The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) says it is “deeply concerned” over the protracted political crisis in Haiti where opposition parties have been staging street demonstrations calling for the resignation of

On Monday, the

Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat said that it is still awaiting a response from

the French-speaking CARICOM member country for the Prime Ministerial delegation

to visit.

CARICOM Chairman and

St Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet and the CARICOM Secretariat

had confirmed the decision for a team to visit Haiti. The decision to send

a delegation comprising, Chastanet, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness and

the Bahamas Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, had been taken at the CARICOM

Summit held in St Lucia in July.

The opposition

parties in Haiti have accused Moise of embezzlement, but the head of state has

defended himself against the reports. He has also insisted that he will not

resign.

However, the plans

to visit Haiti have been placed on hold as the situation worsened.

“I know that the

situation is getting worse there. I know that we were due to first send a

technical team to go there, but unfortunately, with the current crisis, that

visit by the technical team has been postponed,” Chastanet said last week.

The CARICOM Secretariat said that it had taken note of the series of demonstrations throughout the country, calling for President Moise to step down, as well as the outbreaks of looting, vandalism and violence which have led to casualties. On several occasions, the demonstrations have paralysed the country for days.

The Secretariat

noted that despite the Community’s principled position of non-interference in

the internal affairs of states, member states or third states, the regional

leaders had received a report on the situation from the head of the Haitian

delegation during their summit in Castries.