2026-02-11

US Charge d'Affaires Henry Wooster appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State Foreign Operations on February 10 to present testimony titled Haiti 2026 Security and Foreign Assistance Priorities. Wooster provided the most detailed official US assessment of Haiti's security balance to date revealing force disparities that fundamentally reframe the nature of the crisis. The testimony marks a significant shift in US policy language from characterizing Haiti's security challenge as gang violence to explicitly identifying it as a proto-insurgency threatening state survival. Wooster stated that armed gangs in Haiti number approximately 12,000 individuals with roughly 3,000 heavily armed and operating under coordinated command structures including Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif. Against this force the Police Nationale d'Haiti maintains approximately 6,000 officers on its rolls but Wooster testified that maximally February 11, 2026 400 do most of the fighting. This produces an effective combat ratio of 7.5 gang fighters for every one active PNH combatant. Wooster characterized these armed groups as proto-insurgent movements rather than criminal gangs noting they now control territory generate systematic revenue and challenge state authority in ways that exceed traditional organized crime. The gangs generate between 60 and 75 million dollars annually according to Haiti Finance Ministry estimates primarily through extortion of shipments transiting from the Dominican Republic. This revenue stream allows gangs to operate as a parallel state with systematic taxation of street vendors bus companies car dealerships power plants factories industrial parks and seaports. The testimony included appearance by Austin Holmes CEO of Caribbean Security Group who testified that without freedom of movement humanitarian response cannot succeed. Holmes stated that aid cannot move food cannot reach children clinics cannot function and schools cannot operate. The combined testimony establishes that military operations alone cannot defeat economically self-sustaining armed groups and that financial disruption through sanctions and supply chain interdiction must complement security operations. Wooster emphasized the need to address economic problems that fuel violence alongside direct military pressure.