Supporters of deploying a specialized international force to help Haiti’s police root out armed gangs that are terrorizing the country moved closer Wednesday to getting the support of Caribbean leaders.
Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who currently chairs the 15-member Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, told journalists Wednesday that the regional bloc is now of the view that the country’s police force needs to be strengthened in order to create “a safe corridor to be able to bring in humanitarian support, which Haiti desperately needs.”
But assistance needs to be approved by the U.N. Security Council and should be financed, Skerrit said, by France, Canada, the United States and others.
In October, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry called for international assistance with the deployment of a specialized force to help the Haiti national police confront gangs, which had seized control of the country’s key seaport and fuel terminal. While gangs no longer have control, they continue to block access to main roads, cutting off travel to the south and northern regions of the country. The U.N. has said that almost half of the country’s 12 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and millions are going hungry.
Skerrit cited the fact that Haitians are “are going to bed hungry” as a reason for the “advancement” in their thinking.
In February, Caribbean leaders, meeting in The Bahamas, opted not to support a special security mission to Haiti after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who attended the event, said his government plans to focus its efforts on funding the police and issuing sanctions against members of Haiti’s political and economic elite accused of financing gang activities and importing illegal arms into the country.
The U.S. which sent a large delegation to the meeting in The Bahamas, had hoped Canada would lead a security mission to Haiti and that such a deployment would have the support of CARICOM. Haiti is a member of the bloc. Following their February decision, Biden administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have focused efforts on getting the Caribbean to support an international force and to engage in helping Haitians find a solution to their political and security crisis.
The U.S. even paid for a plane to fly dozens of Haitian political and civic leaders to a meeting in Jamaica last month in hopes of brokering a political deal. Though such an agreement did not emerge, the group agreed to keep talking, and Henry has been urged to broaden a political consensus on governing the country in the absence of an elected president or parliament.
During the three-day summit in Trinidad and Tobago this week, the situation in Haiti featured prominently alongside the regional bloc’s 50th anniversary celebrations and discussions about the climate crisis, debt financing, correspondent banking and the rising cost of food.
Skerrit opened Wednesday’s press conference by telling journalists that leaders had spent an hour and a half meting with United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and the entire meeting was about Haiti. Guterres, who visited Port-au-Prince on Saturday, has increased his calls for “a robust international force,” and during the visit expressed frustrations over the lack of political will by nations to help as gangs tightened their grip and children and women increasingly become victims of sexual violence.
“Haiti was so crucial at this conference that it occupied a serious chunk of our engagement as we seek to find a solution confronting our brothers and sisters in Haiti,” Skerrit said.
That involved discussions with the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived on Wednesday with a congressional delegation led by Democratic congressional leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and Rwanda President Paul Kagame.
Echoing Guterres’ security call, Blinken told Caribbean leaders that “the United States shares the commitment felt throughout the region to help Haitian people shape their future, restore the country’s democratic order through free and fair elections.”
“Haitians cannot achieve these critical goals without security,” he said. “That’s why we’ve been and remain the largest donor to Haiti’s national police, why we support the Haitian government’s call for a multinational force to help its police restore security.”
In a meeting with Henry, Blinken discussed the urgency of enlarging political consensus and reaching a broadly supported agreement to enable a return to democratic order as quickly as possible. The leaders, according to the State Department, also agreed on the urgency of deploying a U.N.-authorized multinational force or peacekeeping operation to enable the Haitian National Police to restore peace and security and alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Haiti.
Kagame also included the Haitian crisis in his own address to leaders, reiterating his willingness to help. Kagame has one of the best-trained police units in Africa and previously had his uniformed personnel deployed to Haiti as part of the most recent U.N. “stabilization mission” that was led by Brazil.
”Rwanda since last September indicated its willingness to provide peacekeeping and security personnel to help strengthen the national police of Haiti,” Skerrit said, adding that Caribbean leaders look forward to collaborating with the African leader on Haiti. “There are a number of steps or actions that we will take going forward and of course the prime minister of Haiti has made it very clear in numerous statements …that he will not seek election in Haiti, and that he is only prepared to lead a government up until the hosting of credible, free and fair elections.”
In addition to Haiti, Caribbean leaders also spent their summit discussing issues of regional and global importance including the free movement of people in most of the member countries, air travel and the lack of commitment by world leaders on addressing climate change.
“This conference reflected a mood of can-do and optimism,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said. “But realistic execution will ground us.”
In their meeting with Blinken and members of the U.S. Congress, leaders also raised concerns about the influx of U.S.-made guns and ammunition that have led to rising crime rates in their tiny nations, as well the rising cost of importing food.
“They have taken certain actions, especially with the creation of a special office to deal with the prosecution,” Skerrit said about the U.S.’s response to the illegal-arms problem. “But we still believe that there are additional things that the US can do, should do, to stem the flow of guns within our region.”
Blinken said the Biden administration is working to advance regional and global priorities, including the issue of the high cost of food.
He announced that the U.S. will dedicate an additional $5.5 million to help small farmers in the Caribbean boost productivity, increase access to technology and markets, and adopt smarter climate practices.
As for other issues leaders raised such as their regular call for the end of the U.S. embargo on Cuba and the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, Caribbean leaders said the U.S delegation listened. They acknowledged, however, that after years of complaints about being overlooked by the United States, the relationship with the Caribbean has taken on a new tone.
“We are at the moment engaged with the United States in a way that we have not been before,” Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley said.
Skerrit added: “We are seeing a practical change in the whole approach toward the Caribbean and we welcome those engagements.”
