As Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry pleads for foreign military support to aid the country’s police as street gangs battle to expand their territory and influence, Jamaica has responded with a willingness to take part in an international military deployment to the flailing country. 

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness told lawmakers that the Caribbean island country could also support its neighbor on electoral reforms.“Jamaica would be willing to participate in a multinational security assistance deployment to Haiti under the appropriate jurisdictional parameters to support a return to a reasonable level of stability and peace,” Holness said Tuesday. 

Holness said Jamaica’s police and army were informed and preparing for “such eventualities. Haiti on Thursday is reportedly gearing up for a general strike called by the opposition parties and worker’s organizations to demand that Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, step down. 

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 and the political instability amid natural disasters, disease outbreaks and mismanagement of humanitarian relief, gangs are violently fighting to fill power vacuums, leaving hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

Caribbean bloc CARICOM issued a statement condemning the recent gang killings of police officers in Haiti and the police protests demanding justice. Protesters who identified themselves as police officers attacked Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s official residence last week, then flooded the airport as Henry was arriving from a trip to Argentina. 

At least 78 Haitian police officers have been killed since Henry took office, Haitian human rights group RNDDH said.

Mark Golding, Jamaica’s opposition leader said reparations for Haiti should also be on the agenda for any CARICOM talks.

Following Haiti’s independence in 1804, France imposed heavy debts on its former colony for lost “property,” which included enslaved people. The debt to France took Haiti over 100 years to pay off, greatly inhibiting the country’s development.

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