Caribbean Leaders Focus on Haiti at Bahamas Summit
As thousands of Haitians flee escalating gang violence and many travel through nearby islands to reach Florida, the leaders of the 15 nation Kerakom Block, along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and senior U.S. officials, have gathered for a summit in the Bahamas. Trudeau spoke with VOA. Canada will always support the Haitian people. The conversation is, how can we do it better? And I'm looking forward to that conversation. As the Secretary General of the Caribbean community notes, the focus is on helping Haiti out of its crisis.
Even as progress is being made on some fronts, Kerakom and indeed wider international community continue to struggle to help Haiti resolve its multifaceted crisis. We will continue our efforts to assist all stakeholders in Haiti to ensure a Haitian-owned resolution to the crisis. Civilian protesters and police marched through Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, in January to demonstrate against a wave of police killings by armed gangs. Increasingly, the gang leaders in Haiti are turning into warlords. Keith Mines of the U.S. Institute of Peace told VOA.
It's not a failed state. It's an extremely fragile state. And that's an important distinction because there is still a lot of things to work with now that won't be available if it becomes a failed state. And it is on the cusp, I think, of becoming a failed state if the government was to collapse completely. If the gangs that now control 60, 70 percent of Port-au-Prince were to control all of Port-au-Prince. With gangs controlling much of the capital, Haiti's acting leaders are seeking the deployment of foreign troops, a request made to the U.N.
Security Council in October, although no action has been taken. At the State Department, spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday the United States is working with Canada and other partners to provide Haiti's national police with the supplies they need to restore security. We are also working to hold accountable those actors who are responsible for some of the lawlessness, some of the bloodshed and violence and the impasses that have had humanitarian implications on far too many Haitian people. We've announced now tranches of sanctions, some of our partners have done the same on the gang leaders. Haiti has not had a democratically elected government since the 2021 assassination of its president, Jovinal Moïse. The U.N.
, the U.S. and others have been reluctant to take the lead in restoring stability, say analysts. I think both the United States and Canada and other international actors, you see that in the United Nations as well, try to in effect convey the idea that Haitians themselves need to come up with a consensus idea to which the international community, including the United States, can then respond. That in some ways is what's the hold up right now. Jomica, the Honorable Andrew Holnes, Prime Minister. Meanwhile, Jomica has offered to provide police units or even troops to Haiti.
Earlier this month, Haitians desperate for passports to apply for a U.S. migration program crowded local migration centers, as this social media video purports to show. In early January, the U.S. said it would allow up to 30,000 people from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter by air each month on a parole program, allowing migrants entry on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons or for public benefit. Cindy Sain, VOA News.
Caribbean, Haiti, caricom