A deep public rift has emerged within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) over the reappointment of Secretary-General Carla Barnett, with Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar issuing an unyielding pledge that her nation will cease recognizing Barnett in the role once her initial five-year tenure concludes this August. Despite a majority of regional leaders confirming Barnett’s reappointment for a second five-year term, Persad-Bissessar has emphasized that Port of Spain’s position is non-negotiable.
分类： politics
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Officials given extra protection
Trinidad and Tobago’s top law enforcement official has confirmed that a gang member from Belmont triggered a national security incident last Friday, prompting immediate upgrades to security protocols at the national Parliament and expanded personal protection for several senior government officials. The revelation came during parliamentary debate over the 2026 Parole Bill, delivered Monday by Attorney General John Jeremie, with official confirmation later provided by Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro in response to queries from local outlet the Express.
Jeremie told lawmakers that he received explicit authorization from the police commissioner to make the incident public. “I am authorised by the Commissioner of Police to say that last Friday, that a member of one of those gangs in that community sparked a national security incident, such that all of us in this Parliament were protected to a higher degree and certain officials in the Government were given additional protection,” Jeremie stated, noting he had confirmed the disclosure directly with Guevarro ahead of his remarks. Neither official has released further details on the nature of the incident or the specific protective adjustments implemented, citing national security confidentiality requirements.
When contacted by the Express for additional context, Guevarro verified the event but declined to share operational specifics. “I can confirm that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service responded to a security-related matter last Friday which required enhanced protective measures at Parliament and for a small number of Government officials,” he said. “The TTPS acted out of an abundance of caution and in accordance with established national security protocols. Given the nature of the matter, and consistent with our obligations under national security, I am not at liberty to disclose operational details of the incident, the TTPS’ response, or specifics regarding individuals. What I can assure is that the TTPS continues to actively assess all risks and will adjust protective measures as required to ensure the safety of our national institutions and our citizens.”
Notably, the security alert coincided with an official two-day visit to Port of Spain by India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who met with lawmakers at Parliament, held bilateral diplomatic talks, and oversaw a donation of laptops to local school children during his trip.
Jeremie’s announcement of the incident came as he defended recent remarks by Defence Minister Wayne Sturge, who last week linked the high-profile murders of a nine-year-old girl in Morvant and a two-year-old boy in Belmont to ongoing gang violence in constituencies held by the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM). The exchange has reignited heated political debate over the government’s response to rising gang-related crime across the country.
Opposition Member of Parliament Stuart Young, who represents the Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West constituency, formally requested last week that Guevarro order police to interview Sturge to extract details on who he believes is responsible for the children’s killings. In his address, Jeremie framed the government’s anti-crime push as an open “war” against organized criminal elements, acknowledging that the conflict would bring setbacks and tragic losses.
“And quite recently we have had in fact a couple truly terrible days, days in which we saw the murder of innocent children, a nine-year-old girl, a two-year-old baby. We grieve with these families and we grieve with all of the families who experience inexplicable loss of loved ones in this community,” he said.
Pointing to the ongoing and recently renewed state of emergency (SoE) across the country, Jeremie called the measure the administration’s formal “declaration of war” against gangs. He emphasized that the government is pursuing a multifaceted strategy to achieve long-term public safety, rejecting the chaotic governance he claimed marked the PNM’s final term in office. “Our targets in this war are gangs, criminal enterprises,” he said.
The Attorney General called out specific gang activity in Belmont neighborhoods including Belle Eau Road and Serraneau Road — areas where he and Sturge both grew up — as well as in Westmoorings, Goodwood Park, and other unnamed constituencies. He repeatedly criticized Young, who served as National Security Minister from 2018 to 2021 and was a member of the National Security Council when Trinidad and Tobago posted a record-high annual murder toll in 2024. Jeremie labeled Young’s tenure a legacy of “failure, bloodshed, and empty rhetoric,” echoing Sturge’s recent description of Young as the worst national security minister in the nation’s recent history, adding only that there was open debate over whether Young’s successor was even less effective.
