The main international airport remains off-limits to U.S. jetliners. Armed gangs continue to gain ground despite the presence of a police-led international force. And the political transition that the United States and others helped Haitians craft in March to restore security and stability? It’s enmeshed in scandal and internal bickering that are raising questions about whether good elections are even possible.

Even still, Brian A. Nichols, who has spent nearly four years carrying out U.S. diplomacy in the Western Hemisphere, doesn’t believe all is lost in crisis-wracked Haiti — a county where the last presidential election took place back in 2016, deadly gangs running amok in its capital and the country is embroiled in a constitutional and humanitarian crisis.

“I think the ability to forge a political consensus will improve if security improves. Right now, people don’t necessarily see the benefits of cooperation and are taking advantage of the gang-led violence and the influence of corrupt elites in Haiti to manipulate events to their advantage,” said Nichols, whose tenure as assistant U.S. secretary of state has also been marked by an unprecedented migrant crisis in the hemisphere and an ongoing electoral crisis in Venezuela, to name a few. “If security is improved, then all of those things around the electoral process improve as well.”

After 36 years in the U.S. foreign service where he served as either an ambassador or senior diplomat in Peru, Colombia and other countries in the region, Nichols is retiring as of the last day of 2024.

Admittedly, he says, he is leaving a region more complicated than how he found it when he started his career as a 23-year-old foreign service officer. And perpetually troubled Haiti is even more unstable after a catastrophic 2024.

Instead of fighting against a repressive regime like they were doing in 1988 after emerging from a nearly 30-year Duvalier family dictatorship, Haitians today are fighting against repressive gangs armed with U.S.-made rifles after the 2021 assassination of their president, Jovenel Moïse, catapulted the country further into disarray. Four prime ministers later, the country remains in crisis mode with no date for elections. A Transitional Presidential Council, created after the ouster of prime minister Ariel Henry, is under fire for corruption and ineptness, and a new prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, is now in charge after the ousting last month of Henry’s replacement, Garry Conille.

“Haiti,” Nichols said in an interview with the Miami Herald as gangs were setting fire to a car dealership in Port-au-Prince on Monday, “has been a key challenge during my time as assistant secretary.”

“We’ve tried to support Haitian leadership throughout this process and solicit voices. But we’ve also had to address a society that remains very polarized and has had challenges agreeing on the political path forward, challenges agreeing on whether or not they want an international security mission in Haiti,” he said.

Nichols’ first trip as assistant secretary was to Haiti in September 2021, before gangs controlled more than 80% of the capital and expanded further into the Artibonite region. He arrived in Port-au-Prince after meeting with members of the community in Miami. This year alone, he visited the country three times, including with the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Both visits came after the arrival of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, the MSS, which along with the Haiti National Police, has struggled to combat gangs.

In the five months since the MSS’ deployment, more neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince and the Artibonite have fallen to gangs; no major gang leaders have been arrested; businesses, hospitals have been burned and looted, and hundreds have been killed after gangs carried out three separate massacres in the last three months of this year.

Observers of U.S. policy in Haiti have accused the Biden administration of being too cautious and too slow on decisions, and choosing pragmatism over principles while also supporting the wrong actors in the country’s messy politics. They’ve also accused the administration of outsourcing Haiti’s problems by allowing Kenya to lead on security and the 15-member Caribbean Community known as CARICOM to take the lead on mediating the political crisis.

In his final interview before retirement, Nichols pushed back on critics’ assessment that the U.S. failed to deliver on Haiti. Rather than focus on the administration’s shortcomings, the Rhode Island native touted its policy of pursuing partnerships to help address what he views as the greatest crisis in the Western Hemisphere.

The following is a question-and-answer session with Nichols. It has been edited for brevity and clarity:

Q: You’ve said the Biden-Harris administration prevented Haiti’s collapse. Was that the objective in 2021 when you guys came into power and do you feel that Haiti is safer today?

