In a victory for Haiti's anti-coup forces, Caribbean nations are still refusing to recognize Haiti's de facto government, leaders of the 15-member Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, announced June 7 after a four-day summit in St. Georges, Grenada.

However, under fierce pressure from Washington, CARICOM has sent a high level delegation to Haiti this week to discuss terms for restoring diplomatic ties.

A mission of five CARICOM foreign ministers - Antigua and Barbuda's Harold Lovell, the Bahamas' Fred Mitchell, Barbados' Billie Miller, Guyana's Rudy Insanally, and Trinidad and Tobago's Knowlson Gift - met with de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue for several hours starting at 10 a.m. on June 13. The mission was joined by CARICOM's secretary general Edwin Carrington.

The meeting at the Primature appears not to have gone well, since the normally loquacious Latortue left it without making any statements to the reporters waiting outside, not even via a spokesperson. The CARICOM ministers were also mum.

"It's gone well" was the only terse comment by Bahamian Foreign Minister Mitchell after the meeting.

The Caribbean leaders fixed several conditions for recognition of Haiti's de facto government at the summit. One of them calls for the de facto government to stop persecuting and imprisoning individuals loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was "coup-napped" by U.S. Marines on Feb. 29 and is now exiled in South Africa.

CARICOM also called for a clear election timetable and for credible election machinery to be put in place. This condition is unlikely to be met since the de facto government consummated the 9-member provisional electoral council (CEP) last week without any representative from Aristide's Lavalas Family party (FL). In the FL's place, the de facto CEP appointed a Duvalierist: Josepha Raymond Gauthier, the daughter of Adrien Raymond, a former foreign minister of the Duvalier dictatorship.

Caribbean leaders also called on the Latortue regime to disarm all known criminals, particularly the "rebel" leaders who spearheaded Aristide's illegal overthrow.

Human rights groups and fact-finding delegations have accused Latortue's government of exacting political vengeance against Aristide backers while allowing the "rebels" to keep their weapons. Most of the "rebels" are former soldiers or Tonton Macoutes, and their leaders have been convicted by Haitian courts of murder and other crimes.

Perhaps the Caribbean leader who most strongly argued for holding the line against Haiti's coup was St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. "I haven't seen any progress by Latortue's administration," he said during the summit. "The position of the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines, unless I can be convinced otherwise, is that the heads [of CARICOM states] or group of heads can go and meet Latortue. The heads can go, but they will not be representing me."

"Latortue was installed by the Americans," he added. "You do not have democracy in Haiti today."

Latortue reacted with customary bluster to this diplomatic defeat. "How can you talk about a setback?" he bellowed while interrupting one reporter questioning him about CARICOM's declaration. "Where is this setback?" He called CARICOM's conditions "utter nonsense" and tried to belittle the group, saying that "regional organizations cannot say anything" about Haiti's de facto regime after it had been recognized by the UN Security Council (thanks to its being dominated by the U.S. and France) and the Organization of American States at a Quito, Ecuador summit last month.

"This problem is not really Haiti's," Latortue continued. "This is a CARICOM problem, because within CARICOM they have the rule of consensus and unanimity. But, basically, 12 out of the 14 CARICOM countries have decided to have relations with Haiti." Latortue's outlandish claims that contradict manifest reality are one of his trademarks.

He argued that Haiti has never had much to do with the regional organization. "Relations were actually between CARICOM and Aristide, not really between CARICOM and Haiti," he said.

Latortue pointed to an upcoming Washington lenders conference, sponsored by the nations which installed him, to distract attention from his "insignificant" neighbors' continuing contempt. "It is the whole world that is with us," he blithely declared, predicting that Haiti would be showered with aid. But then, as if to acknowledge the universal skepticism with which his remarks are greeted, he added: "If a head of government is not optimistic then he will not progress... So, this is the reason why I maintain my optimism for the sake of Haiti's development, for the creation of jobs, for Haiti's fight against corruption, and for Haiti behaving in a way that will prevent insignificant countries from showing disrespect towards us."

Haiti's pro-coup politicians, who have been effectively sidelined for months, finally had an issue to get lathered up about. Gérard Pierre-Charles of the Organization of Struggling People (OPL) was particularly strident. "CARICOM has proved to be irresponsible," he thundered, calling the group's position "incredible" and charging that "there has never been a CARICOM policy because it was just following Aristide."

Pierre-Charles claimed that CARICOM had called for imprisoned constitutional Prime Minister Yvon Neptune's release (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 22, No. 16, 6/30/2004) as a condition for recognition (which CARICOM denies ever demanding). "I consider this interference in Haiti's internal affairs," Pierre-Charles said, repeating the de facto's widely scoffed at charge that Neptune ordered the Feb. 11 massacre of 50 people in St. Marc. "He would have killed 500 people, he would have killed 5,000 people," if not unconstitutionally removed, Pierre-Charles frothed.

Neo-Duvalierist Hubert Deronceray used even more hyperbole. Like Pierre-Charles, he called the phantom condition of Neptune's release "a scandalous and immoral act" by a regional organization which continues "to show that it is in the service of the dictators, arsonists, murderers and criminals of the ousted regime."

Deronceray also characterized the calls for disarmament of the "rebels" as "statements that discredit CARICOM and make it sound ridiculous."

Since its installation, CARICOM leaders have doggedly refused to recognize Latortue's government. The regional group had worked feverishly for a peaceful resolution to Haiti's political crisis as "rebels" advanced on cities in Haiti's north.

In "The Caliviginy Statement on Haiti" (named for the island off Grenada's coast where it was drafted), the Caribbean leaders stated that they "remained opposed to any interruption of the democratic process and reiterated that any such development could constitute a dangerous precedent for democratically elected governments."

"The removal of democratically elected governments by extra-constitutional means is unacceptable to the membership of the Community," the statement also reads.

By shunning Haiti's de facto regime, CARICOM continues to thwart Washington's efforts to depict the Latortue government as legitimate.