Jeremie noted that the current United National Congress (UNC) administration has recorded 325 murders in 2025, and acknowledged that the battle against gang crime will not be resolved quickly. Even so, he highlighted ongoing progress made by Sturge, Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander, and the TTPS in dismantling criminal networks. He argued that gang-related violence escalated steadily after the PNM took office in 2015, and said the current UNC government is committed to dismantling the criminal foundations the previous administration allowed to take root.
Drawing on his personal ties to the Belmont community, Jeremie noted that he and Sturge were raised in the area, where he was cared for by a local resident while his parents worked, and that Sturge has direct, lived experience with the impact of gang activity on local families. “No red sneakers and red cap and red jersey can make you a citizen of Belle Eau Road and Serraneau Road,” he said, dismissing Young’s connection to the community.
He accused the PNM of allowing unregulated gun trafficking, drug trade, and disinvestment that left young people marginalized and vulnerable to gang recruitment, creating the current crisis the nation now faces. In contrast, he said the UNC government is working to build a fair, effective justice system and launch targeted community programs to engage at-risk youth and prevent further violence.
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Young hits ‘loose’ security handling
A heated political debate has erupted in Trinidad and Tobago over the handling of national security, after Attorney General John Jeremie made a startling revelation in parliament last week. Jeremie confirmed that a gang member triggered a major national security incident last Friday, which required heightened security protocols for all sitting parliamentarians and extra protection for senior government officials.
Following this disclosure, local newspaper The Express reached out to multiple opposition Members of Parliament to gather their reactions to the unprecedented news. Among those contacted was Stuart Young, the opposition MP representing Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West, who launched a scathing attack on the current Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led administration.
Young blasted the government for what he described as a careless approach to matters of critical national security. He told reporters that he and other opposition lawmakers had no prior knowledge of the alleged threat cited by the Attorney General, raising urgent questions about transparency and risk management. “The AG alone knows what he was speaking about. I certainly was not aware of any incident to which he referred,” Young said. “What is worrying is the Kamla Persad-Bissessar Government’s handling of national security and the loose manner in which they throw about alleged matters of national security.”
Young further questioned whether gang activity has grown so emboldened under the current ruling United National Congress (UNC) administration that parliament itself faced an unreported threat. “He should be asked exactly whether it is that gangs in Trinidad and Tobago are now so brazen under the UNC that the Parliament was under a threat that we were not informed of,” he added.
Young’s sentiment was echoed by Keith Scotland, opposition MP for Port of Spain South, who also confirmed he had no advance information about the incident referenced by Jeremie.
The row comes just days after Defence Minister Wayne Sturge publicly acknowledged that constituencies controlled by the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) are among the areas worst affected by ongoing gang violence. In response to the emerging controversy, Opposition Chief Whip Marvin Gonzales confirmed to The Express that he plans to deliver a full, comprehensive response to the situation during a planned news conference scheduled for this week.
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OPINION: What is Antigua and Barbuda but not a majority black country?
The principle of non-refoulement, a cornerstone of international refugee and human rights law, bans nations from sending any individual back to a territory where they face credible threats of persecution, torture, inhumane treatment, or irreversible harm. This foundational rule is now casting a long shadow over a proposed immigration deal between the United States and small Caribbean nations like Antigua and Barbuda, where Washington is pushing to offload the burden of migrants who have entered the U.S. illegally, been denied asylum, or overstayed their visas. The plan, championed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, has sparked heated debate over its racial undertones, legal ambiguities, and tangible risks for small host states.
Trump’s well-documented history of racially charged rhetoric on immigration frames the context of this proposal. In 2018, he infamously labeled Haiti, El Salvador, and a host of African nations “shithole countries,” and doubled down on this stance in 2025, calling for a “permanent pause on Third World migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, [and] Somalia.” He has openly questioned why the U.S. cannot prioritize immigration from majority-white Nordic countries like Norway, Sweden, and Denmark instead. This rhetoric makes clear the racial bias at the core of the current U.S. administration’s immigration policy, argues Franchesca Sterling, an OAS child advocate and author of this analysis.