A: I feel that the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, the crisis of succession after that, the political impasse among Haiti’s actors over the course of a year-and–a half that saw the last of the country’s elected officials terms end, meant that governance in Haiti was disappearing. And when we reached the point where gang violence prevented Ariel Henry’s return to Haiti, we were in a situation where the international community, led by CARICOM and the United States had to take action to try and find a politically viable path forward for Haiti. We’ve had to do this in a resource constrained environment.

Q: How much has the United States provided for security assistance in Haiti?

A: The United States has provided over $600 million to the Kenyan-led MSS but the collective contribution of the rest of the international community financially is only about $100 million. There are other bilateral aid, other types of assistance, that are being provided, but for security assistance, the MSS and the Haitian national police, other countries have not stepped forward the way that we would have hoped.

Q: What other financial contributions the U.S. has made to Haiti?

A: More broadly, in the international community, we continue to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in economic and humanitarian assistance to Haiti. We provide assistance to internally displaced persons. We provide assistance to health clinics throughout Haiti. We have feeding centers throughout Haiti, including in Port-au-Prince, trying to deal with this unprecedented crisis in Haiti.

Q: You’ve argued that Haiti hasn’t collapsed. But just this month, Haiti has seen back-to-back massacres while armed gangs continue to attack businesses and hospitals. If that’s not a collapse then what is?

A:There’s a government in Haiti that is engaged with the international community, the Haitian national police, other cabinet agencies in Haiti continue to function, but as I have been saying for years, there is no greater crisis than the situation in Haiti and I’ve made that point publicly many times…and I think that the international community needs to do everything that they possibly can to help the Haitian people regain control of their nation, to put gang leaders in jail, to provide security to average people, to provide economic possibilities for the future of Haiti. We have been working tirelessly to open space for security. We’ve been honored to partner with Kenya, Jamaica, Bahamas, Belize. Guatemala will soon deploy, El Salvador will soon deploy. Those things have kept a lifeline open to Haiti.

Q: Is the U.S. still delivering materials and equipment for the security response?

A:We’ve had, I think, at least 22 flights into Haiti to provide much needed equipment to Haitian authorities and the MSS over the course of the last month, and we’ll continue to do all that we can to support Haiti and its people, certainly during this administration, and it’s an incredibly challenging set of issues.

Q: The current transitional process is plagued by a bank bribery scandal with three of the seven voting members refusing to step down; a majority of members have been disavowed by the parties and organizations that sent them. Do you foresee elections with this current council?

A: We have the counselors of the Provisional Electoral Council named. I think the crucial test will be security in Haiti. I think for the Provisional Electoral Council to be able to organize itself, so that people can register to vote, so the candidates can campaign, so that a political process can move forward, and don’t forget, the goal was to have a constitutional referendum prior to the vote for president, so that some of the things that make it so hard to organize elections in Haiti can be resolved —all of those things require security.

Q: How do we convince Haitians to go out to vote when nearly 6,000 have been killed this year by gang violence, many of them while going out doing basic errands?

A:The United States has done more than any other country to help Haiti and the rest of the international community needs to step up, and that’s why an assessed peacekeeping operation that can support a larger force, that can ensure steady supply of logistical support for that mission is crucial. …We need countries to be stepping forward with 10 times as much as they have been offering. And the only way that we’re going to see that, I think, is through an assessed U.N. mission. I think that’s the answer.

Q: Some have argued that the U.S. can make a difference in this crisis by deploying our military.

A:Well, I certainly remember talking to many actors in Haiti in 2021 and 2022 who were staunchly opposed to the United States deploying troops in Haiti, and there was a lot of opposition to that from not only civil society in Haiti, but also from many in the diaspora in the United States and in the international community, and a sense that ‘We’ve been down that road, and we need to find a different way to approach this’. So certainly people can look back in hindsight and say, ‘Well, we should have just deployed U.S. forces.’ But I also think the American people are rightly hoping for a time when our military is not sent to resolve every international problem, and that others can step forward.

Q: Your assessment on the Kenya-led forces, which have been criticized for not doing enough?

A: I have to say that the professionalism, the courage, the willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done that the Kenyan-led force has shown has been quite remarkable, and if they have additional financial resources, they can grow that force. And I have total confidence that they could address the challenges that they face on the ground and in the Port-au-Prince area.

