The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has launched a desperate cry for help to “save” Haiti from the wave of violence it is suffering and which results in the flight of thousands of people, mainly to Dominican territory.
“Let us prevent Haiti from ending up devastated by chaos and anarchy, let us not allow the crisis that is being experienced there to spread throughout the region,” the president demanded this Tuesday, after an intervention before the United Nations Security Council, in NY.
When asking UN members to reinforce aid to the Caribbean country, Abinader has also presented a warning: “Our slogan from today on will be: Either we fight together to save Haiti or we will fight alone to protect the Dominican Republic!”
The Dominican president's statements come after a new confrontation between organized crime gangs that spread terror in Haiti.
On Monday, hundreds of inhabitants of the northern area of the capital, Port-au-Prince, left their homes in the face of violent attacks due to territorial disputes, an internal war that is bleeding the impoverished Caribbean nation and in the face of which local authorities and the Government appear incapable of acting.
The UN has reported that more than 800 people have died in January due to clashes between these gangs and the organization's secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that Haiti is among the nations that suffer the most from hunger, which reinforces the chaos. and violence.
“An empty belly is fuel for unrest,” Guterres said.
Abinader made an urgent call for the global community to reinforce aid to Haiti and for an international force to be deployed in that small nation to confront the chaos generated by years of political and social crisis.
“Since September 2021, our Government has been denouncing, before various UN bodies, the continuous deterioration of social conditions in Haiti.
Unfortunately, the serious situation that the neighboring country is experiencing has not been addressed with the urgency and forcefulness that it deserves,” denounced the Dominican president.
“The result is that today Haiti, with much of its territory controlled by criminal gangs, is on the brink of a civil war,” he added.
“The time for promises is over.
Starting today we enter the moment of realization.
The money appears now or the collapse of Haiti will be irreversible,” stated the Dominican president.
Residents of Cite-Soleil, north of the capital of Haiti, leave their neighborhoods due to the increasing number of armed conflicts between criminal groups, on February 12.
Siffroy Clarens (EFE)
Haiti has become a nation sinking towards total collapse.
The crisis it suffers worsened in 2021, after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in his residence in Port-au-Prince at the hands of a commando made up of at least 28 hitmen.
To date, 11 people have been arrested in the United States accused of participating in the assassination.
Among those identified are 24 former Colombian soldiers, who entered the room where Moïse, 53, was sleeping with his wife, Martine Moïse, and shot the couple.
The woman saved her life after pretending to be dead.
She said in her statement that after shooting, the hitmen searched the room for documents.
The Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2023 by a United States federal judge, after being accused by the United States prosecutor's office of “conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States and providing material support.” resulting in death.”
According to that accusation, Jaar “was responsible for providing weapons to Colombian accomplices to facilitate the carrying out of the operation” in which Moïse died.
Jaar was arrested in the Dominican Republic in January 2023 and agreed to voluntarily travel to the United States, where in March of that year he pleaded guilty to providing support to the commando that assassinated the Haitian president.
The violence plaguing Haiti has unleashed a diplomatic crisis with its neighbor, which has demanded the Government of Port-au-Prince take action against criminal gangs.
At the beginning of last year, the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution to authorize a multinational mission to support security in Haiti, but Abinader has denounced that the aid commitments have remained only in words.
The “collapse” of Haiti, the president said, “would be a threat to us and the region.
That is why I want to warn the international community today that the Dominican Republic will fight with all its might to avoid being dragged into the same abyss as Haiti.”
The president has made a desperate call: “Let us prevent Haiti from ending up devastated by chaos and anarchy;
Let's not allow the crisis there to spread throughout the region.
“The international community cannot allow the Haitian tragedy to continue for even one more day.”
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