Sterling points out that Trump’s willingness to frame migrants as commodities to be “exported” or “imported” echoes the dehumanizing language of chattel slavery, a framing that she says enables bigotry and echoes harmful patterns of racial exploitation. As a humanist who has worked for eight years as a volunteer child advocate with the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, supporting unaccompanied minor migrants in the U.S. system, Sterling emphasizes that she holds no anti-immigrant sentiment. Instead, she argues that the proposed third-country national (TCN) deportation deal poses avoidable legal, social, and public health risks to Antigua and Barbuda that the government has not publicly addressed.
The core legal risk, Sterling explains, stems directly from the principle of non-refoulement. If Antigua and Barbuda agrees to accept TCNs deported from the U.S. — even those without criminal records who do not qualify as “bona fide visitors” under Antigua and Barbuda’s existing immigration law — the nation would be barred from deporting those individuals onward if they commit crimes or violate local laws later. Without a clear agreement requiring the U.S. to take back individuals who become Antigua and Barbuda’s responsibility after they are resettled, the small nation would be left holding an unplanned and unsustainable burden. While existing Antigua and Barbuda law places the cost of repatriation on the carrier or agent that brings an unauthorized migrant to the nation’s shores, it remains unclear whether the U.S. government would honor this requirement under the proposed bilateral deal.
Sterling also outlines a series of unanswered legal questions that the Antigua and Barbuda government has yet to resolve. Will the government reclassify deported TCNs as “bona fide visitors” upon arrival? If so, who will bear the cost of their housing, food, and social support during their stay — effectively making the Antigua and Barbuda government their official sponsor? If they are not reclassified, what will their legal status be in the country? Under the 2014 Immigration and Passport Act, entry rights can be extended to new groups of people via ministerial order, but TCNs deported from the U.S. are not explicitly named in existing legislation. It remains unclear whether the government will issue such an order, or whether the plan will require full parliamentary approval, a key transparency question that has yet to be addressed publicly.
Practical documentation challenges add another layer of complexity. Most migrants targeted for deportation from the U.S. entered without valid passports or travel documents, many of which were destroyed during their journey to North America. For large shares of these individuals, formal identity documents such as birth certificates are impossible to obtain: slow bureaucratic processes at foreign consulates based in the U.S. leave many applications stuck in limbo, and many migrants were born in remote rural communities where births were never formally registered with their home government.
Public health is another critical underaddressed risk. The U.S. requires all incoming migrants to complete a full slate of vaccinations — including influenza, Hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, meningococcal disease, pneumococcal disease, and varicella — as well as screening for tuberculosis, HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and mental health conditions. Sterling questions whether Antigua and Barbuda will enforce the same strict health requirements, given the strain that unaddressed public health issues could place on the nation’s small healthcare system. She also notes that while U.S. rules accept laboratory evidence of immunity for migrants without formal vaccination records, Antigua and Barbuda’s existing immigration law requires all arriving migrants to be examined by a licensed medical practitioner to verify their health status, a requirement she strongly recommends the government uphold if the deal moves forward.
Data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for 2024–2025 shows that the largest groups of individuals ordered deported from the U.S. come from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Peru — with Mexico accounting for the largest share due to its shared border with the U.S. Other major nationalities include migrants from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, China, Jamaica, the Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and a range of European, Asian, and African nations. Sterling emphasizes that many people from these countries already live legally and productively in Antigua and Barbuda, a welcoming small twin-island nation of fewer than 100,000 people that has a long history of hosting visitors and new residents. It is not opposition to migration, but a commitment to protecting Antigua and Barbuda’s national interest that drives her call for greater transparency and scrutiny of the proposed deal.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this analysis are the author’s own.
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Johnny Kasdjo wordt vandaag tot DNA toegelaten namens VHP
Nearly one year after Suriname’s general elections, a long-awaited parliamentary vacancy is being filled this May 14, following the passing of veteran Progressive People’s Party (VHP) leader and sitting lawmaker Chan Santokhi. Johnny Kasdjo, a community-focused candidate from the Commewijne district, will be formally sworn in as a new member of the National Assembly (DNA) during a plenary session scheduled to kick off at 9:00 a.m. local time.
