Jovenel Moise addresses the media next to his wife Martine after winning the 2016 presidential election, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Picture taken Nov. 28, 2016.
REUTERS/Jeanty Junior Augustin, File
Caribbean Community governments have been doing as much as possible to support an interim government in Haiti that they helped establish in the past year. However, it is now clear that they fear that that same administration could fall at the hands of a coalition of increasingly powerful marauding gangs.
Frustrated at the deteriorating situation in the bloc’s most populous but politically unstable member nation, regional governments issued an international alert late Sunday saying that they are aware the gangs now plan to graduate from making the country ungovernable to seizing power by force.
The statement coincided with a similar one issued by Haitian authorities and another put out by the American embassy in Port au Prince urging citizens to leave as soon as possible.
The gangs have paralyzed life in parts of the capital and nearby areas, especially after the early July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, as they took advantage of the chaos and political uncertainty that ensued to commit acts of severe violence and genocide on citizens. They have also severely damaged state infrastructure.
Regional officials say that part of the mandate of regional governments was to work with the transitional council to arrange fresh general elections by the first week of February next year because there have been none since 2016. That situation allowed the country to operate without elected legislator, mayor, or other constitutional officeholders. The bloc says the situation is dire.
“The heads of government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are deeply concerned by recent reports that a coalition of criminal gangs is threatening to seize power and compel a change in the governance arrangements in Haiti at this time. This is completely unacceptable. CARICOM strongly condemns any attempt to replace the transitional arrangements by force and violence. Haitian stakeholders put These arrangements in place to pave the way for free and fair elections by Feb. 7, 2026, to return Haiti to constitutional authority,” the 15-nation bloc stated.
Tired of political tinkering and interference by Western governments over the decades, Haitian stakeholders had insisted that its fellow Caribbean neighbors work with them to return the country to constitutional governance.
Numerous meetings were held in Jamaica and Haiti to set up the same interim government that the regional bloc now says could be in danger of collapse “in view of the looming threat. CARICOM has been in consultation with Haiti and its international partners to urgently to provide further security assistance to Haiti. CARICOM salutes the efforts of the Haitian security forces and the multinational security system, spearheaded by the Kenyans, to enforce order and to protect the citizens of Haiti.”
The alert from the bloc came hours after Haitian authorities restated the intention of security forces to beat back and eliminate criminal gangs as they noted that the country “is in the grip of unprecedented massacres and acts of violence. The criminal nature of the actions of armed gangs, which are supported by a transnational criminal network and a mafia sector in Haiti, today threatens the very foundations of the nation. The restoration of security throughout the national territory remains and will continue to be the strategic priority of the transition, launched in 2024. This priority is also the major and legitimate demand of the Haitian people, who are demanding the safe and complete resumption of social, economic, political and cultural life,” the interim council said in a statement.
On the same day, Sunday, the US Embassy issued its latest travel advisory to Americans, noting the level of “increased violence and insecurity, as well as threats and attacks against law enforcement and prisons. Depart Haiti as soon as possible when commercial options are available if you feel safe to do so.”
