President Luis Abinader took advantage of the visit of several regional heads of state and those of Portugal and Spain to put the multidimensional crisis in Haiti on the table and call for international support.
President Luis Abinader had the ears of 13 presidents, the King of Spain and the guest participation of Caricom representative at the 28th Iberoamerican Summit to again urge the international community to take actions to bring peace to Haiti.
“I want to say with all the firmness and respect of the Dominican Republic that the only way to act with Haiti is to bring peace to Haiti,” said President Abinader.
He called on the international community to stop allowing this situation to continue, “because those who are suffering are the poor Haitians. The few rich are here or in Miami,” said Abinader.
“Every day with these gangs there are human right violations impacting the poorest Haitians,” concluded the head of state.
Costa Rica President Rodrigo Chaves Robles urged that the attending at the conference make a strong and vigorous call to the United Nations to provide an immediate response to Haiti’s requests, so that the country can regain control over the violence that exists in what he called a failed state, with 70% of the territory of Port-au-Prince controlled by criminals.
Chaves Robles considered that the situation in Haiti cannot be postponed or ignored and added that it must be a global responsibility that is not being addressed.
“We are here today in the Dominican Republic, on the same island where there is a failed state, where there is violence and, Mr. Luis Abinader, the world is looking the other way again and to me as a Costa Rican it does not seem fair to tell the Dominican Republic to send armed forces, that even if it has them, to a neighboring country. This is a world responsibility and we are not fulfilling this responsibility”, he stated.
Spanish President Pedro Sánchez said: “President Abinader, I want to congratulate you for the excellent work that the Dominican Republic has done to address the issues that concern us and, of course, you have the support of Spain to escalate at the multilateral level the crisis that Haiti is experiencing.”
El Dia reports that President Gustavo Petro of Colombia said he feels co-responsible for the gradual destabilization that Haiti has experienced after the death of its President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, due to the participation of Colombian mercenaries in the assassination.
Petro indicated that the solution to the crisis in the neighboring country is not achieved with a military intervention, but rather the contexts must be analyzed.
“It was a doing of international mercenaries and that is why we feel we are co-responsible,” said the Colombian President when speaking to the press after his intervention in the 28th Ibero-American Summit.
Paraguay was the first to introduce the issue of Haiti to the assembly. Then, later on, Dominican President Luis Abinader called upon the assembly to solve the violence in Haiti. Costa Rica joined him and called for a ‘vigorous support of all efforts to solve the violence and chaos in the neighboring country. Costa Rica also noted that it was in no way fair to expect the Dominican Republic to solve all of the issues in what he called “a failed state.” In his remarks, Abinader called for the pacification of Haiti as the only way to begin resolving the issues there.
In the closing documents (Declaration of Santo Domingo), the Summit called on the international community to commit itself to the pacification and normalization of life in Haiti, and to recognize the efforts of the Dominican Republic to help the Haitian people.
Coinciding with summit days, Canada announced a US$73 million package to assist the Haitian police.
Read more in Spanish:
Presidency
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
El Dia
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
N Digital
Diario Libre
27 March 2023