The US asks its citizens to leave Haiti “as soon as possible”

au-Prince.- The United States Embassy in Port-au-Prince urged U.S. citizens this Tuesday not to travel to Haiti and, if they are already there, to leave the country as soon as possible.

“Do not travel to Haiti. If you are a U.S. citizen in Haiti: leave Haiti as soon as possible by commercial or private means of transportation“, the embassy wrote on its Facebook account.

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The legacy also asks its citizens to avoid crowds and follow the media for updated information, and to avoid areas where violent acts, demonstrations or riots have been reported. The embassy recalled that regular commercial flights have resumed between Cap-Haitien International Airport (north) and Antoine Simon Airport in Les Cayes (south), as well as between Cap-Haitien International Airport and the Guy Malary domestic terminal in Port-au-Prince (west). “U.S. citizens in Haiti should leave the country by commercial or private means of transportation when they consider it is possible to do so with complete safety,” the note reads. The embassy noted that it is aware of U.S. citizens traveling to Cap-Haitien by helicopter from locations that are not commercial airports. “These flights carry potential risks that citizens should take into account before boarding the plane,” the embassy considered. He recalled that U.S. Government personnel are not authorized to travel on commercial flights to or from Port-au-Prince due to restrictions by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and potential risks to air traffic. “The U.S. government does not endorse private or commercial companies,” warned the Washington embassy in Port-au-Prince. For years, in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince and in cities in other departments such as Artibonite and Centre, armed groups have sown terror with attacks, assassinations, kidnappings, and rapes. According to the most recent data from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, at least 2,680 people died due to internal armed violence between January and May in a country with around 1.3 million displaced persons, of whom more than half are minors.