A Caricom delegation will head to Washington tomorrow to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell to discuss the current situation in Haiti, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday...
News Source: Trinidad Guardian
However, US officials in Washington could not confirm the delegation would meet with Powell.
?There will be a meeting, but it could be with Assistant Secretary (of Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger F Noriega),? said Gonzalo Gallegos, Public Affairs Advisor to the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs for the State Department.
Gallegos had no further details on the meeting.
The delegation, which will consist of Jamaican Foreign Minister K D Knight, Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell and Assistant Secretary General of the Caricom Secretariat Ambassador Colin Granderson, a Trinidadian, will discuss Caricom?s recent fact-finding mission to Haiti with State Department officials.
The latest wave of political violence has claimed more than 40 lives and has left many businesses burned and looted in Cap-Haitien, Haiti?s second largest city.
Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that armed civilians loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide continued to block roads in order to stop a violent uprising led by groups calling for his resignation.
The uprising has brought life to a virtual standstill in some parts of the country and has touched off widespread rioting in Cap-Haitien.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Patrick Manning left the door open for Caricom intervention through a peace-keeping mission to Haiti, although he said he would wait for Haitian authorities to request it.
?When the (delegation) returns, you?ll know what the next step will be,? said Cheryl Moses, Communications Specialist for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
American authorities encouraged Caricom intervention as well.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Tuesday that the US was ?pushing very hard for an end to violence? and that ?we?re encouraging all parties to accept the efforts of Caricom to help reach a political solution.?
Officials from the US Embassy in Port-of-Spain directed all enquiries to the State Department?s head office in Washington.
