Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness led a group of international government leaders who arrive at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, in New Kingston, where a high-level CARICOM (Caribbean Community) meeting on Haiti was scheduled to get underway.
The CARICOM heads of government have been in talks in Kingston as they try to decide on measures to address the crisis in Haiti where gangsters have taken control of large sections of the capital. The leaders, along with selected invited guests from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other partners, who were expected to have long discussions on the crisis on the Caribbean Island nation.
Decisions out of the discussions were scheduled to be shared with the media at a briefing, which was set to be hosted by the heads of government. A recent release from the Office of the Prime Minister confirmed the meeting, adding that it will be held under the current Chair of Conference President Irfaan Ali of Guyana.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to meet with Caribbean leaders as part of an urgent push to solve Haiti’s spiralling crisis, while pressure grows on the country’s Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, to resign or agree to a transitional council. Henry, locked out of his own country after surging violence at home, was expected to attend the closed-door meeting.
“The international community must work together with Haitians towards a peaceful political transition,” U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Nichols will attend the meeting.
But concerns remain that a long-awaited solution might not be found. “Whilst we are making considerable progress, the stakeholders are not yet where they need to be,” Caricom said in a statement announcing the urgent meeting in Jamaica. PM Holness stated that the seriousness of the situation would be signalled by the participation of CARICOM heads of government from The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as the eight international partner countries and the United Nations.
“Jamaica’s hosting of the meeting falls within the context of its ongoing key role in CARICOM’s response to the situation in Haiti, including the community’s contribution to, and advocacy for, greater international support for the United Nations Security Council-sanctioned Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission to Haiti,” Holness said in a media release. Food and water are dwindling as stands and stores selling to impoverished Haitians run out of goods, whilst the main port in Port-au-Prince remains closed, dozens of containers with critical supplies have been left stranding.
Meanwhile, Henry remained locked out of his country, landing in Puerto Rico last week after being denied entry into the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
