Gordon Robinson | CARICOM, US and the Haiti conundrum
Published:Sunday | March 17, 2024 | 12:08 AM
Having dropped the ball on Haiti, apparently shameless CARICOM leaders are huffing and puffing in an inelegant scramble to appear to retrieve it.
I TOLD YOU three months ago the situation in Haiti was far more important to CARICOM than any fool-fool sabre rattling between Venezuela and Guyana. On December 10 ( “Border Bluster”) I wrote:
“Jamaica should stay out of Venezuela and Guyana’s who wants to be a millionaire contest. Venezuela is a friend; Guyana a CARICOM member. This issue is being pursued for Guyana by CARICOM. Jamaica shouldn’t be making clumsy statements regarding a matter before ICJ and PNP just looks weak for giving way to political pressure to follow fashion.
“Venezuela continues to spit in the wind while Guyana has enough help from serial Venezuela-haters. Jamaica doesn’t need to get involved. Haiti, with real problems, needs Jamaica more. Jamaica can let CARICOM carry the Venezuela/Guyana ball. Let Venezuela/Guyana shout to friends ‘hol’ mi back!’ while they pretend to fight.”
Instead of CARICOM advocating for its member, we were treated to a farcical “mediation” in St. Vincent where Uncle Ralphie hogged media attention while CARICOM accomplished zip-a-dee-do-da. Meanwhile, the situation in Haiti, brewing for decades, became hotter than Jessica Pearson. We should’ve recognised the signs on Portland’s coast but were so focused on chucking Haitian refugees out we didn’t realize we were exacerbating the problem. Politicians’ noses naturally tend to grow like Pinocchio’s and often become large enough obscure their vision.
As soon as the Haitian pot boiled over so publicly that students of the Ray Charles Awareness School could recognise, another regional political circus was held at Jamaica Pegasus. This time, Big Puppeteer from the North discarded its remote control and attended in person through Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
This is only the third time a US Secretary of State has visited Jamaica. The first visit took place in our 49th year of “Independence” when Hillary Clinton stayed for a minute to “hold talks” with CARICOM leaders on “regional security” at the Ritz Carlton. In 2020 Mike Pompeo spent 24 hours here to discuss “U.S./Caribbean Relations” with Caribbean leaders. I wonder if any of these discussions veered off USA’s favourite “Do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do” topic towards “mea culpa” for American gun exports being the greatest contributor to regional instability.
So it’s a fair guess Wynken, Blynken and Nod (sorry, can’t help myself) sailed here to fish for and pickle Caribbean herring with what to do about Haiti. After “discussions” Guyana’s President chaired a Press Conference, flanked by Blinken to his right and Holness to his left. He announced:
• Soon after Blinken’s arrival Haitian President-Unelect Ariel Henry resigned from the comparative safety of his Puerto Rican hotel;
• A transitional Presidential Council was established for Haiti, with seven voting members and two non-voting members.
• Blinken committed an additional US$100 million to the “multi-national security force” to be deployed to Haiti which he said the Kenyan president agreed to “lead” after a phone call from Blinken.
Sigh. Here we go again.
Are you expecting peace and good governance to return to Haiti from invasion (oops, sorry, “assistance”) by a “multi-national security force”? As Noah allegedly replied to a disembodied voice identifying itself as God “Right!”
Lookie here. Current Haitian chaos is neither sudden nor unexpected. Politically affiliated gangs have been used to secure and maintain power for Haitian Dictators since 1959 when “Papa Doc” created the Tonton Macoute. Every Jamaican should read an article in Wednesday’s Gleaner ( Why is Haiti so chaotic?) that debunks that day’s optimistic Gleaner editorial ( Haiti’s workable regime). The editorial muses “on its face the proposed model appears to be a potentially workable solution, even over the longterm, to Haiti’s chronic crisis of governance….”
It. Is. Not. Workable!
As former Haitian cop turned gang leader, “Barbeque”, pointed out in a public statement (yes, you read right, a brutal gang leader making public statements) nobody asked CARICOM to make appointments for Haiti. Barbeque promised “the choice of the person who is going to lead this country we live in will be made by the Haitian people.”
