A number of Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries are ready with troops, police, and other resources to help fellow regional trade bloc nation Haiti as heavily armed gangs overrun the country, forcing western and other countries to evacuate non-essential staff while leaders push local stakeholders to form a consensus unity government to fill the governance vacancy and improve a rapidly deteriorating situation.
The Bahamas, Jamaica, Belize, Barbados, and several others have said they are waiting for a date when a United Nations-approved multinational peacekeeping force is ready to head to Haiti to deploy their own boots on the ground as the security and humanitarian situation spirals out of control.
Over the weekend, leaders announced plans for an emergency summit in Jamaica on Monday of this week to make a final push to form a transitional government that would govern a country whose electoral cycle has expired, rendering nearly all elected officials as illegally in place.
Leaders from Guyana, the Bahamas, Grenada, St. Vincent, Dominica, Barbados, and Grenada have confirmed they will attend the mini summit, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and representatives from France, Canada, Brazil, and the UN among others.
It is unclear whether embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry will attend, but leaders did say in a weekend statement that he has been a key player in negotiations to form an interim government that would work to stabilize the country and organize fresh elections by the end of August of next year.
Blinken’s office said in a release that he will be in Jamaica to work with the region on a “proposal developed in partnership with Caricom and Haitian stakeholders to expedite a political transition in Haiti through the creation of a broad-based, independent presidential college, as well as the deployment of a multinational security support mission to address the ongoing security crisis.”
While they said in the release that they were encouraged by the progress of talks in recent days, “the stakeholders are not yet where they need to be. We are acutely aware of the urgent need for consensus to be reached. We have impressed on the respective parties that time is not on their side in agreeing to the way forward. From our reports, the situation on the ground remains dire and is of serious concern to us.”
All this means that not every opposition party or civil society group has agreed as yet to the terms of a consensus government—many are demanding the immediate resignation of Henry as a precondition for moving forward.
Henry was appointed PM after hired mercenaries assassinated President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, plunging the country into chaos. He is stuck in temporary exile in Puerto Rico as of last week; he was attempting to return home from trips to regional bloc headquarters, Guyana, and Kenya, where he had gone to organize the multinational force. The gangs have locked off the main airport and have threatened to kill him if he returns. He has so far refused to step down despite regional and international pressure.
On Monday, the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, declared Henry persona non grata for now, saying he is the type of security threat that should not be allowed to set foot on DR soil.
Various leaders and others associated with efforts to form an interim government have insisted that the main stumbling block is that many groups do not want Henry to be a part of any government. That government would be the one to appoint a president and PM, and it will certainly not be Henry.
Caricom has made no secret that it is panicking over the deteriorating security situation: “We have impressed on the respective parties that time is not on their side in agreeing to the way forward. From our reports, the situation on the ground remains dire and is of serious concern to us. We would like the Haitian people to know that we will continue to work with them and on their behalf until there is a satisfactory resolution that brings stability and relief to them.”