Renu­ka Singh

As a mark of re­spect, the Mem­ber States of the Com­mu­ni­ty and the Cari­com Sec­re­tari­at will fly their na­tion­al flags and the Cari­com Stan­dard at half-mast for three days be­gin­ning im­me­di­ate­ly to mark the as­sas­si­na­tion of Hait­ian Pres­i­dent Jovenel Moi­se.

The Heads of Gov­ern­ments of Cari­com met yes­ter­day in an emer­gency ses­sion and said they were “shocked and sad­dened” by the Moi­se mur­der dur­ing the ear­ly hours of 7 Ju­ly 2021.

The lead­ers said they were al­so con­cerned by the con­di­tion of his wife Mar­tine Moi­se, “who was grave­ly wound­ed in the at­tack, and wish her a full and speedy re­cov­ery.”

The Heads of Gov­ern­ment “strong­ly con­demn this ab­hor­rent and rep­re­hen­si­ble act that comes at a time of deep tur­moil and in­sti­tu­tion­al weak­ness in the coun­try”.

They al­so called for the “per­pe­tra­tors to be ap­pre­hend­ed and brought to jus­tice, and for law and or­der to pre­vail”.

“The Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty does not set­tle its dif­fer­ences by vi­o­lence which un­der­mines democ­ra­cy and the rule of law, but peace­ful­ly through di­a­logue and re­course to de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions,” the lead­ers said.

“In light of Haiti’s Mem­ber­ship of Cari­com and the fam­i­ly ties that bind the peo­ple of Haiti and Cari­com to­geth­er, Cari­com ex­press­es its will­ing­ness to play a lead role in fa­cil­i­tat­ing a process of na­tion­al di­a­logue and ne­go­ti­a­tion to help the Hait­ian peo­ple and their in­sti­tu­tions to craft an in­dige­nous so­lu­tion to the cri­sis,” the Cari­com lead­ers said.

They al­so call on the peo­ple of Haiti to re­main calm, “and to over­come their dif­fer­ences and unite at this mo­ment of na­tion­al per­il.”

Heads of Gov­ern­ment ex­tend con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of Pres­i­dent Moi­se, and the Gov­ern­ment and Peo­ple of Haiti.