As Trudeau attends Caribbean summit, experts urge against Haiti military intervention

Trudeau arrived in the Bahamas Wednesday to participate in a meeting of the Caribbean Community, where 20 heads of government from the region are gathering.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discusses the escalating crisis in Haiti with Caribbean leaders this week, some experts are urging him to put the brakes on suggestions of military intervention.

Trudeau arrived in the Bahamas Wednesday to participate in a meeting of the Caribbean Community, where 20 heads of government from the region are gathering.

He is expected to deliver remarks during a summit plenary and meet with several of the leaders one-on-one Thursday, including de facto Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry, who took power after the assassination of former president Jovenel Moise but was never elected to that role.

Gangs have taken control of much of the country since the assassination, grinding its economy to a halt and hastening a resurgence of cholera. A United Nations report last week detailed “indiscriminate shootings, executions and rapes.” Police have failed to contain the widespread violence.

With the support of the UN, Henry’s unelected government is seeking an external security force to quell the chaos.

To date, though the United States has been more hawkish about a potential intervention, the Canadian government has been reluctant to commit to one, citing a preference for a Haitian-led solution.

Some Caribbean countries, including Jamaica and the Bahamas, set the stage for the Nassau meetings by publicly committing to contribute to a force if one is established. In a joint statement last fall, the leaders of the Caribbean Community said they “take note of the appeal” for “short-term assistance.”

But the people of Haiti themselves have not asked for such a thing, said Jean Saint-Vil, a Haitian McGill University researcher. And Canada should avoid legitimizing what Haitians suspect would inherently be an “imperialist” intervention, he said.