Spanish
Brasilia.- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva inaugurated this Friday a meeting with delegations from 16 Caribbean countries, in which he criticized the "abandonment and indifference" of most of the community in the face of the Haitian crisis.
"Haiti cannot be eternally punished for having been the first country to become independent in the Americas," Lula declared in Brasilia before Caribbean leaders, including the president of the Haitian Presidential Transition Council (CPT), Fritz Alphonse Jean. The presidents of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, and Guyana, Irfaan Ali, as well as the prime ministers of Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Lucia and Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the vice president of Cuba, Salvador Valdés Mesa, are attending the so-called Brazil-Caribbean Summit. Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago are represented at the ministerial level. Lula said that it is necessary for all of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the entire international community, to "get involved" more in the "dramatic" situation in Haiti, a country mired in a crisis that has lasted for decades and has worsened in recent times with an institutional collapse and a spiral of violence. "Stabilizing the situation of violence is fundamental for there to be elections" that restore a certain political and institutional order to the country, said the Brazilian leader. Beyond the situation in Haiti, various alternatives to improve cooperation in different areas will be discussed at the Brazil-Caribbean summit. Brazil, which convened this meeting, has proposed an agenda that has as central points food security, combating the climate crisis, risk and disaster management, energy transition, and maritime and air connectivity, in order to boost tourism and trade.Lula condemns "the indifference" towards Haiti in a meeting with Caribbean leaders
