(OTTAWA) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will travel to the Bahamas next week to meet with his counterparts from 20 Caribbean countries.
In a press release published on Saturday, Mr. Trudeau’s office indicated that he will be in Nassau on February 15 and 16 as a special guest of the 44e Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
According to this statement, the situation in Haiti is among the main topics on the agenda.
Hundreds of people have been kidnapped and killed by criminal gangs who take advantage of the political instability in this country. No elections have been held since the pre-pandemic period.
Haiti has called for international military intervention to stabilize the country. U.S. officials have said Canada would be the ideal choice to lead the force, but Trudeau has previously indicated that the federal government will only move forward if there is political consensus among Haitians.
The federal government announced last week the deployment of a long-range patrol aircraft to disrupt gang activity.
Canada has already provided more than $98 million in international aid to meet the basic and urgent needs of the Haitian population, the Canadian government statement said. Ottawa has also imposed sanctions on people, particularly among the Haitian elite, suspected of supporting heavily armed criminal gangs who commit kidnappings, rapes and block access to essential services to the population.