Mexico evacuated 34 of its citizens from Haiti on Sunday amid escalating violence in the Caribbean country, authorities said on Monday.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ordered a naval ship with a helicopter to repatriate the Mexican nationals who wanted to return to Mexico, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Secretariat of the Navy said in a joint statement.
The 24 men and 10 women were airlifted by helicopter from Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince to the ship and are headed to the port of Progreso, in Mexico’s southeast Yucatan state, to later be transported to their cities of residence.
The evacuation operation “was in response to the deteriorating security situation in Haiti created by organized crime groups and characterized by violence, shortages of food and basic products, economic paralysis and closure of public services,” according to the statement.
Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Barcena participated in a high-level meeting held by the Caribbean Community on March 11 in Kingston, Jamaica, to find a solution to the crisis in Haiti.
