U.S. senators reintroduce sanctions bill targeting Haitian gangs and their supporters

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Florida Republican Marco Rubio, are reintroducing legislation that would go after criminal gangs in Haiti and those in the country’s political and private sectors who collude with them.

The bill, the Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act of 2022, calls for robust sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act; annual reporting on the nature and magnitude of gang violence in Haiti; the connections between Haitian political and business elites and criminal gangs; and public access to that information. The legislation was first introduced last session in the House by Florida Democrat Val Demings, who lost her senatorial bid to unseat Rubio in the state’s congressional race in November.

While the bill relies on existing law, the aim of the legislation is to force the U.S. to expand its efforts to go after Haiti’s criminal gangs and their backers, which have not kept pace with similar efforts by the Canadian government, a congressional staffer said.

Since November, Canada has sanctioned 15 Haitians, including former President Michel Martelly and former prime ministers Jean-Henry Céant and Laurent Lamothe, and several high-profile businessmen over their alleged support for armed gangs in Haiti. Ottawa announced that it would freeze any Canadian assets, including that of Haitian senator Rony Célestin, who along with his wife owns a $4.25 million home in one of Quebec’s ritziest areas.

Washington has only sanctioned four individuals, all of them politicians, accusing them of involvement with gangs and drug trafficking. Though the U.S. has also issued visa restrictions against many others, visa decisions are not publicized and the consequences are not as stiff. Visas restrictions ban individuals from traveling to the United States, while economic sanctions make them economic pariahs in their home country.

“The Biden administration already has the executive authority to implement targeted sanctions to hold human rights violators accountable for their corrupt actions,” Rubio previously told the Herald. “However, the administration needs to go further.”

With the reintroduction of the legislation, Rubio said Haiti’s instability continues to threaten both the island’s future and the stability of the region, including his home state of Florida.

“The people of Haiti have long suffered the hardships of gang violence, which continues to threaten their daily lives and prop up corrupt government officials,” he said. “The U.S. and the international community must hold these bad actors accountable as an initial step to address the island’s complex crisis.”

The legislation is co-sponsored in the Senate by Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat; Republican Ted Cruz of Texas; and New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker. The bill would require the State Department to investigate and provide Congress with annual reports regarding the nature of the relationship between criminal gangs and political and economic elites in Haiti. The reports would be publicly accessible on the State Department’s website.

Last year, President Joe Biden signed a law with new reporting requirements for the State Department to brief congressional lawmakers on Haiti’s ongoing governance crisis, individuals in acts of corruption and the events surrounding the 2018 massacre in Port-au-Prince’s La Saline neighborhood, as well as the ongoing investigation into the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

When the reports were finally released, critics noted that they were not very detailed — the Moïse report was a few pages long and the report on corruption was essentially a clip job of media reports, with no signs of any independent investigation by U.S. authorities.

“As the situation in Haiti continues to spiral out of control, I am proud to reintroduce this bipartisan legislation to hold Haiti’s criminal gangs, their financiers and political backers to account,” Menendez said. “While the Haitian people face a political, security, and humanitarian crisis, criminal gangs — and those who enable them — continue to perpetrate horrifying abuses, including murdering civilians and committing heinous acts of sexual violence with relative impunity. As Haiti’s future hangs in the balance, those responsible for these offenses must face consequences, regardless of their status.”

Kaine said the Biden administration’s sanctions last year against gangs were a much needed step.

“This legislation will expose the connections between these individuals who perpetrate unspeakable violence against the Haitian people and the powerful public figures who deploy these gangs for their own benefit,” he said. “It will provide an important tool for transparency, accountability and justice for the Haitian people.”