US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that the US will give an extra $100 million to help send a group of forces from different countries to Haiti. This comes after a meeting with leaders from Caribbean countries in Jamaica to deal with the serious problems happening in Haiti.
Blinken also said the US will give another $33 million in help and agreed to make a plan, together with Caribbean leaders and Haitian people, to speed up the creation of a “presidential college. ”
He said the college will take specific actions to help the Haitian people and support the multinational force led by Kenya.
Members of Caricom, a group of countries that trade together, support the proposal made at Monday’s important meeting.
Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said that Haiti is very close to a disaster. “We need to act fast and make clear decisions. ”
He said he is very sure that we have found things in common to support a solution that is led and owned by people from Haiti.
At the same time, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the meeting was still being worked on.
“He said that Haiti is at a crucial moment. ” “We are very sad that too many people have been hurt by criminal gangs and it is too late to help them. ”
The Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, who is having a tough time and is being asked to step down or agree to a temporary council, did not go to the meeting. He was not allowed to go back to his country because there is a lot of violence and crime by gangs in Haiti’s capital and the main airports are closed.
Henry stayed in Puerto Rico and was trying to go back to Haiti when it was possible, according to a short message from the Department of State in Puerto Rico.
While the leaders had a private meeting, Jimmy Chérizier, who is considered the most powerful gang leader in Haiti, told the reporters that if the international community keeps going in the same direction, it will make Haiti even more chaotic.
“We Haitians need to choose our leader and decide what kind of government we want,” said Chérizier, a former police officer known as Barbecue, who leads a group called G9 Family and Allies. “We will also find a way to help improve Haiti’s current difficult situation. ”
The people in the group called Caricom organized a meeting in Jamaica. They have been asking for a new government in Haiti for a while now, while there have been protests asking the current leader, Henry, to step down.
“The world needs to help Haiti transition to a peaceful new government,” said US Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols on X, on Twitter. Nichols will go to the meeting.
There are worries that a solution we have been looking for may still be hard to find. Caricom said in a statement on Friday that they are holding an urgent meeting in Jamaica because they are not making enough progress yet.
Mia Mottley, the leader of Barbados, said that almost all the ideas that Haitian leaders have suggested are the same. This means there is a strong need to make a council to choose a new prime minister and form a government.
Caricom accidentally showed her comments for a short time and then stopped showing them suddenly.
The meeting took place while strong gangs kept attacking important government locations in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital.