Gustavo Goes to Haiti

As Haiti and Colombia bleed, their leaders meet in Jacmel

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and President of Haiti's Conseil Présidentiel de Transition (CPT) Leslie Voltaire in Jacmel, Haiti, 22 January 2025. Photo: Fotografía oficial de la Presidencia de Colombia.

This past Wednesday, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro paid a visit to the southern Haitian city of Jacmel. A radiant town fronting the Caribbean that once played host to Latin American figures such as Simón Bolívar and Ramón Emeterio Betances - welcomed by Haiti’s leaders when much of the rest of the hemisphere shunned them during their struggles to free the region from colonial rule - Jacmel was perhaps a logical choice for a visit by the chief of state of one of South America’s most emblematic nations.

In the late afternoon, after a considerable delay, the president’s plane landed and he was welcomed by the current occupant of the rotating presidency of Haiti’s unelected “transition council,” Leslie Voltaire, and then headed to the Hôtel Manoir Hadriana for a meeting “aimed to strengthen bilateral ties and establish strategic partnerships for the benefit of both nations.” During his four hour visit, Petro strolled around enjoying cultural performances and the evocative architecture of one of Haiti’s most beautiful towns. 

One could be forgiven for thinking that all was well in both nations given the convivial atmosphere that prevailed. However that, alas, was not the case and the trip highlighted some of the fragilities of the political forces sitting atop both countries as much as it threw light on their shared histories.