WASHINGTON, DC – An amendment to assess the United States’ efforts to combat Haitian kidnapping and armed violence has passed the Senate and is now with President Joe Biden, according to The Hill.
U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) originally introduced the amendment after 17 missionaries from Christian Aid Ministries in Ohio were kidnapped outside Port-au-Prince in October 2021.
“I’m pleased that all of these missionaries are now safe, but the U.S. government needs a whole-of-government approach to better address this problem, and this amendment will help take steps to do just that,” Senator Portman said in a press release last week.
The amendment would be added to the reports section of the Haiti Development, Accountability, and Institutional Transparency Initiative Act.
If passed, the Senate-initiated bill, S. 1104, would require the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to prioritize human rights, anti-corruption, free press, civil liberties, reconstruction and development in working with Haiti. It would require all U.S. agencies to develop a strategy to support those efforts and report their progress to Congress. It would also require the State Department to brief Congress on both the 2018 La Saline mass killing in Haiti in 2018 and the assassination of Jovenel Moïse.
