Oops Caricom blocked from landing in Haiti

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Caricom-Haiti-blocked
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The Caribbean Community's emergency aid mission to Haiti, comprising heads of government and leading technical officials, failed to secure permission Friday to land at that devastated country's airport, now under the control of the USA.

Consequently, the Caricom "assessment mission" that was to determine priority humanitarian needs resulting from the mind-boggling earthquake disaster last Tuesday had to travel back from Jamaica to their respective home destinations.
He, however, told this correspondent: "I appreciate the chaos and confusion at Haiti's airport, where there is just one operational runway. But Haiti is a member of Caricom and we simply have to be facilitated and the truth is there is hardly a functioning government in Haiti."

Asked whether the difficulties encountered by the Caricom mission may be related to reports that US authorities were not anxious to facilitate landing of aircraft from Cuba and Venezuela, Prime Minister Golding said he could "only hope that there is no truth to such immature thinking in the face of the horrific scale of Haiti's tragedy".

Last evening, the frustration suffered by the Caricom mission to get landing permission was expected to be raised in a scheduled meeting at Jamaica's Norman Manley International Airport between Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Aren't they a Caricom member? I think we can all give them an assessment of what's happening in Port Au Prince...it's living hell! Honestly, sounds like a cop-out to me...a token move while the "big boys" do all the heavy lifting (literally). I do see them having a role in the reconstruction of the country...and we'll see how committed they are.

:hi:

The truth is that while CARICOM is very good at hurricanes they took too long to move here. Notice the Cubans were Haiti within hours. How do the Chinese arrive before CARICOM? CARICOM will have a key role in rebuilding the power grid for starters - we have more than enough expertise from all our hurricanes.