BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders will meet later on Friday to discuss the situation in Haiti, where efforts continue to resolve the socio-economic and political crisis in the French-speaking CARICOM country.
Informed sources told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the virtual meeting of the 41st Inter-Sessional Meeting will also discuss the readiness of member states to implement free movement under the protocol for enhanced cooperation.
The free movement forms part of the wider Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME), which allows for the free movement of goods, services, labor, and capital across the 15-member regional integration grouping.
The regional leaders are expected to discuss United States President Donald Trump’s latest order banning travel from Haiti, where criminal gangs have been seeking to overthrow the government ever since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021 by a group of foreign mercenaries, including Colombians.
Earlier this week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on 21 May that widespread armed violence continues to expose Haitian children to widespread sexual abuse, exploitation, and recruitment by the gangs that now control whole swathes of the country.
The UN has also reported that between January 1 and March 31, at least 1,617 people were killed and 580 others injured in violence involving gangs, self-defense groups, or other members of the population, as well as during security force operations, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH).
At least 161 kidnappings for ransom were recorded, 63 percent of which occurred in the Artibonite department.
CARICOM has established the Eminent Persons Group (EPG), which consists of former prime ministers Dr Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia, Bruce Golding of Jamaica, and Perry Christie of The Bahamas, holding talks with Haitian stakeholder groups to assess the current political climate in Haiti.
The regional leaders, meeting at their virtual summit, are expected to be attended by Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who was elected to office on April 28. The summit will also address the CARICOM Education Transformation Commission, reparations, and the issue of weapons in outer space, among other topics.
The meeting comes as regional leaders prepare for their summit in Jamaica on July 6-8, where Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness will take over the chairmanship of the regional grouping from Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
and then  leaders will meet later on Friday to discuss the situation in Haiti, where efforts continue to resolve){kind=link}