Please find attached an English translation of a recent statement from a number of Haitian civil society organisations on the looming threat of a Canadian invasion of that country. I hope you will be able to publicise this statement as it gives the people of the wider Caribbean an opportunity to hear what people in Haiti think about this planned invasion.
Thanking you in advance for your support.
Submitted by Tee White with the above cover note:
The Caribbean must not remain the sounding board of former colonial powers and slaveholders that have now become imperialist powers
Honourable Heads of Government of the following States:
Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & The Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos,
We, the signatory Haitian organisations, have learned that the 44th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will be held in Nassau, Bahamas, on February 15 and 16. This Conference will be marked by the presence of the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, as a special guest and that of Ariel Henry, the much maligned de facto Prime Minister imposed on the Haitian people by the Core Group*.
It is announced in an official press release dated February 11, 2023 (Ottawa, Ontario) that during this meeting, “the Prime Minister will advance shared priorities, including continued assistance to the people of Haiti…This meeting will provide leaders with an opportunity to explore ways that would enable the region to continue to assist the people of Haiti in the political, security and humanitarian areas.” In addition, “They will also discuss their support for Haitian-led solutions to the situation in Haiti, which is having devastating consequences for the people of this country. As an unwavering partner, Canada stepped in to respond to this egregious situation. This included providing assistance to the Haitian National Police and deploying a long-range patrol aircraft to disrupt gang activity”. We read in this official press release.
It is no longer necessary to demonstrate that the gangs which have been made all-powerful on purpose, having the right of life and death over the people, are the political workers of the International (ed. the core group). They are designed to reinforce insecurity. This is a criminal invention that bears the signature of the Core group which includes, among others, the OAS, Canada, France and the United States of America, with the unfailing complicity of the PHTK** regime of oligarchs and corrupt and criminal Haitian politicians. Under these conditions, how can we believe that Mr. Trudeau would be willing to take advantage of this meeting to allegedly “explore ways that would allow the region to continue to assist the Haitian people in the political, security, and humanitarian areas” as the statement alleges?
Honourable Heads of Government of CARICOM, Since October 7, 2022, the current de facto Prime Minister has donned, like his ministers, a hideous costume of TRAITOR TO THE NATION by demanding foreign military intervention on national soil, a crime of high treason, punishable by article 21.1 of the Constitution. Mr. Ariel Henry is also the pure product of a tweet from the Core Group. In other words, the actions of this so-called Prime Minister are the expression of the will of the Core Group and not that of the Haitian people. Here again, the prescriptions of the Constitution and the right to self-determination of the Haitian people are flouted. Consequently, Coregroupian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has no title, quality or legitimacy authorising him to decide on behalf of the Haitian people. Therefore, any decisions made with this gentleman will only be binding on himself and his acolytes and will in no way concern Haiti or the Haitian people in struggle. We, the signatory organizations, reject in advance any draft resolution aimed at supporting this de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry and his acolytes or the mafia agreement of last December 21, which was the Core Group’s last attempt to save the incompetent Prime Minister puppet .
Expressions of the distress of the Haitian people trapped by the Core Group and the PHTK mafia power
The gangs, real terrorists on duty, operate with total impunity, with astonishing ease and frightening arrogance. Very well selected and highly protected, these gangs and local collaborators, under the auspices of the Core Group, have managed to create a chaotic situation of lawlessness where the Haitian people now live under the sign of planned state insecurity, systematic political repression, targeted political assassinations, overt government banditry and a programme of daily kidnapping. At this moment the undeclared and covert war of the imperialist powers is entering its final phase of decay where the fundamental rights to life, to security, to free movement, to food, to education, to health… are practically non-existent.
Honourable Heads of Government of CARICOM, We invite you not to be drawn into the criminal logic of the imperialist powers who are determined to suffocate or to disappear Haiti and also urge you to a deep political reflection on the revolting situation of our country in order to better grasp it so as to be better able to help us overcome it. We, signatory Haitian organisations, cannot forget this common past marked by significant events uniting Haiti with the Caribbean in resonance with the profile of our ancestors, rebellious and victorious captives. Thus, the rebel Boukman puts us in connection with Jamaica from where he was expelled for his rebellious attitude. The Haitian hero, Henri Christophe, builder of the Citadel, a monument now part of the World Heritage of Humanity, puts us in touch with the Caribbean island of Grenada where he came from.
Brother countries of CARICOM, it is time for the Caribbean to stop being the sounding board of the former slave colonial powers, which have now become imperialist powers. Let active solidarity be our privileged password. The Haitian people intend to find among you proven supporters of their cause and thank you in advance for your concrete solidarity to help them break this dangerous impasse and take charge of their destiny. Thus, they will be able to claim and obtain restitution and reparations. In this dynamic, what Haiti needs most as help, to get out of this fatal impasse is the end of the indecent support of the International, in particular of the USA, Canada and France, for the criminal PHTK government of Ariel Henry, a de facto government which has neither the will nor the capacity to bring the solutions expected. These are:
– A sovereign Haiti, free from the genocidal grip of the imperialist powers and as the former American envoy Daniel Foote pointed out in his letter of resignation: the right for Haitians to be able to take their destiny into their own hands
– Real support to help undermine and break the wall of silence erected in order to prevent the criminal actions of the imperialist powers, the Core group, and in particular the American government against the Haitian people from being known to all
– No support for international military intervention in Haiti or the sending, in defiance of the right to self-determination of the Haitian people, of military troops for the purposes of helping to maintain Ariel Henry and his clique in power and of reinforcing the tutelage imposed on us with a view to achieving systematic political control of Haiti to better consolidate foreign interference and ensure the plunder of its wealth
– The restitution by France, in addition to the historical debt of slavery, of the money stolen under the cover of a false debt of independence and reparation for all the wrongs suffered
– The double restitution from the USA: on the one hand of our gold reserve carried away by their navies on December 17, 1914 and on the other hand the return of our island of Navase (ed. Navase island was seized from Haiti by the USA in 1857. I t continues to be controlled by the USA), restitutions followed by reparations
– Reparations from the UN for the families of the 30,000 cholera victims.
Honourable Heads of Government of CARICOM, We hope that the 44th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will be an occasion for a great awakening and that CARICOM will not become complicit with these former colonial, slave-holding and racist powers and will cease to be their sounding board. We, the signatory organisations, want to end by reminding you of these very significant words of Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor because neutrality always helps the oppressor, never the victim”. In this dynamic, we recommend that you, in the case of the Haitian people currently in a situation of extreme threat, take a stand to help them ward off the danger.
Long live the solidarity between the peoples of the Caribbean and Haiti!
Long live the solidarity of people around the world with Haiti!
* The core group is made up of the special representative of the UN Secretary-General, the ambassadors of Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the European Union, the United States of America and the special representative of the Organization of American States (OAS).
** PHTK is the acronym of de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale political party.
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