When the Trump administration’s top envoy to the United Nations visited Haiti earlier this month, the trip went largely unnoticed until Ambassador Mike Waltz posted about it on social media.

In his posts, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. issued a warning to Haiti’s deadly gangs, praised the new U.S.-created, United Nations-authorized Gang Suppression Force and stressed that “the entire international community” was united to help the Caribbean nation reclaim territory from armed gangs and restore stability.

But the posts offered little insight into what Waltz had witnessed during the overnight trip — or how it had shaped his assessment of Haiti’s deepening crisis.

That changed Monday.

Departing from the usual measured tone that typically characterizes U.N. Security Council discussions on Haiti, Waltz gave a grim account of his visit to Port-au-Prince, describing the stories as “painful anecdotes” that underscore the brutality of Haiti’s armed groups.

He recalled meeting an 8-year-old boy he said had been “groomed by the gangs to kill by teaching him to kill dogs” before being “fortunately” rescued.

“But there’s so many more to go,” he added.

The ambassador also described the deaths of several Haitian national police officers after their armored vehicle had gotten stuck in a ditch during an anti-gang operation two weeks before his arrival.

“The gang surrounded it, lit a fire underneath it, so that the Haitian police officers inside faced a brutal choice: either be burned alive, or leave the safety of their armored vehicle. Obviously, they chose the latter,” Waltz said, visibly moved as he described the tragedy. “They were flayed alive in the streets, pinned to the side of their burning armored vehicle to send a message.”

Apologizing for the graphic details, Waltz said he wanted “everyone to understand the fight that is ahead of the Haitian government and the brave men and women who step into these security forces.”

He then urged diplomats on the council who had not visited Haiti to do so.

“I think many of you will find it incredibly enlightening,” said Waltz, who also promised the U.S. will soon be cracking down on gangs’ profiting off social media as they use it to spread violence and fear. “Haiti’s just a few hundred miles from Florida, and in that regard, it is a critical interest to the United States, in addition to the council.”

Waltz’s remarks during the Security Council’s regular update on the situation in Haiti added a sobering reality to the discussions on the country, which officially launched voter registration on Monday amid ongoing gang attacks and uncertainty over how soon it will be able to hold a vote.

So far this year, more than 2,000 Haitians have been killed by gangs that continue to primarily hold local governments and the population in three geographic regions hostage. Those regions, the West, where Port-au-Prince is located; the Center and the Artibonite account for about 55 percent of the electorate, Carlos Ruiz-Massieu, the head of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti, later acknowledged.

“It’s very positive when members of the council visit the country,” he said, when asked about Waltz’s comments after his own briefing to the council.

“Seeing the reality, talking to people, talking to children that have been affected evidently by the gangs, seeing how the [gang fighting force] is starting its operation,” Ruiz-Massieu added, gives a different perspective on how things are developing. “As much as we can transmit, and we believe we are good at transmitting the situation in the end, nothing compares to a personal visit.

“We hope that the Security Council can travel soon,” he said of the entire 15 members. “Evidently, there’s always a wish for the Security Council to travel.”

A critical week

Waltz’s sobering account on Haiti’s reality came as the House Foreign Affairs Committee prepares to hold a congressional hearing Tuesday on Haiti ahead of a planned visit by several members of Congress, and just days before the Trump administration is set to end deportation protections for over 300,000 Haitians living in the United States on Friday.

The termination of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status designation on July 24 is expected to lead to a ramp-up in deportations back to the crisis-ridden country as Haitians lose their ability to legally live and work in the U.S.

Throughout Monday’s Security Council hearing, U.N. officials and diplomats described Haiti as being at a critical juncture “with a window of opportunity” to end its transition period after the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, and finally restore democratic institutions.

They pointed to the ongoing deployment of the gang-fighting force, which launched its first operation on June 21, and progress toward the holding of presidential, legislative and local elections.

“In my ongoing consultations with political parties, civil society, youth and women’s organizations, one message has been consistent: security is indispensable for credible elections,” Ruiz-Massieu told the council. “Yet, security challenges must not become a reason to delay the political process. Electoral preparations and security improvements must advance together to sustain the momentum.”

That includes the voter registration that was launched on Monday. With about 55% of the registered voters assigned to the three regions gripped by armed gang violence, Ruiz-Massieu said the launch marks an important step forward.

“The next priority is clear: the adoption of a credible and realistic electoral calendar,” he said.

