Greg Stanton Grills Officials on Countering Haitian Gang Insurgency

Representative Greg Stanton (D-AZ) discussed the goals and progress of the Haiti Gang Suppression Force (GSF) in a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing with Senior Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Official Michael Kozak and the GSF's Co-Leader Colonel Justin Gorkowski.

The Context

The Haiti Gang Suppression Force is a multinational coalition, backed primarily by the United States and Panama, aiming to retake the country from the gangs controlling much of its territory, including 90% of the capital of Port-Au-Prince.

The gangs, led by figures such as Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier and Vitel'homme Innocent, arose in the wake of the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in 2021, and no elected government has been in place ever since.

Stanton's Questions

"The international community has spent more than $10 billion on security assistance for Haiti over the last two decades, with a significant portion coming from the United States taxpayers, yet significant security challenges still remain," Rep. Stanton commented, asking, "What is different about the Gang Suppression Force that should give us confidence that history is not being repeated?"

Col. Gorkowski replied that the GSF is five times larger than the Multinational Security Support (MSS) led by Kenya and much more focused on attacking the gangs head-on, with contributing countries deploying with their own equipment to counter the gangs on land, sea, and air.

This prompted Rep. Stanton to ask Col. Gorkowski what success for the GSF looks like, to which he answered that "this is a fundamentally territorial problem," and that the gangs must be cleared out so state functions can be provided in those areas.

The Arizona congressman then turned to Kozak, asking what the Trump Administration is doing to ensure that Haiti achieves long-term stability beyond defeating the gangs.

Kozak said that one of the first goals is "getting governance of Haiti by Haitians," meaning tamping down on the violence enough to hold secure elections, and to reauthorize the HOPE-HELP Act, which authorizes duty-free textile exports from Haiti to the United States to help build its economy and gradually reduce reliance on foreign aid.