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THE Prime Minister had a lot to say about his recent visit to the US during a media briefing on Friday, but perhaps his most compelling and immediate announcement was his call to the US government to assist with the situation in Haiti.
It's been almost a year since the Trinidad and Tobago government joined representatives from Caricom on a mission to Haiti as part of a commitment to talk to stakeholders in that country to "assist in the development of a plan to restore security and the rule of law."
The members of that mission delivered their report in early March 2023, which recommended training for Haitian police and humanitarian assistance to both the police and the wider society.
By August 2023, it was estimated that more than 300 gangs controlled 90 per cent of the country's capital city. Between January and September 2023, the UN Office for Human Rights recorded the killing of 3,156 people, including 36 police officers and 1,284 kidnappings by Port-au-Prince-based gangs.
The Haitian National Police, once 15,000 strong, had collapsed to less than a third of that number. The country's prisons are dramatically overcrowded, with an inmate population three times their capacity. Malnutrition and food insecurity were widespread. Citizens are starving in Haiti.
Sitting Prime Minister Ariel Henry who took over the job without parliamentary approval after the assassination of Jovenel Moise in July 2021 has proven unable to effect any tangible change in the situation.
Given the UN's charge in its 2024 World Report that guns and ammunition continue to flow into the country from Florida, Dr Rowley's call for US engagement with the problem is appropriate.
An arms embargo by UN member states is part of resolution 2653, which lists specific actions meant to guide interventions into the Haiti crisis.
But talk about Haiti's ongoing deterioration just continued during 2023 without any useful action. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on all nations in July 2023 to volunteer their services, along with logistical and tactical equipment to bring peace to Haiti.
The call came ahead of the 45th Regular Meeting of Caricom Heads in Port of Spain that month. By September 2023, the PM called on the UN to intervene in Haiti's collapse.
So far, the TT engagement with the problem has been to extend the live of resolution 2653 in September, but for the AG to declare this soft solution to be "evidence of this Government's commitment towards doing its part to ensure the restoration of peace, security and stability for Haiti," is a stretch.
Before Caricom's mission to Haiti a year ago, talking about armed intervention in the situation might have seemed premature. Now it seems painfully overdue as a Caribbean country spirals into deadly chaos.
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