Kasdjo’s path to parliament follows a chain of events set in motion by last year’s election cycle. During the May 2025 vote, Kasdjo occupied the 18th spot on the VHP’s party candidate list. The party ultimately secured 17 seats in the election, leaving Kasdjo just outside the threshold for a parliamentary seat, with no immediate path to representation. Santokhi’s passing earlier this year opened an unexpected vacancy, triggering a sequential shift in the VHP candidate rankings that elevates Kasdjo to fill the empty seat.
Hailing from the Commewijne region, Kasdjo built his local profile during the 2025 election campaign around a platform rooted in “integrity and decisive action,” urging voters to support him based on this commitment to principled governance. He has shared publicly that Santokhi personally reached out to invite him to join the VHP, and he made the decision to align with the party after being inspired by the late leader’s approach to public service.
In the months leading up to his swearing-in, Kasdjo has centered his work on addressing local issues across his home district of Commewijne. Known as a socially engaged community advocate, he has provided direct support to vulnerable communities in areas facing hardship across the region. In last year’s general election, he earned 968 individual votes from constituents.
Beyond Kasdjo’s formal admission to the legislative body, Wednesday’s parliamentary agenda includes two other key scheduled sessions. Lawmakers will continue progressing on two priority pieces of legislation: the Country Law and the Fire Department Bill, moving both policy proposals through their next stages of legislative review.
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A signature for the Homeland, sovereignty, and peace
On Wednesday, civil society delegates from multiple Cuban provinces presented formal documentation confirming broad popular backing for the ‘My Signature for the Homeland’ initiative to top Communist Party and government leaders across regional jurisdictions. This mass signature-gathering effort stands as a powerful collective demonstration of Cuban unity in opposition to the escalating U.S. economic blockade and global aggression, cementing the island nation’s commitment to forging an independent future in peace.
The formal handover of bound signature volumes followed brief political-cultural ceremonies in each participating province, with regional authorities accepting the documents that reflect the overwhelming will of the Cuban public. In Sancti Spíritus, young art instructor Yadira Bernal Nazco, speaking for local civil society groups, called on citizens to reject what she framed as relentless, extraterritorial aggression from a global power that seeks to break the Cuban people through economic deprivation and manufactured despair. She emphasized that defending national historical memory, distinct Cuban cultural identity, and full national sovereignty remains a non-negotiable priority for all residents of the island.
In the eastern province of Guantánamo, local representative Yairis Fernández Castellanos highlighted that more than 290,000 Guantanamo residents across all age groups, religious backgrounds and civil society sectors had added their names to the initiative. Fernández called the mass participation a deliberate act of moral conscience, noting that every signature carries the Cuban people’s shared commitment to justice, unshakable commitment to independence, and deep understanding that all critical national battles are won through popular unity.
Speaking for a cross-sector coalition of workers, smallholder farmers, intellectuals, athletes, students and faith-based organizations in Las Tunas province, Gustavo López Ramírez reaffirmed that Cubans will always stand ready to defend the hard-won independence secured by generations of national heroes and martyrs.
Across the entire island, final counts confirm that more than 6.2 million Cubans have added their signatures to the ‘My Signature for the Homeland’ movement. Organizers and authorities frame this unprecedented level of popular participation as a clear, unequivocal message to the international community: the Cuban people remain united in rejecting the escalating economic pressure imposed by the U.S. government that aims to choke the island’s economy and force political change.
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Cuban President denounces the impact of the blockade on the worsening energy situation in the country
On Wednesday, May 14, 2026, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who also serves as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, took to his official social media accounts to address the rapidly escalating crisis facing the island nation’s national power grid. In his public statement, he painted a stark picture of the current energy situation, confirming that peak-hour power deficits are projected to exceed 2,000 megawatts on the day of his announcement.
Díaz-Canel left no ambiguity about the root cause of the crisis, attributing the dramatic deterioration of Cuba’s energy security entirely to longstanding U.S. trade restrictions. He labeled the restrictions a “genocidal energy blockade” that Washington imposes on Cuba, noting that the U.S. actively threatens third-party nations that supply Cuban fuel imports with harsh, unjustified tariffs. As a concrete example of the blockade’s immediate impact, the president revealed that fuel shortages directly caused by American restrictions cut 1,100 megawatts of available generation capacity from Cuba’s grid on that same Wednesday alone.