Q: What is your view of the Haiti National Police, the HNP?

A: The HNP was able to secure the area around Toussaint Louverture Airport and reopen that airport when the gangs had closed it earlier [this year]; the air traffic issues that have been caused more recently are, stray gunfire or gunfire at aircraft, which can be done from a much greater distance. The HNP has demonstrated incredible bravery, particularly the specialized units, SWAT, anti gang units. They are really fighting with all that they have to protect the average people of Haiti.

Q: What is needed with the HNP?

A:They need a larger force. And when you compare the Haitian national police in a country of shall we say 11.8 million people roughly, to the size of the force in the New York City metro area, which is roughly the same [population], even the most generous estimates would have the force around Metro New York five times larger than the Haitian national police. So we have to, as an international community, help Haiti grow its security forces, the Haitian National Police, and in my view, the Armed Forces of Haiti as well to be able to provide security for the entire nation and a ratio of policing in line with international norms, and they’re far below that right now.

Q: The U.S. has been criticized for not doing enough to prevent gangs from accessing guns despite recent efforts like the bipartisan Safer Communities Act that increases penalties for straw purchases of guns used in crime overseas and giving countries access to tracing:

A: In terms of weapons trafficking, the United States has done a lot to try and address this issue, but we have to do more. …I hope that the United States and its partners around the region can continue to strengthen our efforts to combat illegal weapons smuggling. It’s a problem for Haiti ... It’s a problem for Jamaica, Bahamas, Trinidad. There’s been extensive reporting on this issue with regard to Mexico, so we have to address this challenge with our partners and allies around the region. It will make the United States safer, and it will make our partners and allies safe.

Q: Leslie Voltaire, the head of the Transitional Presidential Council, recently reached out to the leftist bloc ALBA, whose members include Venezuela and Cuba for help. Your thoughts?

A:You know, if you’re drowning, you’ll reach out to anyone. But not everyone is a friend.

Q: Any advice to Haitian authorities as they seek partnerships?

A:My advice to Haitian authorities is that they need to focus on reliable partners who can help them over the long term. And the United States has provided billions of dollars in assistance to Haiti in humanitarian areas, economic development, security, education and democracy, governance, corrections, you name it. And other countries like Canada have provided substantial assistance to Haiti. And I don’t want to exclude others. Brazil, Mexico, France, have provided assistance to Haiti, and important numbers, all of us need to do more. And Haitian authorities need to recognize who their real friends are.

Q: As many express concern about U.S. foreign policy toward Haiti going forward, what is your advice to your successor?

A:We have important and positive partners in the Caribbean to begin with. So my first piece of advice is to work closely with our partners in CARICOM. They’ve shown leadership and commitment and energy in trying to resolve the issues in Haiti, to engage with the Haitian people and government as broadly as possible, to try and forge greater agreement on the way forward, to take advantage of the incredibly talented Haitian diaspora. The Haitian diaspora here brings incredible knowledge and skill and resources to the table, and we need to make it easier for them to be engaged in Haiti.

Q: And the leaders in Haiti?

A:As soon as possible, reach out to the Transitional Presidential Council and the prime minister in Haiti and talk to them about the importance of moving forward and resolving the internal differences that have slowed progress in Haiti, and last but certainly not least, to work to introduce the renewal of Hope and Help legislation in Congress as soon as possible, it’s as urgent for Haiti’s long term progress, as anything.

Q: In your tenure as assistant secretary of state, you grappled with migration, access to health care, good jobs, the challenges of climate change, as well as the aggressive presence of Russia, China and Iran. What would you tell the incoming Trump administration about the region?

A: This is a region where partnership is really important. And I would encourage all of the diplomats in our region to maintain the links and ties that we’ve used to increase prosperity, reduce conflict and forge a path forward for the peoples of our region. And I think for any U.S. administration, realizing that you have valuable allies and partners in the Americas, is very important partners and allies who share the values that we hold dear …and engaging them makes America stronger, and I hope that we’ll be able to continue to build those strong relationships throughout our hemisphere.

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