PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICCOM) leaders began a historic summit here on Monday with CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque indicating there is a need to stave off existing challenges to the regional integration movement that is observing its 40th anniversary. LaRocque told regional leaders that there can be no greater indicator, “symbolic and substantive, that Haiti has taken its rightful place within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) by hosting the summit. “Ten and a half years after its formal accession as a member state of CARICOM, for the first time a President of Haiti is Chairman of CARICOM. Also for the first time, Haiti is hosting a meeting of the Heads of Government,” he said.
