An Association of Private School Teachers Requests OAS Intervention in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE.— In a letter dated May 29, addressed to OAS Secretary General Albert RAMDIN, the Teachers' Union Platform for the Defense of Private Schools of Haiti (PSEDEPH) requests intervention from the hemispheric organization in favor of Haiti.

PSEDEPH begins by outlining the situation, informing the Secretary General that for some time Haiti has fallen into an unprecedented crisis. “No legitimate government, the CPT, the body currently governing, is not credible to organize the referendum and was not elected in elections,” it states, adding that some of its members have been suspected of corruption, thus concluding that the CPT is no longer fit to lead the country.

The platform provides a critical assessment of the country's security situation. “More than 80% of the territories in the West department are lost. Not to mention the Artibonite and Centre departments, particularly the city of Mirebalais, which are also in the hands of armed gangs,” the union laments, adding that insecurity is rampant everywhere.

The association also raises the alarm about the social crisis, deemed at its peak and reaching its paroxysm. “Haitians living in the Dominican Republic are daily victims of abuse by the neighboring people,” noted this group of private school teachers, building their request to the OAS General Secretariat.

“In this context, we (PSEDEPH, Haïti Positive (HP), KOFAKA, KADBALIE, STFH, (SOS D’HAITI (SH) and REMEDH), vanguards of the nation, request your intervention to help Haiti emerge from this quagmire. Hoping that our request will receive your favor, we ask you to accept our anticipated thanks,” wrote the signatories of this letter.

This address to the OAS Secretary General illustrates the desperate cry of the Haitian people, frantically seeking to explore all avenues that offer a semblance of a solution to this situation that has already lasted too long.

Jean Mapou