Three former Latin American presidents raised their voices this Saturday to ask for urgent help for Haiti, the small Caribbean nation that is sinking into the chaos of violence and political instability. Former presidents Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, of Costa Rica; Eduardo Frei Ruiz, from Chile; and Felipe Calderón, from Mexico, have urgently demanded that the international community not leave that country helpless and have asked for support to establish a stable Government, guarantee humanitarian aid to a hungry population and improve security on the Caribbean island. “Haiti is an open wound in Latin America,” said Rodríguez.
The three Latin American politicians have joined their voices under an initiative of the so-called Academy of Catholic Leaders, which organized an international colloquium to put Haiti as a priority on the international agenda. Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, advocated listening to “the silent cry of the Haitian brothers,” who said, quoting Pope Francis, that they are suffering a crisis that has led them to desperation “due to the collapse of the health system, the lack of food and the violence that pushes them to flee.” Parolin recalled that Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America and according to data from international organizations, more than six out of every 10 people live in poverty. The World Bank has established a life expectancy of just 63 years for the population of that small nation of 11.5 million inhabitants, of which around 50% live in slums. “More than 1.5 million people face levels of malnutrition, especially children,” recalled the representative of the Holy See.
Parolin has made a moving call to focus on the problems faced by the Haitian population: “The lack of food, not being able to access health care, education and the prevailing insecurity have also led to the displacement of thousands of Haitians in both internal and external movements, increasing their presence on the main migratory routes and also increasing concern and tension in the countries of passage and destination,” he said. He recalled that the migration crisis generates pressure in other nations in the region, mainly in the neighboring Dominican Republic. The religious has placed emphasis on supporting the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council, formed in April, which is called to organize the presidential elections and form a new Government. “No effort should be spared in supporting the steps that aim to lead the country towards holding democratic elections that grant the authorities the legitimacy to undertake their reconstruction process,” he requested.
Haiti has become a nation sinking towards total collapse. The crisis it suffers worsened in 2021, after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in his residence in Port-au-Prince at the hands of a commando made up of at least 28 hitmen. Since then there has been a power vacuum that has allowed the emergence of violent criminal gangs that spread terror on the island, mainly the capital, Port-au-Prince, whose territory, according to official sources, is 80% controlled by these groups. The UN has reported that more than 2,500 people died in the first quarter of the year due to violence, in an internal war that has gone beyond the control of the authorities.
The former Costa Rican president and former secretary of the OAS, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002), recalled that Haiti suffered the plundering of colonial powers such as France, which left the country in ruins. The small nation, he said, has lost more than 90% of its forests and its resources were devastated, in addition to the infamous compensation payment being imposed on its population that laid the foundations for the misery that suffocates millions of its inhabitants. . “The years of invasion by the United States also caused difficulties in that society,” the politician recalled. For Rodríguez, it must be a commitment of Latin American nations to help “the poorest of our brothers.” The former president has stated that “the establishment of support forces by the United Nations is essential for Haitians,” but has warned that “it is not simply about support for a few days to try to appease our conscience and feel that “We are doing something.” The Caribbean country is still waiting for the UN to send an international mission to help contain the violence and provide stability.
Eduardo Frei Ruiz, former president of Chile, asked the richest nations on the planet to take an interest in the situation in Haiti, a country whose crisis the United States has considered “as important” as those in Ukraine or Gaza. “The leading countries in the world, the countries that have the most resources, must support, because this is a critical humanitarian situation, with a community that struggles in misery, in insecurity, brutally punished. France and other countries that are responsible for what is happening also have to do it,” he warned. “We Latin American countries cannot leave a country in our region abandoned in this way, let’s worry about giving a little solidarity help,” the political leader asked.
The last intervention of the day was that of former Mexican president Felipe Calderón, who has advocated the need to send an international mission to the island, which will help not only address the urgent needs of the population, but also stabilize the country and form a legitimate Government. “That the rule of law and legality be established and the basic freedoms be protected, without which there can be no life, dignity or development,” said Calderón, who has asked that a mission be reestablished like the defunct Minustah, the organ of the UN Security Council, which intervened in the island between 2004 and 2017. This mission, Calderón has recommended, must restore a minimum of security in the country, support a reform of the Police, a program of disarmament and demobilization of criminal gangs and support justice bodies with the signing of “trustworthy and effective police officers, prosecutors and judges, well paid and well protected.” It is necessary, he stated, to “reestablish a minimum coexistence in Haiti with the priority of rebuilding the State through a solid, legitimate and effective authority.”
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