hypocrisy to support solidarity with the Palestinian people against their colonizer and oppressor, and in the same breath collaborate with the neocolonial oppressors of the U.S. and Core Group in their ongoing occupation of Haiti.

The government of Nicaragua showed what this principled solidarity could look like in its last CELAC statement, which registered dissent against the tacit support for ongoing U.S., UN, and Western-led militarization and occupation of Haiti. If the regional multinational institutions and individual governments of the Caribbean and Latin America are to promote a ‘Zone of Peace’ in the region, then they must refuse to continue sacrificing the people of Haiti at the altar of militarism and neoliberalism in the Americas. Regional bodies, particularly CELAC, must put together a solution for Haiti that is based on authentic regional solidarity, not beholden to U.S. and Core Group interests, and focused on addressing the root causes of violence and poverty in Haiti – not pummeling the population into submission. As Popular Steering Committee member organization Black Alliance for Peace stated in their recent statement on this subject: “

“The GSF gives full oversight to a “Standing Group” of foreigners (which is similar to the Core Group), which will work with the established UN occupation office, BINUH – leaving Haitians as little more than symbolic partners. The GSF will also have a foreign “Force Commander.” All of this effectively creates another colonial governance model for Haiti…[W]e should also not forget that the crisis in Haiti is a crisis of imperialism – the rise in armed groups must be understood as a symptom of that crisis. Furthermore, the crisis continues with full complicity and participation of the so-called "international community” and compradors in the region. In 2022, for example, Haitian organizations blamed the United Nations and Core Group occupation for enabling the “gangsterization” of the country.” 

Unfortunately, the multinational institutions that claim to support fraternal cooperation and solidarity – such as CARICOM, the OAS, and the African Union – are deeply beholden to the interests of U.S. foreign policy and multinational finance capital. We understand that this is not necessarily their choice, but a position that they have been forced into by the domination of U.S.-led imperialism and a neoliberal global economic structure. Nonetheless, continuing to acquiesce to these systems and structures of domination will only further deepen the dependency of states in the region and only slightly delay the destruction of increasing militarism in Our Americas. Haiti has long been used as a testing ground and staging point for forms of neocolonial domination and militarization in the region, and we have already seen the “terrorist designation” utilized in Haiti to unleash increased state violence like drone attacks and private mercenary deployments. This same designation has now been placed on Venezuela, allowing for the illegal and barbaric bombings of boats and incursions into Venezuelan airspace.

Considering this, we call upon the progressive and revolutionary states, nations, and movements of the Caribbean and Latin America to:

• Support the masses of the people of Haiti and the progressive and radical movements in rejecting the Gang Suppression Force and fighting for an end to the U.S./UN-led occupation of Haiti;

• Fight for a declaration from CELAC that pushes the governments in the Caribbean and Latin America to stop participating in the US imperial onslaughts on Haiti and Venezuela, and to respect Haiti’s and Venezuela’s sovereignty as well as the right of their peoples to determine their own political futures;

• Develop genuine pro-human and anti-imperialist regional solidarity across the Caribbean and Latin America to resist the normalization of foreign military interventions;

• Guarantee the right of Haitian migrants to free movement and asylum, without xenophobia, criminalization, or bias. 

Signed,

The Popular Steering Committee for a Zone of Peace in Our Americas