March 11, 2024 (EIRNS)—An emergency meeting of U.S., Canada, France, the UN and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders was scheduled to take place today in Jamaica, convened by CARICOM chair Guyana, to discuss how to “pacify” violence-wracked Haiti and map out a path toward democratic elections. According to a press release issued today Secretary of State Tony Blinken also intended to call for the “deployment of a Multinational Security Support Mission to address the ongoing security crisis.” It’s unclear whether the de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who can’t return to Haiti and is currently stranded in Puerto Rico, would be attending the Jamaica meeting.
Under current circumstances, in which a coalition of gangs has laid siege to the capital of Port-au-Prince, especially its downtown Champs de Mars district, and subjected the population to relentless violence—wanton murders, destruction of houses, kidnappings—and Gaza-like levels of deprivation, these “solutions” have no connection to reality. The security situation is dire, but Haitians don’t want a foreign police force to come in to solve their problems for them. As Brazilian President Lula da Silva said at the recent CARICOM meeting in Guyana, development is the way to stabilize a country and deal with security problems. The last U.S. President to talk about developing Haiti was Franklin D. Roosevelt.
