HAITI, Guyana and Venezuela, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras topped urgent agenda items at the recent 46th CARICOM Summit in Guyana, with leaders leaving Georgetown worried that escalation of the worsening situation in the poorest and most-populated member-state will erupt into yet-another international crisis in Haiti.
The leaders returned home after the January 26-29 summit satisfied with the progress of peaceful and positive talks and exchanges between Guyana and Venezuela; and a new government in Honduras opens the way for progress in possible CARICOM negotiations to settle border and territorial disputes with Belize.
Guyana-Venezuela
According to the summit’s Final Communique, on the Guyana-Venezuela matter, “The leaders received an update on developments in Guyana/Venezuela relations and decried the significant Venezuelan military border activity, but noted a lowering of tensions since the Joint Declaration of Argyle for Dialogue and Peace between Guyana and Venezuela, was issued on December 14, 2023, following the meeting of the Presidents of the two countries.”
They however, welcomed the convening of the first meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Guyana and Venezuela and their technical teams in Brasilia on January 25, 2024, as “a positive step to rebuilding cooperation between the two countries, while the ICJ determines the case concerning the land boundary.”
They noted that Venezuela has until April 8, 2024 to submit its counter-memorial on the merits of the case regarding the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award that had determined the boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela, “and urged it to do so.”
They also “reaffirmed their solid support for the maintenance and preservation of Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Belize-Guatemala-Honduras
On the Belize-Guatemala and the Belize-Honduras cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) the summit “commended the Parties for their willingness to seek a peaceful resolution to all legal claims against Belize to land and insular territories and to any maritime areas pertaining to those territories, through the ICJ.”
CARICOM-Brazil
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presence at the summit was described as “indicative of the strong bond between the Region and Brazil” and noted “the two sides share a rich history of South-South cooperation”, are “united by geography” – and have “a common desire to build prosperity for their peoples.”
President Lula said his country “took a strategic decision to prioritise its relationship” with CARICOM and “underscored Brazil’s support for efforts to address the Region’s priorities of climate change, regional security, intra-regional connectivity and sustainable development, including through advocacy at the G-20 during Brazil’s Presidency in 2024.”
Haiti
On Haiti, CARICOM Chair, Guyana’s President Dr Irfaan Ali emphasized: “Our Region has one interest when it comes to Haiti – that is the people of Haiti” – and he promised that “We will not deviate from that interest.”
On February 26, the CARICOM leaders met with Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and “International Partners of Haiti” including, Canada, France, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations (also called ‘The Quad’) to discuss the worsening situation there.
They received an update on the situation by the Coordinator of CARICOM’s Eminent Persons Group (EPG), former Saint Lucia Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony.
In the course of “a frank and in-depth discussion”, the leaders “expressed their deep concern over the continued deterioration of the security, humanitarian and political situation” and “the continued delay in overcoming the political stalemate,” which have “blocked the possibility of free and fair elections.”
They therefore “underlined the critical and immediate need for a clear political path forward which should be participatory and inclusive.”
The CARICOM leaders also “took note of the commitment made by Prime Minister Ariel Henry to take major steps to move the political process forward, including the holding of general elections to restore constitutional government and authority no later than 31 August 2025.”
“To this end,” the communique said, “an electoral needs gap assessment team will be dispatched by CARICOM by 31 March 2024, in consultation with the UN, in line with existing Security Council mandates, with the support of Canada, USA and the OAS” – and “the Assessment Team will support planning and efforts of the relevant Haitian institutions to be established.”
Against this background, CARICOM “will extend an invitation to the Stakeholders to participate in a meeting urgently to address and settle the critical political path that is participatory and inclusive.”
But, within days, all that went to naught, as Henry’s refusal to yield to calls to resign saw him jet-off to Kenya and secretly to the USA to try to hasten the arrival in Haiti of 1,000 Kenyan police officers the country’s high court said couldn’t go because of the absence of a related bilateral agreement.
The US read-out its own ‘riot act’ to Henry and withdrew its support for his continued rule, demanding that he appoint an interim leadership – and step aside.
Stuck in Puerto Rico and unable to enter Haiti through any of its airports or through the neighbouring Dominican Republic, Henry’s caught between a rock and a hard place, while the US drums-up support for the armed external intervention it’s been trying to get Africa and the Caribbean to undertake.
Caught itself between a devil and the deep blue sea, Washington is depending on again convincing CARICOM and Latin America to lead the way with boots on the ground, while Canada, France, UK, USA and the UN refuse to commit their own troops to fight the gangs they claim could virtually ‘barbecue Haiti’.
Henry is floored in Puerto Rico while the gangs say it’ll be all-out war, including ‘genocide’ if he returns home.
So, following Grenada in 1983 and successive failures to help Haiti through its natural disasters, violence and other political troubles, will CARICOM again allow itself, 41 years later, to be inveigled into supporting yet another external intervention financed by the USA and backed by a muzzled UN?
Time will tell, but this time much-sooner than later!