Continental Communiqué in Solidarity with the Haitian People
The consensus reached by the governments of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) with respect to Haiti, at the conclusion of their recent Summit in Buenos Aires, provokes deep indignation among the patriots of Haiti and of all of Our America. We reject it and urge the member countries to rectify it, based on what was stated by CELAC Social which demanded that the region “give its own response to the Haitian issue, respecting the principle of non-intervention and the right of the people of Haiti to sovereignly define their destiny”, and the Message to the governments of CELAC sent by solidarity organizations and networks of the region.[1] We reject what has been done and what has not been done.
We reject what has been done and what has been declared by the CELAC governments on Haiti, because they reinforce the fallacious claim that an unconstitutional and illegal government, led by a usurper and dictator prime minister, is legitimate. It was not elected by the people but imposed by the nefarious “Core Group” of countries and international organizations. In fact, there is no elected authority left in Haiti; there is no Parliament, Ariel Henry is illegal and illegitimate. The popular rejection of this character and his government is overwhelming and he should not have been invited if respect for the Haitian people had really prevailed within CELAC.
The Declaration states, among other points:
…We welcome the signing on 21/12/22 of the document entitled ‘National Consensus for an Inclusive Transition and Transparent Elections’… We urge the government to continue with its policy of openness towards the various sectors of national life, with a view to making democratic institutions operational as soon as possible… We encourage member countries… to study the options presented by the UN Secretary General… We encourage member countries… to study the options presented by the Secretary General of the UN… to participate in the process of the elections. UU…. with a view to participating in the specialized multinational force requested by Haiti…We recognize the need to reach consensus at the regional and extraregional level, based on the principle of regional cooperation, with the consent and participation of the Republic of Haiti.[2] We do not accept that the Republic of Haiti is recognized as a member of the United Nations….
We reject the de facto government’s recognition as having a policy of “openness” and “search for consensus” when the opposite is the case. It is especially outrageous that CELAC applauds the scandalous “National Consensus for a Transition…”, signed at the end of the year by Henry and other deliverers. Plagued with inconsistencies, lies, even false signatures, it does not propose any rupture with the current system of neocolonial domination and the immense majority of social, political, religious, cultural and business organizations of the country have rejected it. Its “High Transitional Council”, in fact, was stillborn.
Among other barbarities, this false “Consensus” proposes to change the Constitution to facilitate a greater control of state power by the President of the Republic, in order to achieve an easier submission to the orders of imperialism and its agents and to allow the plundering of Haitian wealth without any legal obstacles. It should be recalled that this agreement is opposed to the consensus built among hundreds of organizations which do represent the vast majority of the population and which proposes a sovereign way out, a transitional government without any foreign interference, which is the Montana Agreement.
To support Ariel Henry and endorse a new military intervention in Haiti, as the CELAC declaration implies, is more than a disastrous and regrettable political mistake.
Are the governments of Our America unaware of the disastrous and tragic consequences for the Haitian people of all the previous interventions?
As a matter of fact, between 2004 and 2017, the UN Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH) perpetrated massacres in popular neighborhoods; raping of girls, women and young people; introduced cholera that killed tens of thousands of Haitians and left more than 800,000 infected; manipulated elections to impose miscreant rulers, so-called legal bandits; generalized corruption, etc.
Since 1993, Haiti was occupied 13 times, and all those interventions did not improve the situation, but on the contrary, worsened it. Their mentors and executors are mainly responsible for the current dreadful crisis where, for example, more than 4 million people are suffering from severe famine.
Encouraging CELAC member countries to be part of the new multilateral military intervention force that the U.S. so publicly promotes, is a direct trampling on the rights and dignity of the Haitian people and disregards the principle of non-intervention so dear to all the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Undoubtedly, all this is happening under the orders of the “Core Group”, the real power in Haiti. Ariel Henry is a criminal, a vassal at the service of imperial power, who seeks to remain in government in the midst of the decomposition of the neocolonial system in place since the first U.S. military occupation of Haiti (1915-1934), and in spite of a strong and heroic popular resistance.
It is a fierce struggle where the Haitian people want to recover their sovereignty and their right to self-determination. They want to break definitively with the international tutelage managed by the UN and directed by U.S. imperialism with its allies both internal and external. It also seeks to destroy the power of the PHTK party, which has been running the country since the fraudulent elections of 2010-2011, mainly as a result of a decision of the Clinton family.
Through kidnappings, assassinations, massacres, the proliferation of armed gangs composed of hired killers developing an insane action against the population, this party aspires to perpetuate itself in power through fraudulent elections that Ariel Henry and his accomplices plan to organize this year 2023. It is necessary to underline that Henry was a minister during the first PHTK government.
We are not unaware that the people of Haiti are being subjected to a situation of serious insecurity. But it is worth paying attention to what the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights pointed out last January 26, in the midst of police protests, when it said that it “has strong reasons to believe that the accelerated deterioration of the security situation in the country, after a few days of calm, is intended to justify and obtain from the international community the deployment of a foreign military force in Haiti.…”.
However, in spite of everything, we have full confidence in the capacity of resistance and struggle of the Haitian people and in the solidarity of the true patriots of Our America to put an end to the neocolonial system still in force.
219 years after the triumph of the Haitian revolution, and 37 years after the end of the Duvalier dictatorship, we believe that it is time to organize a new meeting between Haiti and the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, capable of repairing the tragedies caused by MINUSTAH and the whole racist, patriarchal system of plunder and violent intervention of the imperialist powers. For this purpose we invite to unite popular forces, and we urge CELAC, and especially its new president pro tempore, to support this democratic, decolonizing, independent and sovereign solution.
Latin America and the Caribbean,
February 2, 2023
PRIMERAS FIRMAS:
Haití: Plataforma Haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif (PAPDA) – Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen (TK) – Mouvement Paysan Papay (MPP) – Mouvement Paysan National Kongré Papay (MPNKP) – MOLEGHAF – Antén Ouvriye – KAY LA – KOZPAM – CERREMEN – Sèk Gramsci – KOSIPVA – Alternative Populaire – Unión Nationale des Normaliens/nes d’Haïti (UNNOH) – Kolektif Jistis Min (KJM) – Konbit Óganizasyon Politik Popilè ak Sendikal (KONBIT) – MODEP – Chapitre ALBA d’Haïti – Assemblèe de Peuples de la Caraïbe (APC)
Jubileo Sur/Américas
CADTM – AYNA (Comité para la Abolición de las Deudas Ilegitimas – Abya Yala)
Argentina: Comité argentino de solidaridad por el fin de la ocupación de Haití – Diálogo 2000 – Emancipación Sur – Marabunta – Matamba Lbtiq – MULCS Movimiento por la Unidad Latinoamericano y el Cambio Social – Opinión Socialista – Union de Mujeres Argentinas amigas de Cuba y la Patria grande – Hilo Rojo-Colectivx Militante – Comité Oscar Romero Sicsal Argentina – Organizaciones Libres del Pueblo-Resistir y Luchar – Poder Popular – Corriente Político de Izquierda – ATTAC-Argentina
Brasil: Rede Jubileu Sul Brasil
Puerto Rico: Comuna Caribe
Uruguay: Coordinadora uruguaya por el retiro de las tropas de Haití y en defensa de su soberanía – Mujeres de Paz
Venezuela: Coalición de Tendencia Clasista (CTC-VZLA)
Black Alliance for Peace Opposes CELAC Support for Military Intervention in Haiti
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 