Crisis en Haití: la ONU insta a políticos a resolver el «impás» y Caricom enviará una misión
Naciones Unidas ha instado a los líderes políticos de Haití a superar el actual «impás» para evitar «un deterioro mayor» de la situación en el país caribeño, que está a punto de entrar ya en su segundo año con un gobierno en funciones por el rechazo a los primeros ministros propuestos por el presidente, Jovenel Moise, y la incapacidad de convocar nuevas elecciones parlamentarias.
«Para evitar un deterioro mayor, los líderes haitianos necesitan aprovechar la ocasión y comprometerse a salir de este impás por el interés de la ciudadanía», ha afirmado la representante de la ONU en Haití, Helen La Lime, que ha comparecido por videoconferencia ante el Consejo de Seguridad de la organización internacional, con sede en Nueva York.
Haití vive prácticamente paralizado desde julio de 2018 por el pulso entre Moise y la oposición, replicado a pie de calle con protestas sociales. Los ciudadanos se han movilizado por la creciente inseguridad, el aumento de precios de productos básicos y las acusaciones de corrupción contra la élite política, incluido el propio presidente.
La Lime ha advertido de que las previsiones económicas no hacen sino anticipar que Haití «se hundirá más aún en la recesión», en un momento en el que 4,6 millones de ciudadanos requieren de asistencia humanitaria. Las protestas de los últimos meses, de hecho, han complicado el reparto de esta ayuda imprescindible para muchos.
La representante de la ONU ha llamado a las partes a tender puentes, habida cuenta de que la falta de un acuerdo para el nombramiento de un primer ministro de «consenso», así como el tiempo de mandato que le resta a Moise, «amenaza con prolongar innecesariamente una situación que ya ha durado demasiado tiempo».
La Lime ha comparecido ante el Consejo para entregar el primer informe de la Oficina Integrada de la ONU en Haití (BINUH), establecida en octubre de 2019 y heredera de la misión de paz que se prolongó durante 15 años. Entre sus cometidos figura reforzar la estabilidad política y la buena gobernanza en el país caribeño.
CARICOM to Mount Fact Finding Mission to Haiti
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders have agreed to send a fact-finding mission to Haiti in a bid to finding a solution to the ongoing social and political unrest in the French-speaking CARICOM member country where opposition parties are demanding the removal of President Jovenel Moise.
The mission will be led by CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and will include representatives from the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Barbados. Moise was among several Caribbean leaders who did not attend the two-day Inter- sessional summit that ended here on Wednesday.
The opposition parties have accused Moise, who came to power in 2017, of corruption and have been staging street demonstrations in support of their demands for him to step down. Moise has denied the allegations and has been spearheading efforts for the establishment of a government of national unity. At their last summit in St. Lucia, CARICOM had agreed on a prime ministerial delegation to visit the French-speaking country but that never materialized and Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said that it was important for the region to send a fact-finding mission to Haiti.
“It is felt that if we do not help address the domestic issue confronting Haiti we will continue to have tremendous negative impacts on countries like the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas who are seeing a large number of migrants coming into these countries and creating some domestic challenges for them.
“So we need to work with the various stakeholders in Haiti to find some kind of lasting solution to the current impasse,” Skerrit said. He also warned that CARICOM cannot afford to neglect is the duty to Port au Prince amid the ongoing turmoil.
“We must not appear on anyway to have, what has become in many parts of the world, Haiti fatigue. We recognize that Haiti is part of the community and we have a responsibility and duty and obligation to assist a member state in unraveling its challenges and to work with (it) towards lasting solutions,” he said. However, Skerrit acknowledged that finding a solution to the current impasse will not solve the country’s problems and there is a need for engagement with Haiti and the international community on the social and economic challenges.
Meanwhile, CARICOM Chairman, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, said she recognized that the situation in Haiti is a complex one, but it can be addressed.
“The first step is for us to have the legitimacy and the integrity of facts that we can rely upon, and that thereinafter we then work with the relevant players to see how best we can work with Haiti to ensure that they don’t face instability within their boundaries, and as a result, there are no negative consequences to the people of the Bahamas or to the
people of the Turks and Caicos.
“Difficult conversations are not often welcome but they are at the end of the day what is necessary in order to be able to gain progress and move forward. And I am satisfied the Haitian Foreign minister came this morning, we were able to engage with him as a whole, I was also able to speak at a personal level to President Moise; the heads are engaged,” Mottley told the media. She added that regional leaders are due to meet in three weeks for the CARICOM Mexico summit, by which time they expect to have the results of the fact-finding mission.
