The so-called “Louisiana Summit” to unify Haitian groups was a failure | Opinion

When the idea of a Louisiana Summit was first circulated, the end state was never to form a government but to unify the accords. The outcome of this event now raises a series of questions about the broader purpose of this Haitian diaspora summit. The one question in particular to be answered is: “What is the logic behind having a Retired U.S Army Three-Star General set the ground rules and why did Haitians simply accept to follow these rules and meet the General’s end state? 

The summit was supposed to give the Haitian diaspora the stage to dialogue regarding pushing Haïti toward political normality. Rather, it violated the diaspora’s freedom of expression because the non-consilient General thought he was leading an army to war. This may be a correct approach given the centuries of Haitian in-fighting. The general was aided in his quest by a few diaspora members who failed to keep their eyes on the objective of the summit. Did they care for it anyway? 

Knowing that the greater diaspora would not have gone for his toxic leadership, the general and summit organizers excluded the broad diaspora from the get-go by handpicking and empowering nine self-appointed Haitians to whom he pushed his operational order for Haiti. Although some accord representatives live in the diaspora, they did not represent the interests of the diaspora. Instead, they represent certain Haitian politicians. Thus again, the diaspora was excluded in every single leg of the conversation. Why is this always the case?

As a reminder, the pre-advertised end state of the summit was to unify the accords, not to form a government. Hence, the summit organizers failed miserably. The summit did not publish a document stating the different points of these accords let alone the points they all agreed on. What resulted was a one-page document attesting the accords were willing to throw away their own accord to elaborate a new one under the label “Accord Unitaire de la Louisiane” with no specifics and no content. Is this a sign of the future governance style of the transitional government proposed by this event’s advertisers?

The accords representatives stayed in a room heavily guarded by police officers to vote on a government, but not to unify the accords. Did the General mislead them very far away from their original intent?

The summit organizers may think they have won because they got to select a transactional government, but clearly the only winner is the General. Was this all some elaborate show organized by DC to push a pre-planned project, with some pre-engineered approval from a small non-representative group of the Haitian diaspora members? 

What was this all really about?