He emphasised “We want to make sure the person who is going to, lead this country’s wife and children live in Haiti. We want to make sure the people who are going to be Ministers in this government’s wives and children live in the country.
“Today it is a whole system that we want to destroy…. We don’t want to give you lies; we’re not in a peaceful revolution. We’re making a bloody revolution in the country because this system is an apartheid system, a wicked system.”
Undoubtedly, his corrective measures are at least excessive. But Barbeque’s critique of decades of corrupt Haitian governance is spot on. Within 48 hours, the CARICOM plan for a “Presidential Council” appeared scuppered as ABC reported Haitian political parties rejected the interference.
According to ABC:
“Jean Charles Moïse, an ex-senator and presidential candidate who has teamed up with former rebel leader Guy Philippe, held a news conference Wednesday to announce his rejection of the proposed council backed by the international community.
“Moïse insisted that a three-person presidential council he recently created with Philippe and a Haitian judge should be implemented.
“‘We are not going to negotiate it,’ he said…”
Back in Pegasus Fantasyland, Andrew Holness issued a stern statement that the Haitian “civil war” wouldn’t be allowed to besmirch “our long standing democratic tradition and reputation as a zone of peace.”
Where? Not in Haiti where democratically elected Presidents completing terms in office have been as rare as recent Kate Middleton sightings and a serious police force or military hasn’t existed for decades. In Jamaica? Maybe Andrew should take a look in the national mirror. Is Haiti’s history of politically affiliated gangs as political enforcers that become independent from their political godfathers familiar? What about modern funding sources causing gangs to become brutal violence producers; create their own economic eco-systems; and, with the support of under-educated, poverty stricken, gang-dependent civilians, reject anti-democratic governance systems that empower and enrich politicians?
Do these scenarios portend bloody revolution only in Haiti?
The “Presidential Council” isn’t even legal. Haiti’s modern Constitution (passed in 1987) includes:
National Sovereignty
ARTICLE 58: “National sovereignty is vested in all citizens. Citizens directly exercise the prerogatives of sovereignty by:
a. Electing the President of the Republic;
b. Electing members of the Legislature;
c. Electing members of all other bodies or all assemblies provided for by the Constitution and by law.”
ARTICLE 59: “Citizens delegate the exercise of national sovereignty to three (3) branches of government:
1. The Legislative Branch;
2. The Executive Branch;
3. The Judicial Branch.
The principle of separation of the Three (3) branches is embodied in the Constitution.”
This planned cloak and dagger U.S. invasion of Haiti dressed up as a “Kenya-led multinational” security force “intervention” will do nothing for Haiti. To begin with, Kenyan Defence Forces’ historical reputation is eerily similar to Haitian political gangs. But the real issue is that the intervention’s official purpose (to bring gang violence under control) would be hilarious were it not so obviously disingenuous. I believe the USA led Pegasus Planning Committee must know that’s ambitious at best; impossible at worst. The “intervention’s” objective is far more likely to be protection of USA’s borders from fleeing Haitians. Blinken has clearly convinced his CARICOM choir it’ll do the same for them.
So, instead of yet another recidivist regional “intervention” which, like many similar prior American “interventions”, is doomed to fail, I propose USA/CARICOM try a different approach – one that begins with respect for Haitians’ right to self determination and acknowledgement of Haitian culture and history. CARICOM leaders should stop allowing USA to lead them by their overgrown noses and tell USA some inconvenient facts. Instead of planning “interventions”, clear thinking introspection and acknowledgment of reality would result in more effective policies such as:
• Leaving the solution of Haiti’s political and politically created problems to Haitians;
• Working out a system among CARICOM/USA for shared acceptance of Haitian refugees after fair adjudication of asylum claims;
• Committing to the provision of future aid packages to a Haitian Government elected in accordance with the Haitian Constitution and severing all links with criminal gangs
CARICOM leaders might try learning from consequences of Haiti’s historical fascination with political gangs that evolve into serial extortionists and mafia-style enforcers. America might try learning from 20 years in Afghanistan. And maybe, just maybe, Jamaica might consider wiping the mote from its eye before it becomes a plank.
Peace and Love.
Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com