By IPS Correspondents
PORT OF SPAIN, Jan 27 2006 (IPS)

Two years after he was sworn in as Haiti’s prime minister with the backing of the United States, Gerard Latortue is confident that the groundwork has been laid for Haiti’s re-entry into the regional integration grouping Caricom.

He argues that there is no need to deny Haiti, which is currently struggling to organise national elections amid an upsurge of violence and insecurity, the right to resume its place at the Caribbean Community (Caricom) table when regional leaders meet in July for their annual summit.

Caricom has refused to recognise the interim government in Haiti led by Latortue, who came to power following the controversial departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.

Latortue arrived in Trinidad and Tobago late Tuesday at the invitation of Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who is also the current Caricom chairman, for what an official statement had billed as “a new intervention on the part of Caricom for the advancement of the interest of Haiti and the rest of the Community”.

By the time he left Port of Spain on Thursday night, Latortue, who says he plans to write a book on the Haitian experience when he steps down, had invited regional governments, particularly the prime ministers of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Lucia, to mount a fact-finding mission to “see how things have changed” in Haiti.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and his St. Lucia counterpart, Kenny Anthony, who has lead responsibility for justice and governance in the Caribbean, have not embraced Latortue. These two countries, along with Guyana, have held up plans by Caricom to re-engage Haiti, a member of the 15-nation grouping.

“The only souvenir I have of Mr. Gonsalves was in the early 1960s when I used to participate in meetings of Caribbean scholars. Of course he was in one line, a Maoist in those days, maybe he has not changed since, but I am in a different line,” Latortue told reporters.

“I will be there to defend Haiti’s interest against who ever is trying to jeopardise the chance of the country,” he added. “As a student of Caribbean, as a student of development, I believe Haiti cannot stay and remain isolated from the rest of the Caribbean, that should be the first stage before we think about cooperation with other regions.”

Latortue’s invitation to regional leaders, if accepted, would allow them a second visit as a bloc to the country, now preparing to hold presidential elections on Feb. 7 after repeated delays and escalating violence in the capital among U.N. peacekeepers, Haitian police and armed civilians.

Two years ago, Caricom sent a delegation of foreign ministers, headed by Barbados’ Foreign Minister Dame Billie Miller, to gain a first-hand view of the situation in Haiti following the departure of Aristide.

“It is not because you fail the first time, you don’t try again. Politics is like that. They came the first time and many of them understood that they could not go towards the obstacles they found, so that is why they need a second try,” Latortue said.

“So I am trying a second time. If it fails, I will try a third time, because the final objective is to see Haiti rejoin the Caricom family,” he added.

Earlier this year, Grenada’s Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, who is known to support interaction with Haiti, reminded his Caricom colleagues that they had a “moral, regional and indeed a family obligation to engage Haiti more, rather than remain on the sidelines as it appears to be”.

“I am compelled to record my disappointment at our inability to preside over the return of Haiti to the fold of democratic governments as is provided in the Caricom Charter on Civil Society,” he said.

It is a point that has not been lost on Latortue. He said while he understood the “emotional reaction” that followed Aristide’s departure, two years on, with the country about to hold democratic elections that will be observed by the international community, he is at a loss as to why Haiti has not been invited to partake in the activities of Caricom.

Latortue insists that after the presidential elections, when an elected government is installed, there would be no reason for Caribbean countries to use the argument of illegitimacy to keep Haiti out.

“Now if there is another reason, we will have to know,” he said.

The joint communiqué issued at the end of the discussions between the two prime ministers quoted Latortue as saying that invitations to the Mar. 29 inauguration of the new president and government would be sent to all Caricom heads of state, and “emphasised the importance of Haiti’s continuing membership of Caricom, which (Latortue) feels is vital as Haiti seeks to follow the path of democracy and development”.

Latortue told reporters that judging by Manning’s position during their discussions, “I think he understood” Haiti’s dilemma.

“What he has to do does not depend on him only. He is the chairperson. You are not making decisions, you have to get consensus and the role of Caricom is unanimity. So if he could get unanimity, okay,” he added.

But there is likely to be hard bargaining in the coming months regarding Haiti’s re-entry into Caricom. Reports of human rights abuses, including the arrest of leading supporters of Aristide’s Lavalas Family Party, are bound to surface during the discussions.

Latortue likely anticipated such a debate when he told reporters that his administration would grant a pardon to the Roman Catholic priest and activist Gerard Jean-Juste, who has been in jail since last year amid allegations of his role in the Jul. 21, 2005 murder of prominent journalist Jacques Roche.

Jean-Juste is a vocal supporter of Aristide, and his supporters say the criminal charges against him are politically motivated.

Latortue said that while the legal process would be allowed to take its course, “I want and I still want Jean-Juste to be out of the jail as soon as possible.”

“We have no interest to get Jean-Juste in jail,” he said, arguing that efforts to keep him in jail “at all costs” are part of an opposition strategy to embarrass the government.

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