BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, CMC – Bahamas Prime Minister Phillip Davis says the solution to Haiti’s unfolding socio-economic and political situation lies in a Haitian-led initiative that should include the support of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders.
“The crisis in Haiti is getting worse,” said Prime Minister Davis, chairman of the 15-member regional integration movement.
“The tragic situation there continues to pose a substantial threat not only to Haitians but also to The Bahamas and neighboring countries, all of whom are experiencing a significant increase in irregular and often dangerous migration,” Davis said as he addressed the seventh summit of the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States (CELAC).
“With the support and leadership of Haiti, collectively, we can, through CELAC and other regional organizations, help Haitians build a path out of the crisis. We commend Haitian-led efforts to hold elections before the end of 2023, to arrest the threat to public security posed by violent gangs, to relieve hunger and malnutrition, and to alleviate the political crisis.”
Davis said the enhanced regional partnership could significantly help to scale up capacity-building for the local police and tackle trafficking, particularly in people, contraband, and guns.
“These Haiti-led solutions provide promising alternatives to the usual inclination to carry out activities in Haiti without Haitian direction, and the preference for investing in the strengthening of the NGOs in Haiti, as opposed to strengthening her public institutions.”
On Tuesday, CARICOM issued a statement saying it had taken note of the efforts being made by various groups in Haiti to negotiate a political accord since 2021 to contribute to resolving the protracted political stalemate.
In the brief statement, the regional integration grouping, of which Haiti is a member, said that the efforts include the latest agreement made public by Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry on December 21, last year.
“CARICOM urges all stakeholders to come together to reach a consensus agreement. The Community remains willing and ready to assist in achieving this goal and in that regard had commenced sounding Haitian stakeholders over the past few weeks about their willingness to attend a meeting in a CARICOM country,” CARICOM said in its statement.
In October last year, Henry asked for foreign security forces to help re-establish control and enable humanitarian aid deliveries; many Haitian civil society groups opposed this request, and no country has offered to lead such a force.
A political standoff between Prime Minister Henry’s government and rival political and civil society leaders, many of whom have backed a proposal, the Montana Accord, to form a transitional government, has prevented the country from scheduling elections to replace officials whose terms have expired.
A senior United Nations official told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that Haiti’s protracted political and humanitarian crises, marked by spiking levels of gang-related violence and a badly struggling national police force, are reversing crucial security and development strides made since the devastating 2010 earthquake.
“Years of hard-fought recovery gains are being undone, and Haitians are grappling with setting the country back on a path to democracy,” Helen La Lime, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Haiti.
In briefing the 15-member Council, La Lime said more than 2,100 murders and an estimated 1,300 kidnappings were reported last year, and gang violence reached levels not seen in decades.
She said turf wars involving two gang coalitions, namely the G9 coalition and G-Pep, reached unprecedented levels in several neighborhoods of Cité Soleil.
“This violence is part of well-defined strategies designed to subjugate populations and expand territorial control,” said La Lime, citing the deliberate killing of men, women, and children with snipers positioned on rooftops.
During the UN Security meeting, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the French-speaking country’s situation had worsened. That gang violence “has reached levels not seen in decades.”
US Ambassador for Special and Political Affairs in the UN, Robert Wood, said gang violence in Haiti has reached “unprecedented levels.”
“We see human rights abuses as these criminal gangs use gender-based violence, including rape, to instill fear and expand their territorial control.
“The international community must step up to address the growing humanitarian needs and also help Haiti address insecurity, so that progress can be made on the December political accord,” he said.
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