“Another armed foreign intervention in Haiti will not result in the necessary Haitian-led transition to a democratic government, rather it risks further destabilizing the country, endangering more innocent people, and entrenching the current, illegitimate regime,” several members of Congress wrote in a December open letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Manpower and lack of planning are not the only challenges. A long history of American meddling and propping up corrupt regimes in Haiti’s politics also casts an ominous shadow of doubt over the Biden administration’s claims that its strategy even aligns with Haitian interests.

Haiti’s 2010-2011 presidential election looms particularly large. After interfering in the election on his behalf in November 2010, the U.S. imposed sanctions on former president Michel Martelly this August for charges related to drug-trafficking, with one American official citing the role he and other figures have played in “perpetuating the ongoing crisis in Haiti.”