Haiti's interim PM confirms request for US troops to country

Following Haiti's request for U.S. troops, the US administration is sending officials to assess how it can be most helpful, but added there are no plans to provide military assistance at this time

Haiti's interim government said Friday that it asked the U.S. to deploy troops to protect key infrastructure as it tries to stabilize the country and prepare the way for elections in the aftermath of the assassination of President Jovenel Mose. “We definitely need assistance and we've asked our international partners for help,” Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph told The Associated Press in an interview, declining to provide further details. “We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation.” Joseph said that he was dismayed by opponents who've tried to take advantage of Moïse's murder to seize political power — an indirect reference to a group of lawmakers have declared their loyalty and recognized Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti's dismantled senate, as provisional president and Ariel Henry, whom Moïse designated as prime minister a day before he was killed, as prime minister. "I'm not interested in a power struggle,” Joseph said in the brief phone interview, without mentioning Lambert by name. “There's only one way people can become president in Haiti. And that's through elections.” Joseph spoke just hours after the head of Colombia's police said that the Colombians implicated in Moïse's assassination were recruited by four companies and traveled to the Caribbean nation in two groups via the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, the U.S. said it would send senior FBI and Homeland Security officials to help in the investigation.