CARICOM Making up with Haiti

Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift, also an official in the CARICOM, asserted the proposal for Haiti´s return to that group would be examined when elections are certified to be free and unbiased.

“The condition of accepting Haiti was that it hold free elections and we must verify if that was attained,” pointed out Gift.

A CARICOM team made up of 200 international observers oversaw the holding of the February 7 elections to confirm that.

CARICOM leaders are slated to discuss the Haitian return to their bloc, which has refused to recognize the interim government of Gerard Latortue following the ouster of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004.

The bloc accused the US and France of complicity with the toppling of Aristide, and decided to leave Haiti out of its membership.

Outgoing Jamaican Prime Minister Percival J Patterson, who is in Port of Spain to attend the CARICOM summit, expressed his satisfaction with Haiti´s election results.

Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados have promoted to resume relations with Haiti before elections, however, Saint Lucia, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have fostered to do so once the new government is elected.

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