UN appoints Mexican diplomat as new chief of shrinking Haiti office

By Sarah Morland

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Mexican diplomat Carlos Ruiz as the organization's special representative to Haiti and head of the U.N.'s office in the embattled Caribbean nation, that office, known as BINUH, said on Thursday.

Ruiz had worked as special representative for Colombia since 2019, BINUH said, adding that he has monitored the implementation of the country's peace agreement and worked on recent peace talks between the government and armed guerrilla groups.

The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti is referred to as BINUH, the French acronym for the mission's full name.

Ruiz is set to succeed Ecuador's Maria Isabel Salvador as head of the shrinking U.N. office as Haiti faces a worsening conflict fueled by powerful, heavily armed gangs that have driven nearly 1.3 million people from their homes and are expanding to new areas despite efforts from national police.

A voluntary U.N.-backed force has also partially deployed to Haiti to boost local police but has struggled to make headway, hampered by shortages of troops, funds and equipment.

BINUH's work includes advising the government as well as tracking and monitoring human-rights abuses and security trends, including the evolution of gangs' territorial control, killings, kidnappings and civilian displacements.

In a July 1 letter to the U.N. Security Council seen by Reuters, Guterres said he planned to re-evaluate the office's 2026 budget in view of a smaller headcount following repeated evacuations due to the "dire security situation" in Haiti.

"Established in 2019, BINUH was not designed, nor does it have adequate evacuation and security assets, to operate in such a hostile environment," Guterres said in the letter.

"Consequently, the Secretariat and BINUH have undertaken a review of the mission concept to achieve a more focused, smaller, yet impactful, mission."

The U.N. since last November has had a maximum authorized capacity of 133 international staff in Port-au-Prince, the letter added, including 17 from BINUH - a limit based on its current extraction capacity of a single helicopter.

Many U.N. staff operate from abroad.

On Wednesday, Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca told a meeting of the Security Council that the cost of additional resources needed to boost BINUH's security and evacuation capabilities in 2026 would be offset by a smaller local footprint.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle and Matthew Lewis)

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