Haiti extradition treaty not on front burner – Chang

WESTERN BUREAU:

Despite the existence of established smuggling routes in which guns and drugs are trafficked between Haiti and Jamaica, the Holness administration is in no rush to forge an extradition treaty with its French-speaking neighbour.

The revelation comes amid requests by Haiti’s foreign ministry to its Jamaican counterpart to hand over Colombian fugitive Mario Palacios Palacios, who is alleged to have played a role in the July 7 assassination of then Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

Palacios, a former Colombian military officer, was fined in October for illegal entry to Jamaica but has been taken to a high-security facility since local authorities were flagged by Interpol.

Dr Horace Chang, Jamaica’s deputy prime minister and minister of national security, said that Kingston had a good working relationship with Port-au-Prince.

“That’s not on the front burner now ... there is no real urgency for it,” said Chang of talk of an extradition treaty.

“It has only been awakened because of this incident with the Colombian, which is unusual. We have no treaty with Haiti and you can’t just take another citizen and send him to another country.”

Chang said that a transfer request from the French-speaking country could not be honoured because the Colombian has not been formally charged by the Haitian government.