PLANS by the United States and Mexico to send an international military force to Haiti have caused a split at the United Nations and sparked calls from activists for non-intervention.

The chaos on the island prompted Haiti’s Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus to tell the UN security council that the Haitian people “are not living — they are suffering.”

He told diplomats on Monday that his country urgently needed “robust support” to help the authorities stem the humanitarian crisis, neutralise the criminal gangs on the island, guarantee fuel distribution and facilitate a return to normal life.

US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield said the mission would be time-limited and led by a country “with deep, necessary experience required for such an effort to be effective.”

But both Russia and China have expressed concerns about the proposed intervention.

Geng Shuang, China's deputy ambassador, urged caution over the proposal while Russian envoy Dmitry Polyanskiy said it would be unacceptable to support “external interference in the political processes in Haiti” that would subsume the impoverished Caribbean nation’s interests “to the interest of world-known regional players who view the American continent as their backyard.”

There is opposition to the US proposal in Haiti and other parts of the world.

Store manager Marco Duvivier, attending a protest in the capital Port-au-Prince on Monday said: “The US needs Haiti to make its own decisions and not interfere in Haiti’s business.”

“Life is not going to get better with an international force.” 

US-based campaign the Black Alliance for Peace said it stood against any foreign armed intervention in Haiti and demanded an end to the “meddling in Haitian affairs by the United States and Western powers.”

The Communist Party of Britain said: “American imperialism strikes again — under the illusion of itself as the protector of the world.”

“Where is the international outcry?” it said.

US writer and organiser Kamau Franklin said: “So the logic is: it’s bad for Russia to invade Ukraine and violate their sovereignty but the US/UN can sponsor an invasion of Haiti every few years and it’s portrayed as an intervention for their own good. Just trying to understand the Western propaganda model.”

Political instability in Latin America’s poorest country has simmered ever since last year’s still-unsolved assassination of  president Jovenel Moise.

A vote on the US-Mexico resolution may come before the security council by the end of the week.