Denny to CARICOM: ‘Support Haiti with action, not words’

CARICOM governments were urged on Tuesday to move beyond statements of solidarity and develop a concrete, people-focused plan to support Haiti, as regional pressure mounts for France to pay reparations for its historic exploitation of the country.

 

David Denny, an executive member of the Assembly of Caribbean People, made the call during the virtual launch of a ‘Declaration Demanding Restitution and Reparations by France to Haiti’. The event marked 200 years since France forced Haiti, under threat of military invasion, to pay a crippling sum of 150 million francs for gaining its independence and ending slavery – a burden that took Haiti over 120 years to repay.

 

For Denny, true solidarity with Haiti – beyond the call for reparations – must now translate into strategic, people-centred development supported by CARICOM states.

 

He said: “I think CARICOM should be concentrating on a strong developmental plan for the Haitian people. Rather than allowing the United States of America to manipulate CARICOM and that CARICOM should also be working with the real friends of the Haitian people, which is the Cuban people and government, the Venezuelan people and its government.”

 

He highlighted the decades of material and humanitarian support provided by both countries – from Cuban doctors and scholarships for Haitian students to Venezuela’s PetroCaribe initiative and its aid in post-earthquake housing – as possible blueprints that CARICOM nations could follow.

 

Denny explained: “Historically Cuba has assisted Haiti in many areas in terms of health, in terms of educational programmes based on scholarships, many Haitian students studied in Cuba at different universities; [and] you have 400 Cubans working in Haiti, then you also have the Venezuelan government assisting Haiti with the PetroCaribe agreement. Immediately after the major earthquake in Haiti, it was the Venezuelan government that assisted them in terms of the construction of houses for the Haitian people. So in terms of real solidarity work in Haiti in terms of helping the poor and powerless, that solidarity work in the past came from Venezuela and Cuba.”

 

The call comes as regional and diaspora groups rally behind Haiti’s demand that France return the wealth extracted during Haiti’s fight for independence.

 

“The declaration means a lot to us in Barbados because Haiti needs our solidarity, and we support the call by the Haitian groups for reparation from France because the Haitian people were forced to pay grants of reparation for his freedom, and we feel that that money should be returned to the Haitian people, ’cause that is actually one of the main reasons why the Haitian people remain so poor today,” Denny said.

 

Within Haiti itself, many civilians are pushing not only for securing reparations but also for self-reform and grassroots empowerment.

 

Kam’Azaka Mede Muhammad, a spokesperson for a community in Haiti’s mountainous Kenscoff region, said that while international support is welcome, internal transformation, with the support of reparations, is just as critical.

 

Muhammad said: “What we are saying is we appreciate absolutely everything that is being done from our brothers and sisters in the diaspora to see how they can force the hands of those who have mistreated us to pay reparations. We attack the problem from this angle; we say to ourselves, so much effort is being put into forcing these hands but not much effort is being put into organising, reforming, and civilising a Haitian citizen to make him understand his reality, his sovereignty.

 

“The work that we’re doing here in the mountains is precisely that. As a Haitian, I understand what I have to do for myself. I know our brothers and sisters can understand that we’ve spent 521 years without the proper education. So now the proper education is sitting down with the community, bringing the elders together, and consolidating land capacity and how much production we can do.”

(SB)