WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Sunday it was imposing visa restrictions on members of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council and revoking the visas of two council members and their immediate families.
In a statement, the State Department attributed the visa restrictions to council members’ alleged “involvement in the operation of gangs and other criminal organizations in Haiti, including through interference with the Government of Haiti’s efforts to counter gangs designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the United States.”
The statement did not identify any council members by name.
Haiti’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
The mandate of the council, which acts as Haiti’s top executive, is scheduled to expire on February 7. No official succession plan is in place.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime on Friday. Rubio insisted that the council dissolve as scheduled but emphasized the importance of Fils-Aime remaining in his post, a State Department spokesperson said.
Two council members called on Friday for the removal of Fils-Aime from his post.
The council was appointed in 2024 to oversee a move toward Haiti’s first election in a decade. This has been repeatedly delayed by a collapse in security during a bloody conflict between security forces and powerful, heavily armed gangs.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Diane Craft, Sergio Non and David Gregorio)
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