PEACEKEEPING
MISSION COMING TO END AFTER 13 YEARS AT CHILE AND HAITI
Chile has been
an integral part of the United Nations peacekeeping operations in Haiti since
2004. As their mission in the country comes to an end, Chileans prepare for
their withdrawal in search of new challenges. In early March
2004, part of a Chilean battalion arrived on Air Force planes in Port-au-Prince
to join the Multinational Interim Force authorized by United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1529 to support the peaceful and constitutional continuation
of the political process and to maintain a secure and stable environment.
Together with forces from other partner nations, 160 Chileans, the majority of
them members of the Special Forces, quickly assimilated the conditions of chaos
and the lack of public safety that prevailed at that time. Days later, after
the Chilean Congress authorized it, they received reinforcement from 350
Infantry troops with their respective combat supports.
Thus began
Operation Secure Tomorrow, which by the end of April already had 2,000 United
States, around 900 French, more than 500 Canadian, and nearly 350 Chilean
personnel. Chile joined other nations that were trained for rapid and effective
deployments in hostile environments and it had a successful debut in its
assignments to various peacekeeping operations. Today’s United Nations
Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, per its French acronym), replaced the
Multinational Interim Force on June 1st of that year, and it has come to
include more than 6,700 personnel from various countries.
REAPING
THE REWARDS
Thirteen years
later, Haiti has experienced various positive changes, particularly in terms of
the security and stability of its population. On October 13, 2016, the UN
Security Council passed Resolution 2313, which extended MINUSTAH’s mandate to
April 15, 2017. In said resolution, the Security Council decided that the
maximum MINUSTAH contingency would be 2,370 service members and a police
component of 2,601 personnel.
On August 31,
2016, the Chilean Permanent Mission to the UN informed the United Nations Under-Secretary-General
for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, of the decision to withdraw Chilean
troops from Haiti in the second half of April 2017. Included in the
aforementioned document was the withdrawal of service members and other
personnel from the general headquarters. The notice indicated, however, a
willingness to maintain the presence of the police personnel.
Since that date,
the withdrawal of the Chilean forces has been planned in different stages. The
Chilean units began their withdrawal on April 15th, after standing down their
operations. Similarly, the Salvadoran, Honduran, and Mexican contingents that
were part of the joint international force will also be withdrawn. For Chile’s
Minister of Defense, José Antonio Gómez, the expectations that the UN placed on
his nation to support Haiti were met. “Proof of that is how their
responsibilities kept increasing. We were part of the operational command of
the troops deployed there, and we were even represented by the secretary
general through Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdés. Chile was an active member in
this mission and we are returning home with the satisfaction of a job well
done, having returned the nation of Haiti to its development of democratic
institutions.”
Evidence of the
level of comprehensive development and the scope of Chile’s capabilities was
demonstrated in its withdrawal plan. “The fact that the withdrawal of our
forces is being carried out using our own resources, those that our national
defense keeps in a constant state of operational readiness, holds great
political and strategic significance. It mainly shows that Chile is capable of
acting in situations beyond its region without needing to resort to contracting
private services for its deployment,” Gómez added.
“The experience,
interoperability, skills, and abilities that all of our personnel have acquired
through their participation in these operations in Haiti are invaluable, and
they have been carried over to the rest of our Chilean Armed Forces as lessons
learned, being incorporated into our institutional doctrines for education and
training,” said Air Force Lieutenant General Arturo Merino Núñez, chief of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Our troops’ conduct in the Haitian operations was
exemplary. According to my assessment, having analyzed 13 years of operations —
a period in which nearly 12,000 Chilean personnel participated — I believe that
the conduct of our personnel was outstanding. No incidents were recorded that
could be characterized as crimes. There were just a few isolated cases that
were dealt with through disciplinary action in accordance with Chilean military
regulations, and that are capable of occurring given the size of the force that
was deployed,” he asserted.
HOMECOMING
Chile’s
participation in Haiti has had a significant impact on the development of
mechanisms for international cooperation in the area of defense. The work
carried out from June 2004 onward by the Joint Chilean-Ecuadorian Engineering
Company, which returned home in 2015, represented a novel effort in the South
American region with regard to joining together the willingness of states and
their defense institutions to contribute to the control, consolidation, and
protection of peace in a sister nation. This initiative marked a turning point
in the region, and in Chile’s case, that was translated into its collaboration
with El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico, which, in 2013, 2014, and 2015,
respectively, were incorporated into MINUSTAH’s Chile Battalion.
The purpose of
this development is to improve the standards of enlistment and training in the
Chilean Armed Forces, a situation that has undergone an empirical review
through the involvement of Chile’s Armed and Security Forces in national
emergency situations in which they have employed the experiences and
capabilities acquired in the Haitian operations. Chile is leaving behind great
work in Haiti; work which, over the course of 13 years of uninterrupted
relations, has seen moments of joy for each achievement, but also moments of
sadness when mourning their fallen.
