Canada’s UN ambassador says gangs now control Haiti. What will the international community do?
Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations says the world must act as the situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate, ahead of major meetings of Caribbean nations and partners in Jamaica.
Bob Rae will travel to Kingston to meet with other leaders at a gathering of CARICOM, the Caribbean intergovernmental organization, to discuss the chaos in Haiti. In an interview on Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday, he said the situation is extremely serious.
“The country is now effectively run by gangs, and that is something which cannot be allowed to continue,” Rae told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.
Haiti is gripped by chaos and disorder, as criminal gangs increasingly assert control over the country. Haiti’s acting leader, Ariel Henry, is outside the country and attempting to negotiate a way home, even as the United States calls for him to resign and plan elections for a new government.
On Sunday, the U.S. said it had deployed additional security to its embassy in Port-au-Prince and airlifted some non-essential diplomatic staff out of the country.
The United Nations said in a report published earlier this year that at least 4,789 people were killed in violence in the country in 2023, nearly double the previous year. Gangs have shut down the capital’s airport and freed thousands of prisoners in recent days.
A UN-backed deal for a multinational force led by Kenya has languished for months, blocked by internal legal issues. Haiti had requested an international force, as well as economic aid.
Canadian Ambassador to Haiti André François Giroux says the violence in Haiti isn’t new — but it is escalating as the siege on the capital shuts down airports, leaving people with no way in or out of the city.
Henry originally left the country last week in order to meet with Kenyan leadership and push for the deployment. He has reportedly been in Puerto Rico since Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken again pushed on Thursday for Henry to resign, according to Reuters.
Daniel Foote, the former U.S. special envoy to Haiti, told CBC News this week that Henry now has little choice but to step down.”There’s no government to go back to. There wasn’t a government a week ago, and there’s no government now.
“If he goes back, I’m … certain that he’ll be killed.”
Foote urged the international community not to impose a solution on Haiti but to empower the country to reach its own political resolution.
“If the international community makes their decisions again this time, the results will be equally catastrophic than we’re seeing today.”
Rae said on Sunday that the disorder in the country is making it impossible to bring in much-needed goods and aid.
“We’ve been involved with a number of mediation efforts to try to get a transitional government in place that can in fact deal more effectively with the chaos and the gangs,” he said.
“We are really going to try to see not only how do we … encourage the Haitians to create a successful transition, but how do we make sure that we’re able to respond to the criminal activities that have taken over the country.”
