Santo Domingo, DR.
The general secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) assured yesterday that the last 20 years of presence of the international community in Haiti signify “one of the strongest and most manifest failures” that has been implemented and executed “in any framework of international cooperation.”

In the midst of this critical panorama, the hemispheric entity made it clear that this situation “has nothing to do with the people who, with a vocation of service and altruistic zeal, served as aid workers and left their best efforts, and even in some cases their lives, for Haiti.”

“This has to do with the fact that in 20 years of misguided political strategy, the international community was not able to facilitate the construction of a single institution with the capacity to respond to the problems of Haitians; 20 years later,,, not a single institution is stronger than it was before,” stressed the OAS in a lengthy statement.

Under that umbrella of the international community, it remarked, “the criminal gangs that today besiege the country and its people fermented and germinated, under that umbrella the process of deinstitutionalization and political crisis that we are living today germinated and gestated.”

Then, he adds, in view of its failure, “the international community withdrew from Haiti, leaving behind chaos, destruction and violence.”

Next, the OAS considers it “absurd” to pretend that under this scheme of destruction, Haitians, completely alone, polarized, and with minimal resources, can rebuild or build a project of security, deinstitutionalization, and development that would allow 12 million inhabitants to rebuild peaceful coexistence”.

He also states that without resources, in a climate of violence, technological capabilities, and financial accumulation, “without any of these things, there is an attempt today to make people believe that an entirely endogenous Haitian solution can prosper. But unfortunately, this is not the case.

“Haiti does not have conditions of democracy and security.” It is suffering today “the lack of ideas and the lack of real capacities of the international community, as well as its structural problems.”

Exercise of power
Amid this harrowing picture, the OAS points out that the exercise of power in accordance with the rule of law and administrative and institutional efficiency to provide solutions to the problems of Haitians are primary operating conditions that the international community in Haiti has never ensured.

And he warns that since Haiti has none of these, “we must be aware that we are in a more radical or less radical dimension of a failed State and a weak and vulnerable civil society.”

He understands that to achieve peace in Haiti; an essential step must be taken; there must be justice regarding the assassination of President Jovenel Moise because “without the clarification of the truth and justice, it will not be possible to move forward on the path of reconciliation and harmony.”

Consequently, the OAS proposes a process of institutionalized and inclusive dialogue of all political forces, a credible, fair, and transparent electoral process, and security for the country.

To achieve this, it notes, requires the cooperation of the international community with financial, human, and material resources.

Anticipated response
He recognizes that internal Haitian forces will oppose these processes and infers that when looking at the current situation in Haiti, “we understand why there were internal forces with external complicity that wanted the withdrawal of Minustah. It was simply paving the way for a situation like the current one to happen.”

He believes that the international community, the financial institutions, the multilateral system, and the international financial community of donor countries must make a decision “if they want to industrialize Haiti in sufficient terms to ensure work for 9 million Haitians, or if, instead, “it is economically more profitable to continue absorbing Haitian migration and that the host countries continue to accommodate this migration as they can and where they can in the economic terms they can.”

The OAS considers it “urgent” to continue working to strengthen the security presence and begin the democratization process.

Key points
The OAS states that Haiti’s future prosperity depends on the development of its youth and that chronic malnutrition in children is irreversible, diminishing their cognitive capacity by 40%.

To build a sustainable future in Haiti, it states, “its human capital must be highly skilled and able to compete in local and international labor markets.”

“Current deficiencies in food security, caused by low capitalization in agriculture and difficulties in transporting food because of blockades imposed by criminal groups and poor infrastructure, will only put the country further away from the goal of eliminating extreme poverty,” he stresses.

In order to quickly stop the academic backwardness and malnutrition suffered by Haiti’s children, it is imperative to put an end to the existing state of internal war, the regional organization said in its communiqué.