CARICOM leaders urge immediate action on Haiti
Those delivering humanitarian help to Haiti must consider the influence of heavily armed gangs that control significant areas of the country, according to the president of a regional bloc ahead of planned discussions with the European Union next month.
“If anyone wants to deliver humanitarian aid to Haiti, they have to deal with the gangs,” stated Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and current president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in an interview.
He did not elaborate on how the gangs should be dealt with.
On July 17-18, Gonsalves will travel to Brussels for an EU-CELAC summit, which is anticipated to address the precarious security situation in Haiti, where powerful gangs are fueling a crisis that has displaced over 160,000 people, according to United Nations estimates.
Local activists are among those who have fled the violence, while international humanitarian organizations such as Doctors Without Borders have ceased operations, claiming that they cannot ensure the protection of their patients or workers.
“There are gang leaders who are also political operatives, who control important communities,” Gonsalves warned, cautioning that “you must be careful not to engage with gangs in Haiti and provide some legitimacy to them.”
People with gang ties, according to Gonsalves, were likely present during this week’s talks in Jamaica between leaders of Haiti’s civil society and government, during which Prime Minister Ariel Henry committed to broaden the country’s transition council to make the government more inclusive.
Since October, Henry has called for an international force to assist police in restoring order and preparing for long-awaited elections, but no country has offered to command such a force.
Meanwhile, Haitian migration, according to Gonsalves, is affecting security in neighboring Caribbean countries.
Gonsalves stated that his country may assist Haiti in holding elections in the future, and that if peace is established, countries would need to organize a “Marshall Plan” of foreign aid.
According to Gonsalves, this would entail significant restitution negotiations with France.
Haiti paid France an expensive “debt” for almost a century as plantation owners demanded reimbursement for property — including slaves — lost in the Haitian Revolution, which is widely regarded as the world’s first and only successful slave uprising.
