Pitts will serve in Haiti

US Embassy Charge d’Affaires Usha Pitts leaves The Bahamas today in preparation for her next assignment in Haiti, one she said she’s looking forward to in the hope of doing important work to support the country as it charts a way towards stability.

Pitts said she’ll be supporting the new US Ambassador to Haiti, Dennis Hankin, who arrived in the country earlier this month.

“You know, it’s so funny because every time I tell a Bahamian I’m going to Haiti there’s this like look of pity,” she said on Guardian Radio’s Morning Blend Business.

“But the fact is I could have certainly gone to a cushier post, a nicer place, but I think everyone will agree that, you know, Haiti is a real problem for the whole region and for the whole hemisphere, really.

“And so the Haitian people are suffering. If you want to do good work as a diplomat, if you want to, you know, help move humanity forward in this hemisphere, then Haiti is really the place to go. So that’s what drove my decision.”

For years now, Haiti has faced heightened political, social and economic unrest. The situation in the neighboring nation has in recent months escalated to a point of crisis.

Violence has engulfed the country, with gangs controlling large swaths of the capital of Port-au-Prince, forcing the resignation of the country’s prime minister Ariel Henry last month.

With no government in place and uncertainty looming, international organizations have raised concern that millions of Haitians are now on the brink of a famine.

But Pitts said yesterday that the US will be measured in its approach to the situation in Haiti, noting that its history in the country is controversial.

“We have to be careful because the US history in Haiti is you know, it’s not great,” she said.

“All I can say is the US brand in a lot of countries in the Western Hemisphere is not as positively viewed as it is here in The Bahamas. And the same is true of Haiti.

“So, we have to be careful. We cannot go in, you know, guns blazing like we used to do back in the day. Security has to be a Haitian led solution, and we are going to let them lead.

“The Haitian people have been working very closely with CARICOM and the Eminent Persons Group and they are the ones who are sort of forming the political path. But in the end, you still need US money, you still need US support. So that’s what I’m going to do there.”

Only days before he was forced to resign, Henry met with CARICOM leaders and pledged to hold elections next year with the support of a regional team that would help pave the way.

But those plans changed with Henry’s resignation.

Pitts said she is hopeful that progress will be made to establish a true democracy in Haiti and improve the quality of life for citizens.

“Just a human, as a Christian, you see what those people are suffering in a very basic, fundamental way — the violence, sexual violence, complete disruption of society,” she said.

“Some places you can’t even get out to do some basic shopping. So, we have to stabilize the country so that people can enjoy fundamental security and basic infrastructure. Those are the two things without which you have nothing.

“So, that is going to be my initial focus, certainly the initial focus of my ambassador, and then we can go on from there. But if you don’t have those things, then you ain’t got much. Longer term, of course, you know, we want to build a Haiti that is democratic, that has a robust civil society, that has enthusiastic political participation, and economic success.”

Pitts said that work, if successful, would also have an impact in The Bahamas.

“Those are the things that people need to thrive,” she said.

“And when we start to show that the Haitian people can themselves deliver those things, then we have less stress on the other countries in the region, particularly when it comes to, for example, migration, which directly impacts The Bahamas.”