Rubio backs U.N.-authorized gang force in Haiti. 'There's no plan B'

Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald on Nov 9, 2026

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is throwing his support behind the United Nations-authorized Gang Suppression Force, warning Monday that the latest international effort to wrest control of Haiti from the powerful grip of criminal gangs must succeed because Washington has run out of other options.

“If the Gang Suppression Force effort doesn’t work, then we’re out of ideas, so we have to make it work,” Rubio said. “There really is no other option; there’s no plan B here anymore.”

Rubio’s remarks come amid the major buildup of troops from El Salvador in Haiti by President Nayib Bukele. The vast majority of the 2,500 soldiers he recently deployed to Haiti are operating outside the command structure of the GSF, which was championed by the Trump administration as a more lethal and more aggressive successor to the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission deployed under the Biden administration.

That force left Haiti in April, which also marked the deployment of soldiers under the GSF. In September, the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution drafted by the United States and Panama extending the force’s mandate for six months. But the arrival of the Salvadoran troops following the disappearance of four aviation technicians attached to the GSF has raised concerns both about the international effort — and coordination in Haiti’s increasingly crowded security landscape. In addition to the GSF and Salvadoran forces, there is Haiti’s armed forces, the Haiti National Police and private security contractors operating explosive drones.

Rubio didn’t address the other forces working but did acknowledge that the Kenyan-led effort, which departed Haiti in April, “just wasn’t doing enough.”

The GSF, which is the replacement force, he said, “has to work, because if it doesn’t, I don’t know what other alternative there is at this point.”

Unlike the Multinational Security Support mission, the new mission is supported by the U.N. peacekeeping budget and a United Nations Support Office in Haiti to help with logistics that Canada has contributed heavily to. Rubio acknowledge Ottawa’s role, saying “the Canadians deserve a lot of credit.“

“They’ve really stepped up. They’ve been a big catalyst in the work that’s been done,” he said. “Obviously, the United States has been very involved with them as well in this U.N. mission.”

Washington, he said, will continue to encourage countries to step up and donate money to a U.N. trust fund to make the effort successful. The GSF currently has slightly over 2,000 troops from six contributing nations, with additional military personnel from Bangladesh expected to arrive soon after Germany recently airlifted over 600 tons of equipment. Another 3,000 to 4,000 troops have also been pledged, the secretary said, suggesting that the international effort “is starting to gain momentum.”

Still, Rubio acknowledged that restoring security in Haiti, where thousands have died in gang violence and armed groups control large swaths of the capital and continue to expand their reach, remains “a difficult challenge.” He pointed to progress in training the Haiti National Police force, which he said is becoming more professional.

Initially the deployment of the U.S.-backed gang suppressing force was tied to efforts to restore democratic governance through elections, which Haiti last held in 2016. But the long-delayed vote was recently pushed back from Dec. 13 to July 2027, due to the ongoing security challenges.

Rubio seems to have acknowledged the limits of Washington’s earlier insistence of Haiti moving to a vote, even as security challenges persisted.

“You can’t have elections if gangs control large portions of the city, and having people say it’s not a legitimate and credible election, because if a significant percentage of the population can’t go to a voting place because it happens to be controlled by a gang, it makes it very difficult,” he said. “So, stability is important for elections to be credible.”

“Our point is that we’d like to see elections in Haiti, but before you can make real progress on an election in Haiti, you’ve got to do more to push back the gangs so that people can actually go vote and not get killed or decapitated,” Rubio added.

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