Editorial | CARICOM mustn’t dither on Haiti

It is wrong that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) should putter on the sidelines, waiting on outsiders to re-establish order in Haiti, before advancing its own efforts to end the country’s political stalemate and shoring up its institutions of governance and democracy. Which is how we interpret last week’s statement by CARICOM’s heads of government in response to the request by Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, for the region’s help in fixing the country’s crisis.

Haiti has faced its latest round of instability since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, apparently by Colombian mercenaries acting at the behest of Haitian politicians, in and outside the country. The deteriorated security situation has more recently been exacerbated by armed, politically aligned gangs that now run wild in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and elsewhere.

Earlier this month, the most powerful of these groups, led by a former policeman, Jimmy Chérizier, sealed off the main shipping port, making it almost impossible to bring food and other supplies into the country. They also entered oil terminals to steal millions of gallons of petrol. The United Nations has warned that up to five million Haitians could face starvation, and the situation of insecurity is contributing to the rise of contagious diseases. Cholera has returned to the country.

In its October-12 statement CARICOM said it had been written by Haiti’s prime minister, Dr Ariel Henry, “calling for solidarity and requesting assistance to alleviate the deepening humanitarian, security, political, and economic crises in Haiti’.

CARICOM agreed in principle, but said, “However, they (CARICOM’s leaders) recognise that these initiatives could not be effectively realised until the security situation is addressed. In that regard heads of government take note of the appeal by Prime Minister Henry for the urgent assistance of Haiti’s international partners for short-term assistance to address the security and humanitarian crises.”

NOT ENOUGH

It is not enough for CARICOM to “take note” of Prime Minister Henry’s international appeal for assistance. Instead, the community ought to be central to, and preferably in the leadership of, any initiative to establish security and stability in Haiti, starting, more appropriately, with collaboration with the hemispheric body, the Organization of American States (OAS), rather than the United Nations Security Council.

Put another way, as dangerous as Chérizier’s crowd is, and notwithstanding that they should be brought to heel, there are questions whether Haiti’s gang and political crisis rises to a threat to global security that requires intervention by the security council or proxies – with the risk of compromise to Haiti’s sovereignty and independence – rather than a textured and nuanced support from hemispheric partners. Indeed, there is evidence the previous United Nations-sponsored security project after the 2010 earthquake not ending well and with discredit to the UN force.

CARICOM is in a unique position to help steer these discussions and to keep them on an appropriate path. Haiti is a full member of the community, from which it is owed an obligation of support in periods of crisis. But there is also something that is deeply profound about this obligation, which, in this neighbourhood, means that Haiti can’t be the untextured cliché of the popular geopolitical narrative – the Hemisphere’s poorest country, with low levels of literacy and frequent earthquakes and floods that cost tens of thousands of lives. For, largely Haiti looks like CARICOM – and most of the rest of the Caribbean. And Haiti has a major place in Caribbean history as the slave colony that defeated a European power to declare its Independence and became the world’s first black republic. Indeed, Haiti’s problems are, in part, a price it paid for its history.

NO CAUSE TO QUESTION

CARICOM has no cause, if that is the case, to question its capacity to bring the intellectual leadership the Haitian situation requires. Rather, it has every reason to assert itself on the matter. History is in its favour. Indeed, in 2004 when a triumvirate of powerful countries orchestrated the removal of Haiti’s legitimately elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Jamaica led a resistance to the disruption of the country’s constitutional order. They persisted. Haiti hasn’t recovered.

In the immediate aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, which killed 200,000 people, CARICOM’s doctors, nurses and soldiers and police were at the forefront of the early relief and recovery effort. The project was soon ceded to the major global powers and NGO affiliates. Unfortunately, in both periods, CARICOM, too quickly, retreated from Haiti, leaving insufficiently deep and lasting footprint on the country’s governance framework.

In the meantime, aid agencies and governments poured billions of dollars into the country, with little to show for it. Vast swathes of the money, it has been reported, went to the benefit of many of those who were deployed from developed countries to engineer Haiti’s transformation.

CARICOM mustn’t repeat those mistakes. It must quickly move from the periphery to the centre of the events to help Haiti lift itself.