To further back his claim, Díaz-Canel pointed to a marked improvement in power services across the island back in April. He explained that the arrival of just one additional fuel cargo vessel — out of the minimum eight vessels Cuba requires each month to meet domestic energy demand — was enough to cut power deficits and reduce widespread blackouts. While outages did not disappear entirely during that period, their frequency and severity were significantly mitigated, offering clear proof of how fuel access directly shapes Cuba’s energy outlook.
The president also addressed recent commentary from U.S. media outlets aligned with Washington’s aggressive policy agenda toward Cuba. He noted that even these outlets, which have long backed American pressure on the island, have been forced to acknowledge the remarkable resilience of the Cuban people in the face of systemic economic pressure. Despite sweeping measures designed to cripple Cuba’s economy and energy sector, the nation has not collapsed, and remains far from what the U.S. has attempted to frame as a failed state. This forced admission, Díaz-Canel argued, indirectly confirms that Cuba’s ongoing crisis is the product of deliberate American economic warfare and targeted energy persecution, not domestic policy failure.
Díaz-Canel went on to reframe the narrative pushed by U.S. government spokespeople, who often attribute Cuban hardship to mismanagement by Havana. In reality, he explained, the crisis stems from a deliberate, perverse strategy designed to push everyday Cuban citizens to breaking point, amplifying scarcity and hardship to stoke unrest against the country’s government. He recalled that more than 60 years of economic blockade, plus 243 additional restrictive measures implemented during the Trump administration, failed to break the Cuban Revolution. This failure led the U.S. to ramp up pressure, implementing new executive orders designed to cut off all fuel supplies to the island, and penalize any third-party entity that engages in trade or investment with Cuba. The core goal of this scheme, he emphasized, is to inflict collective suffering on the Cuban people, holding them hostage to force political change.
Looking back at a brief period of eased restrictions several years ago, the Cuban president noted that this short window offered unambiguous proof of how both Cuban and American people, and bilateral trade relations, would benefit from ending the long-running draconian blockade. That potential improvement, he added, is exactly what a small clique of far-right U.S. extremists who control American policy toward Cuba fear. These actors deliberately spread misinformation about conditions on the island, and continuously push for harsher restrictions and greater threats against the Cuban people.
Closing his statement, Díaz-Canel reaffirmed Cuba’s longstanding position: the nation remains open to equal, mutually respectful dialogue with the United States, but will continue to resist external pressure and build domestic prosperity regardless. “We are increasingly convinced that we must overcome these enormous difficulties through our own collective efforts, united as a single nation, and resolute in the face of even the toughest challenges,” he said.
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Cuban Foreign Minister denounces the repercussions of a military aggression against the island
In a public warning posted to his social media channels on Tuesday, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and a member of the country’s Political Bureau, has strongly condemned the risk of potential military aggression against his nation by the United States government, laying bare the devastating ripple effects such an attack would unleash across the Caribbean and beyond.
Rodríguez Parrilla emphasized that a U.S. military strike would not just be an act of war against a sovereign state—it would trigger a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe and an unprecedented bloodbath on Cuban soil. He pointed out that the human cost would extend beyond Cuban borders, with both Cuban and American civilians and service members losing their lives in the conflict. Critically, he noted that this high-stakes gamble is only being entertained by U.S. political leaders who do not face the personal consequence of sending their own children or family members to fight in such a war.
The foreign minister went on to stress that there is no justification, not even a flimsy pretext, that could legitimize a military attack by the global superpower against Cuba. The small island nation, he argued, poses no measurable security threat to the United States, meaning any incursion would be rooted solely in the desire of a small faction of U.S. policymakers to force a change to Cuba’s existing political system and governing structure.
Beyond the immediate human toll, Rodríguez Parrilla reiterated that any U.S. military aggression against Cuba would constitute a severe, direct threat to peace and stability across the entire Latin American and Caribbean region. He closed by reaffirming Cuba’s unwavering commitment to defending its national sovereignty against any attempt by external powers to impose their will on the Cuban people.
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Embezzlement Probe and Lost Certificates Inside Immigration Dept.