Security operations alone won’t help

As speakers welcomed the progress, they cautioned that security operations alone won’t reverse Haiti’s crisis.

With the government absent in many communities, the judiciary broken and millions of Haitians either unable to eat or displaced by the gang violence, the challenges go beyond law enforcement, they warned.

“In the absence of official public security, some gangs now present themselves as so-called ‘community protectors,’ further blurring the line between criminal violence, vigilante justice and legitimate authority, further eroding public trust,” Monica Juma, the newly appointed executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told the council.

“That is why Haiti’s crisis should not be understood as a security crisis alone,” she added. “It is increasingly a governance crisis driven by organized crime, with consequences for the upcoming elections, the humanitarian response, and long-term prosperity and development.”

Juma, Kenya’s former foreign minister who oversaw the deployment of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission to Haiti, said gangs are increasingly replacing state authority while reshaping organized crime and expanding their influence beyond Port-au-Prince into the Artibonite, the Centre Department and southern transport routes.

“Communities previously less affected now face violence and kidnappings, with young people coerced into crime by merciless gangs,” she said.

Vanessa Frazier, the U.N.’s special representative for children and armed conflict, said the crisis is especially devastating for the country’s youth.

“Haiti’s children are not only collateral victims of the crisis; they are being targeted, exploited, and instrumentalized by armed actors,” she said, citing figures that show that one in two Haitian gangs members is a child. “Estimates suggest that children may account for more than half of gang members in Haiti.”

Children are increasingly vulnerable to recruitment, Frazer told the council, because of poverty, insecurity, family separation, displacement, lack of schooling and the absence of viable alternatives.

“We must be clear: security operations alone will not solve Haiti’s crisis. If large numbers of children are separated from gangs without adequate reception, rehabilitation and reintegration capacity, the likely outcome will be re-recruitment, further marginalization, or prolonged detention,” she said. “That would not be protection. It would simply transfer children from one form of harm to another.”

Recognition of progress

Haiti Foreign Minister Raina Forbin urged the council to give the transitional authorities credit for the gains that have been made, saying they “are closer than we’ve been in years to restoring security and holding free, credible, inclusive and participatory” elections.

“Too long, Haiti was defined by its crises. Today, Haiti wants recognition for the progress it’s made,” she said. “The Haitian people are demonstrating remarkable resilience. Our institutions continue to operate. Security is improving. Recapturing of territory is ongoing. The electoral process is progressing.”

Among the gains she cited were continued army recruitment; the addition of 2,000 new police recruits since January and the closure of three camps that had housed some of the nearly 1.5 million oeople internally displaced by gangs.

“The government is pledging a new approach to the humanitarian response, moving from aid to trade, the goal being to create long-term opportunities for the Haitian people, especially for our young people,” Forbin said. “Genuine progress is being made on the ground.”

A year ago, the Security Council was grappling with how to respond to the spiraling violence, which had continued to kill and displace thousands despite the presence of the Kenya-led anti-gang mission.

Now the council is preparing to debate the renewal of the mandate of its replacement, the Gang Supression Force, which helps to explain the visits by Waltz and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

Although the new force was authorized for up to 5,500 personnel, only a little more than 1,000 have been deployed, the foreign minister of the Dominican Republic, Robert Alvarez, told the council.

The funding and a functioning command structure are in place, he said, but the force continues to fave logistical challenges.

“The limited availability of strategic air transport to quickly move the pre-committed troops and equipment,” has hampered deployment, he and other ambassadors said.

Time is not on Haiti’s side

Alvarez said the progress on the security front is “encouraging.” But there is also another reality facing Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

“Time is not on Haiti’s side. Every week of delay allows the criminal gangs to consolidate their territorial grip, expand their sources of financing, hone their operational capacities, and to recruit new members, many of whom are children, who suffer tremendously,” he said.

Though the Dominican Republic is not among the country deploying troops to Haiti, it has emerged as a key partner in the security’s response, with Waltz, Guterres and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who visited Port-au-Prince in May, all stopping in Santo Domingo for meetings after sitting down with members of Haiti’s transitional government.

The Dominican Republic would like to see Haiti hold free, inclusive and credible elections, Alvarez said, “but we have a clear reality.

“It is not elections that will give rise to security; it will be security that enables elections,” he said. “This secure environment is the vital bridge between the political transition and democratic legitimacy. While vast swathes of the country remain under gang control... it’s hard to see how the necessary conditions for a free and representative electoral process can exist.”

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