A hundred Latin American and Caribbean organisations spoke out today in solidarity with the struggle of the Haitian people and to reject the authorisation to invade Haiti approved yesterday by the UN Security Council. The new “Multinational Security Support Mission”, formally proposed by the US and Ecuador on the first day of the Brazilian presidency of the Council, is supposedly intended to support the illegitimate government of that country in combating paramilitary gangs and organising elections.
“What has the UN become?” the organisations are asking, denouncing the imperialist, racist and genocidal character of this illegal “authorisation” to invade a sovereign country in order to control its people.
Among the first signatories of the statement of rejection are the Solidarity Committees in Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Uruguay, and regional articulations such as Jubilee South/Americas, the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of State Workers CLATE, CADTM-AYNA, ALBA Movimientos, the Plataforma América Latina y el Caribe Mejor Sin TLC and the Sociedad Latinoamericana de Economía Política y Pensamiento Crítico.
“It is not ‘solidarity’ with the people of Haiti – they argue – to respond to the unconstitutional request formulated by a dictatorial government, put in place and maintained by the same ‘international community’ that now redoubles its support contrary to the legitimate demands of a huge range of Haitian social, political and humanitarian organisations… It is to once again disregard the sovereignty and self-determination of the Haitian people with their demands and proposals to resolve this crisis generated by the same long-standing foreign intervention.”
“It is not ‘support’, to continue to ignore the people of Haiti, ignoring their denunciations that link Ariel Henry, the current de facto government and its ‘international protectors’, led by the US, with the proliferation of the armed gangs that these same actors now intend to control through this new invasion”, express the organisations from 17 countries in the region.
They recall that Haiti has been under UN occupation since 2004, and that neither the UN nor any of the participating countries have been condemned or have assumed any reparations for the crimes committed, including more than 30,000 deaths.
“The Haitian people, through their social, political and humanitarian organisations, have expressed themselves clearly against any occupation and against any controlled election under occupation. We call for broad support for their demands for the formation of an independent international commission to evaluate the impact of previous interventions as well as respect for the Montana agreements and other demands of the Haitian people”.
The full text of the statement with the signatures collected so far can be read here.
