Above: Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos (UN Photo/J Carrier)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The international community must continue full engagement with Haiti, Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos said during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York Wednesday.

“If there is a country in our hemisphere that requires peacebuilding as a comprehensive task, it is Haiti,” Santos said. “Its recovery requires our continuous support in order to strengthen its institutions and productive capacities, to generate employment and reduce extreme poverty and to get the United Nations to work for development in this country.”

Santos’ speech focused on a renewed call to end the ongoing violence in Syria, where more than 18,000 people have been killed in civil strife that began 18 months ago.

His comments on Haiti followed similar remarks made by Santos at the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, when the Colombian leader urged the hemisphere’s cooperation with Haiti.

“We must take ownership of the agenda of [Haiti]’s government and integrate it into our actions,” Santos said at the time. “We must work together in unity with the government of Haiti to be able to overcome its problems.”