Spanish
Panama City.- The Government of Panama has offered Haiti's government to train its police in urban and border security control to contribute to the achievement of peace in the Caribbean country, to which it has ruled out, at least for now, the sending of a police contingent, said Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino this Friday.
Haiti is mired in a long internal crisis that has devastated the economy and social fabric and is ravaged by a wave of violence promoted by gangs, which control 85% of Port-au-Prince, the capital, with a toll of thousands dead and tens of thousands displaced.
In this context, the so-called Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti was born, an international police and military force authorized by the UN Security Council - but not led by it - to help the Haitian government restore public order in the face of the security crisis.
Mulino said that a possible deployment of Panamanian police to Haiti would only occur "if the United Nations makes the call" as part of the Blue Helmets, and that he explained this to the president of the Haitian Presidential Council, Leslei Voltaire, last Friday, during a meeting held within the framework of the Summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) held in Monteria, Colombia.
"We discussed the issue; the situation Haiti is experiencing is very delicate, (...) I told him that Panama would gladly participate if the United Nations makes the call; these are the Blue Helmets," Mulino stated during his weekly press conference.
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The Panamanian ruler also offered Voltaire to "receive in Panama, a number to be determined, Haitian police officers to be trained in the subject of urban police control and in the border sector", in the academies of both the National Police of Panama and those of the National Border Service (Senafront). "That's what we have so far. Participation not yet, and I believe, and I told the president (of the Haitian Council) that perhaps Panama's support is much better if we train them here, so they can do their job" in security matters, added Mulino.If the training of Haitian forces in Panama "cannot be done, we will have to resort to it and I think it is important as a member country (non-permanent) of the UN Security Council, to contribute to the development of peace and democracy in Haiti," concluded the Head of State.
