Written by Sarah Moreland
(Reuters) – Colombian President Gustavo Petro arrived in the city of Jacmel in southeastern Haiti on Wednesday afternoon in a rare visit by a foreign head of state to the Caribbean nation, where Haiti is suffering from a long conflict with armed gangs.
Colombia has also faced a surge in violence by rebel factions, halting peace talks.
Petro arrived in the small coastal city located about 90 kilometers from the capital, Port-au-Prince, on board a Colombian military plane, several hours after the expected start of the visit, as hundreds of residents came out to see his arrival.
Petro stopped in the Dominican Republic, near the besieged capital of Haiti where several shooting incidents against diplomatic vehicles have been reported just this week.
He met with senior officials in the Haitian government, including Leslie Voltaire, who holds the rotating presidency of the Transitional Presidential Council, in a meeting aimed at strengthening bilateral relations.
Voltaire said he wants to establish closer relations with South American countries in an attempt to enhance security support in light of the failure of a United Nations-backed security mission to repel the advance of gangs in the country.
Since the mission was approved in late 2023, the gangs have seized control of strategic areas, leading to repeated closures of the capital's main port and airport, and exacerbating food shortages that have left half of the country's 11 million people going hungry.
The number of internally displaced people has more than quintupled to more than one million people from about 200,000 before the UN Security Council approved the partially deployed mission.
Also on Wednesday, the UN Security Council met for a press conference on the conflict, with several countries calling for stronger action to restrict the ongoing largely illegal flow of firearms from the United States to allied criminal organizations now widespread in Haiti.
Haiti's Foreign Minister Jean-Victor Harvil Jean-Baptiste repeated calls for the mission, which he said was “seriously underfunded” and lacking basic air and naval capabilities, to be transformed into an official UN peacekeeping mission to make it less dependent on voluntary contributions.
“We very much look forward to other long-pledged contributions,” he said. “Haiti cannot overcome this crisis alone. That is why we are calling for increased resources to stabilize our security.”
More than 200,000 Haitian immigrants were deported to the country last year.
