Stand With Haiti! Core Group Out of Haiti!
Core Group and Caribbean Community Collude to Impose Transitional Presidential Council and Legitimize Foreign Intervention
The people of Haiti continue to have their sovereignty undermined by the Core Group on Haiti and increasingly by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The CARICOM governments, rather than upholding the longstanding fraternal relations and common struggle against colonialism and foreign domination shared by the peoples of the Caribbean, have instead agreed to play a key role in the current schemes of the Core Group to block the Haitian people from exercising control over their lives.
Core Group and CARICOM Appoint "Transitional Presidential Council"
A.T. Freeman,
writing for the Caribbean Organisation for People's
Empowerment
on
April 11, points out:
"In early March, the Core Group-appointed Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, was blocked from returning to Haiti after armed groups besieged the country's Toussaint Louverture International Airport, where he intended to land. Within a week of this development, CARICOM convened a high-level meeting on Haiti in Kingston, Jamaica on March 11. This meeting which was also attended by members of the Core Group and, notably, by U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, produced what they termed a 'transitional governance arrangement,' in the wake of the resignation of Ariel Henry. Henry had agreed to resign upon the establishment of a Transitional Presidential Council and appointment of an interim prime minister.
Freeman continues:
"The transitional arrangements openly violate Haiti's sovereignty and are intended to reinforce the U.S. and its Core Group's colonial mission. Many commentators note that the current social crisis in Haiti is the result of 20 years of the Core Group's domination and gross interference in Haiti's political affairs, which are part of a broader pattern of U.S. domination of Haiti that has endured for over a century.
"The CARICOM/Core Group scheme aims to appoint a Transitional Presidential Council whilst specifically excluding from participation in this council any Haitians who oppose the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2699 of October 2023 that greenlights the long-planned U.S.-organized invasion of Haiti. In this way CARICOM and the Core Group, have given themselves the authority to decide which Haitians can take part in the political developments in their own country.
"Furthermore, the CARICOM/Core Group scheme demands that the envisaged 'Transitional Presidential Council' must have as one of its primary duties 'collaboration with all members of the international community for the accelerated deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission.' In other words, the so called Transitional Presidential Council is a fig leaf to attempt to legitimize the long-planned intervention in Haiti."
To
add insult to injury, Haitian participation in the March
11
meeting was
limited to a virtual afterthought. While it was in the
main an
in-person meeting, those said to represent Haiti were
only
permitted to
join the meeting at the end, and then only via Zoom.
The Presidential Transitional Council was created by decree on April 12. In a statement on the occasion, CARICOM welcomed the development and said that it "stands ready to continue to support the Haitian people and their leaders as they determine their future in a sovereign manner through this transitional period on the path to stability, security and long-term sustainable development for Haiti."
In a similar vein, the U.S. State Department also welcomed the council, claiming that it comes out of "months of discussion among diverse Haitian stakeholders" and that it "helps pave the way for free and fair elections and the expedited deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission."
No comments were forthcoming from either Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.
This article was published
in
Volume 54 Number 4 - April 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M5400418.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca