Call For More Initiatives for Haiti Deployment Force

A request from the UN to the Caribbean countries to definitively establish a multinational force for Haiti has been made public. As of today, no definite proposal for the formation of such a force has been achieved, despite repeated requests from the Haitian government itself and the UN.

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Beyond the initiatives of the Bahamas and Jamaica, motivated above all by Kenya's strong position in this context, no other proposals have emerged in the region.

The UN has also questioned the role of the Security Council, which has been reluctant to legalize existing initiatives. The spokesman of the international organization, Farhan Haq, clarified during a press conference that the deployment in Haiti has also been stopped, because the Security Council has not met to establish the legal frameworks of the initiative.

The Security Council is responsible for establishing the standards to be met by the deployment, and according to the spokesman, as of today there is no scheduled date for the corresponding session.

In addition to this delay, there has been passivity and ignorance in the Caribbean region regarding the request for police assistance, for which Haq asked for greater involvement of the countries in the area to find solutions. 

Haq in another part of his statement stressed the "urgency" of an efficient, numerous and well-equipped police deployment to recover social stability in Haiti, where insecurity has plunged the entire Caribbean country into chaos, especially in the capital and the populous neighborhood of Cité Soleil where "people cannot walk the streets without fear of gang violence".

In this context, the Haitian press has reported the challenge launched by one of the country's main gang leaders to the future deployment force. He is a former policeman who assured to fight against any international armed force deployed if it commits abuses against civilians.

Jimmy Chérizier, also known as "Barbacoa", called on his followers to demonstrate against the government, a request which has also been made by intellectual sectors of the country, where personalities have asked the international police force to identify it as the main enemy of Haitian society, the current prime minister of the country, Ariel Henry. There are also allegations implicating corrupt politicians and local police in arms sales to gangs.

In addition, voices have been raised warning that the population would revolt against an international force that repeats the violations committed by past UN peacekeepers, including committing sexual abuse and inadvertently introducing cholera into water sources.

Every day, the pressure on the Haitian Prime Minister to define a real and effective proposal against the problem of insecurity in the country increases. It seems that Ariel Henry is waiting for an external solution to solve his own problems, while progressive sectors are calling on him to take charge of Haiti once and for all, and to call for sovereign and self-managed alternatives for self-defense.