On June 25, the first contingent of the Kenyan police forces landed in Haiti as part of a multinational support mission to crack down on Haitian gangs that have overrun the Caribbean Country.
Many factors have contributed to the collapse of Haitian security, but one exacerbating factor regularly surfaced in our conversations with missioners on the ground: the United States arms industry.
Haiti is an island nation that does not manufacture guns or ammunition. Yet a UN report estimated that in 2020 there were as many as half a million guns in the country, with privately owned guns outnumbering law enforcement ten to one. The great majority of the guns in Haiti are manufactured in the United States and are smuggled from off the coast of Florida.
Elsewhere in our hemisphere, guns manufactured in the United States also contribute to violence and societal harm. In Mexico, 70 percent of guns recovered from crimes come from the United States. In the Dominican Republic, it is 75 percent.
Congress has the power to address the rampant and dangerous weapons exports that undermine communities around the world. Tell Congress to pass the ARMAS Act to disrupt arms trafficking and to hold U.S. agencies accountable to enforce existing trafficking laws using the form below.
Photo of weapons surrendered to the UN on Nov 9, 2005 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. UN Photo/Sophia Paris.