PM in CARICOM chorus decries slaying, urges law and order

Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who met in an emergency session with fellow CARICOM leaders late Wednesday, has joined a call for law and order to prevail in Haiti after being jolted by the overnight assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, the second regional leader to be murdered in the bloc’s 48-year-history.

“Atrocious” was Prime Minister Mottley’s immediate description of the horrific development before she later joined her counterparts at the virtual meeting which came a day after the end of the annual CARICOM summit.

She said: “Violence can never be a solution, and must be rejected in all circumstances. Barbados urges all to pause and work at all costs for peace. The Haitian people deserve this. It is the necessary foundation for their stability and for democracy to emerge to protect them against the many vagaries they face, man-made and otherwise.”

In what has been described by interim Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph as a  “highly coordinated attack by a highly trained and heavily armed group”, 53-year-old Moïse was shot dead by a band of gunmen said to be speaking Spanish and American-accented English.

First Lady Martine Joseph who was shot multiple times according to international reports was transported to the Miami-based Jackson Memorial Hospital for treatment, even as reports swirled suggesting she, too, had perished in the gun attack.

Late in the evening, Leon Charles, the interim Haiti national police chief, announced that police had encircled the killers and engaged in a gun battle. He said police killed four of the suspected assailants, whom he referred to as “mercenaries” and “assassins” and arrested two others.

CARICOM heads of government emerged from their discussions labelling the events as “abhorrent and reprehensible” while declaring that the 15-nation grouping was prepared to play a pivotal role in helping to restore order in the Francophone CARICOM nation.

The region’s leaders said in accordance with the values, as expressed in its Charter of Civil Society, “the Caribbean Community does not settle its differences by violence which undermines democracy and the rule of law, but peacefully through dialogue and recourse to democratic institutions”.

They continued: “In light of Haiti’s Membership of CARICOM and the family ties that bind the people of Haiti and CARICOM together, CARICOM expresses its willingness to play a lead role in facilitating a process of national dialogue and negotiation to help the Haitian people and their institutions to craft an indigenous solution to the crisis.”

Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM David Comissiong said it was a very tragic day for the region even as he expressed grave concern about the crisis facing Haiti.

“Haiti is in a very serious crisis,” he said. “It has been in a very serious political crisis for at least the past two years, but that crisis has been significantly worsened and made so much more dangerous with the assassination of the president.”

Expressing fears that the country “could easily slip into some form of civil war”, Comissiong voiced his support for CARICOM to play a key role in Haiti, stressing that the immediate need was for a trusted party to bring the contended forced “to a negotiating table of reason” to work out a Haitian solution to a political crisis.

Ambassador Comissiong, who is part of a four-member expert group mandated by regional leaders to investigate the recent turmoil in Haiti, lamented that CARICOM’s overtures to assist its troubled member states particularly over the last two years were not taken on board.

He told Barbados TODAY: “CARICOM has been consistently offering its good offices to Haiti on more than one occasion. CARICOM had indicated to President Moïse and his administration that we wanted to send a team of persons into Haiti to get a better understanding of all the issues confronting the country so that CARICOM can play a role in helping Haiti solve the crisis that was developing and those overtures were never really accepted. Haiti always seem to be looking to the north, to the United States of America, to the Organisation of American States and entities like that rather than to CARICOM, which in my opinion is very regrettable,  because I know in this  Caribbean region we are family, we are kith and kin and I know that there is no international organization that would more have the welfare of the Haitian people at heart than CARICOM. CARICOM has no geopolitical objectives to pursue in Haiti like some other entities, our only interest would be to help the people of Haiti.”

Haiti is in the throes of a constitutional crisis with many Haitians saying they had stopped recognizing President Moïse because they believe his term expired on February 7 under the current constitution.

Late last month, the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced plans to stage the constitutional referendum as well as the legislative elections for the Senate and Deputy on September 26.

In what would be his last political act, President Moïse had named Ariel Henry to replace Joseph as prime minister but Henry had not taken the oath of office prior to the president’s death, leaving the outgoing prime minister to remain interim prime minister.

Historian Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, said that the assassination of President Moïse “is the latest dramatic reflection of the culture of murderous political violence that has typified the colonisation of the Caribbean, and whose legacy continues to speak to the devalued worth of black life especially in our hemisphere.

He said in a statement: “For the people of Haiti and the wider Caribbean region who have politically united for mutual survival with dignity under the banner of CARICOM, this blunt and brutal execution of the democratically elected Head of State foregrounds the historic savagery long fought against in our region’s struggle to forge a humane and sophisticated post-colonial Caribbean civilization.”

As a mark of respect, CARICOM member states and the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat “will fly their national flags and the CARICOM Standard at half-mast for three days beginning immediately, as well as on the day of the funeral”.

(sandydeane@barbadostoday.bb)