U.S. Forces Fly in to Embassy in Haiti to Evacuate Nonessential Personnel
State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller says the Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Jamaica for urgent meeting with CARICOM members hoping to find a compromise for the spiraling crisis in Haiti.
Transcript
00:00 So the Secretary is in Kingston, Jamaica today to attend the CARICOM high-level meeting on
00:04 Haiti to advance a compromise to the ongoing political stalemate threatening the country's
00:11 citizens and security.
00:12 The proposal that is on the table that CARICOM has developed over the past several days in
00:18 consultation with Haitian stakeholders and consultation with the United States would
00:23 expedite a political transition through the creation of a broad-based independent presidential
00:28 college to steer the country toward the deployment of a multinational security support mission
00:32 and free and fair elections.
00:34 And that's what I expect the Secretary will be discussing with his colleagues.
00:37 We have been on order departure status since last July where we have ordered a certain
00:45 number of embassy personnel to leave.
00:47 Since we went to that status last July, there have been embassy personnel that have left
00:51 at different times and at times we have moved additional personnel in.
00:54 So we had a number of embassy personnel that left over the weekend.
00:58 We had additional security forces that deployed to the mission because of the security situation
01:03 there and we'll continue to assess the situation and make whatever appropriate decisions we
01:08 need to to protect our staff and personnel there.
01:11 We are in contact with a number of American citizens in Haiti.
01:14 I do want to reiterate that we have had a level four travel alert for Haiti for more
01:20 than four years now, making very clear to American citizens that number one, they should
01:24 not travel to Haiti, that it is not safe to travel to Haiti, and number two, that if they
01:29 are in Haiti, they should leave as soon as it's safe for them to do so.
01:32 Now obviously that's a warning that has been in place for four years.
01:35 It's not safe for a number of them to leave right now and they're not able to leave right
01:39 now because the airport has been damaged and commercial carriers have suspended flights.
01:44 So what we are asking U.S. citizens to do today is to register through our crisis intake
01:49 form which you can get to through the embassy's website and we will communicate with them
01:54 the best information we have when we have it.
01:56 We are committed to the success of the MSS.
01:59 You have seen not only the United States commit money to the MSS but also the Secretary has
02:04 met with his foreign counterparts to seek to raise funds from additional countries to
02:08 fund the MSS.
02:09 The Secretary spoke to the President of Kenya on Friday to discuss the deployment of the
02:14 MSS and we continue to look to expedite that mission as soon as possible.
02:21 So that's something we're in conversation with the government of Kenya about and something
02:24 we're in conversation with other countries around the world and I can assure you that
02:29 the United States will do its part to fund that important mission.