Heine Publishes Op-Ed on Crisis in Haiti & Necessary Intervention
Jorge Heine, Research Professor at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, published a La Tercera op-ed in which he outlines the steadily deteriorating situation in Haiti and why the international community should act.
In his article, titled “Haití al borde del abismo” (Haiti on the brink of the abyss), breaks down how instability in Haiti has escalated after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021 and the subsequent earthquake that shook the south of the country. In painting the dismal picture, he notes how “armed gangs control two-thirds of the territory, food shortages reign, and citizen insecurity is the rule throughout the country…Nowhere in the [Western] hemisphere are human rights violated more than in Haiti.”
A coordinated, global humanitarian response to the crisis in Haiti has yet to take shape, which Heine argues is unacceptable. He says that a response from Latin American countries would not only address the ongoing human rights disaster but cement regional cooperation in the Americas.
An excerpt:
At a time when there is a new political situation in Latin America, with governments more committed to regional cooperation and multilateralism, the time has come to find a solution to the crisis in Haiti…A Latin American initiative within the framework of the UN, perhaps led from Brasilia, Bogotá and Santiago, similar to MINUSTAH, would be the best way to prevent Haiti from continuing towards the precipice.
The full article can be read on La Tercera’s website.
Ambassador Jorge Heine is a Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He has served as ambassador of Chile to China (2014-2017), to India (2003-2007), and to South Africa (1994-1999), and as a Cabinet Minister in the Chilean Government. Read more about Ambassador Heine on his Pardee School faculty profile.