As of May 13, 2026, the Belizean Ministry of Immigration is facing growing public scrutiny over major administrative and financial mismanagement incidents at two of its key facilities. The agency has confirmed that it has opened an internal investigation into allegations of suspected embezzlement of public funds at its Belize City regional office.
Senior ministry officials confirmed that the inquiry remains in its preliminary phase, but have made clear that any confirmed proof of illegal activity will prompt a full, agency-wide financial audit and an immediate referral to national law enforcement for criminal prosecution. The embezzlement claim is not the only serious issue to emerge in recent days: two official nationality certificates stored at the department’s Belmopan headquarters have been unaccounted for, leading authorities to file a formal police report. Investigators are currently working to establish whether the documents were accidentally misplaced during administrative processes or deliberately stolen for illicit use.
In response to these dual troubling developments, the Ministry of Immigration has highlighted ongoing institutional reforms designed to close gaps in oversight and accountability. A national digitization project, already in active implementation across all department facilities, is intended to strengthen financial controls, reduce systemic vulnerabilities that allow for administrative lapses, and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
At present, the ministry has declined to release additional details about the ongoing investigations to protect the integrity of the process, but has issued a formal public vow that it will fully uncover the facts behind both the embezzlement allegations and the missing documents, and hold any individual found responsible fully accountable under the law.
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Towards strengthening cooperation between Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago
In a high-stakes diplomatic mission aimed at addressing deep-seated labor market challenges, a multi-stakeholder Haitian delegation traveled to Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, on May 13, 2026, to hold a landmark working meeting with Trinidadian officials, International Labour Organization (ILO) representatives, labor union leaders and private sector stakeholders. The delegation was led by Marc-Elie Nelson, Haiti’s Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, and included top figures from Haiti’s key industry and labor groups: Radia Mauluk, President of the Association of Industries of Haiti (ADIH), Yvel Admettre, Secretary General of the Confederation of Public Sector Workers (CTSP), and Fignolé St-Cyr, Secretary General of the Autonomous Central of Haitian Workers (CATH).
During the meeting, Minister Nelson delivered a candid, comprehensive overview of Haiti’s current labor landscape, outlining the severe structural obstacles that have crippled the sector’s ability to function effectively. Key challenges he highlighted include the oversized informal economy that leaves millions of workers without basic protections, growing precarity in the limited formal employment sector, rising social unrest, outdated social dialogue frameworks, persistent gaps in labor inspection enforcement, and widespread institutional weaknesses in labor regulation and social safety net provision. Despite these significant headwinds, Nelson also outlined the concrete steps the Haitian government has already taken to improve conditions for workers and stabilize the market, including a recent minimum wage hike, expanded social assistance programs targeting the most vulnerable populations, and the creation of a new advisory council to set transparent pricing for petroleum products.
Nelson emphasized that Trinidad and Tobago’s decades of experience in building effective social dialogue systems and robust labor regulatory frameworks would be an invaluable resource for strengthening his ministry’s institutional capacity, allowing it to deliver more impactful outcomes for Haitian workers and businesses. In response, Leroy Baptiste, Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Labor and Small and Micro Enterprise Development, framed inclusive social dialogue as a non-negotiable foundation for sustained economic and social stability, outlining his administration’s core strategic priorities to build a more efficient, inclusive labor market for Trinidad and Tobago. Baptiste and his senior ministry team addressed every question and concern raised by the Haitian delegation, and formally confirmed the Trinidadian government’s commitment to supporting Haiti’s efforts to upgrade its labor sector institutions.
Joni Musabayana, the ILO’s Regional Representative, also participated in the talks, expressing solidarity with the Haitian people amid the country’s ongoing multifaceted crisis. He noted that Haiti holds the distinction of being one of the ILO’s founding member states, praised the cross-regional exchange between the two Caribbean nations as a model for collaborative problem-solving, and called for increased international attention and support for Caribbean countries grappling with uncommonly severe, unprecedented challenges.
By the conclusion of the meeting, both sides had mapped out clear, actionable areas for future bilateral cooperation. Key priority areas identified include capacity building for inclusive social dialogue, development of professional mediation frameworks, support for labor legislative reform, upgrades to labor inspection systems, improvement of labor market data collection and statistics, and broad institutional strengthening for Haiti’s labor and social affairs agencies.