US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met Caribbean leaders in Jamaica in an urgent push to solve the spiralling crisis in Haiti, while pressure grows on Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign or agree to a transitional council.
The closed-door meeting did not include Mr Henry, who has been locked out of his own country while travelling abroad, due to surging unrest and violence by criminal gangs who have overrun much of Haiti’s capital and closed down its main international airports.
Mr Henry remains in Puerto Rico and was taking steps to return to Haiti once feasible, according to a brief statement from the US territory’s Department of State.
While leaders met behind closed doors, Jimmy Cherizier, considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader, told reporters that if the international community continues down the current road, “it will plunge Haiti into further chaos”.
“We Haitians have to decide who is going to be the head of the country and what model of government we want,” said Cherizier, a former elite police officer leader of a gang federation known as G9 Family and Allies.
“We are also going to figure out how to get Haiti out of the misery it’s in now.”
The meeting was organised by members of a regional trade bloc known as Caricom, which for months has pressed for a transitional government in Haiti while protests in the country have demanded Mr Henry’s resignation.
“The international community must work together with Haitians towards a peaceful political transition,” US assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs Brian Nichols wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Mr Nichols was also attending the meeting.
Concerns remain that a long-sought solution will remain elusive. Caricom said in a statement on Friday announcing the urgent meeting in Jamaica that while “we are making considerable progress, the stakeholders are not yet where they need to be”.
Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, said that up to 90% of proposals that Haitian stakeholders have “put on the table” are similar. These include an “urgent need” to create a presidential council to help identify a new prime minister to establish a government.
Her comments were briefly streamed by Caricom, in what appeared to have been a mistake, and then were abruptly cut off.
The meeting was held as powerful gangs continued to attack key government targets across Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Since February 29, gunmen have burned police stations, closed the main international airports and raided the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
Scores of people have been killed, and more than 15,000 are homeless after fleeing neighbourhoods raided by gangs.
Food and water are dwindling as stands and stores selling to impoverished Haitians run out of goods. The main port in Port-au-Prince remains closed, stranding dozens of containers with critical supplies.
Mr Henry landed in Puerto Rico last week after being denied entry into the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
When the attacks began, Mr Henry was in Kenya pushing for the UN-backed deployment of a police force from the east African country that has been delayed by a court ruling.
A growing number of people are demanding Mr Henry’s resignation. He has not made any public comment since the attacks began.
The UN Security Council has urged Haiti’s gangs “to immediately cease their destabilising actions”, including sexual violence and the recruitment of children, and said it expects that a multinational force will deploy as soon as possible to help end the violence.
It urged the international community to support the Haitian National Police by backing the force’s deployment.
Council members also expressed concern at the limited political progress and urged all political actors to allow free and fair legislative and presidential elections.
A UN delegation attending Monday’s meeting includes the secretary-general’s chief of staff Courtenay Rattray, undersecretary-general Atul Khare, who is in charge of UN logistics, and assistant secretary-general Miroslav Jenca, who is in charge of the Americas in the UN political office.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres is calling for the urgent deployment of the multinational force and that the mission be adequately funded, said his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Currently, funding is at only 10.8 million dollars, with officials in Kenya demanding more than 230 million dollars.
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