Above: Sandra Honore and Laurent Lamothe

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe met Tuesday with Sandra Honore, the new head of the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in the country.

It was the first meeting between Lamothe and Honore, a native of Trinidad who took over as the new special representative for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Haiti earlier this month.

The talks were one of several meetings between Honore and Haitian officials as she gets acquainted with the new post.

The UN will be gradually withdrawing its troops from Haiti in the coming years, and Honore’s tenure could be crucial to ensuring that there is no security vacuum in the wake of MINUSTAH’s departure.

For now, the plan is to transfer authority over to the Haitian National Police, which Haiti is seeking to increase considerably over the next few years.

MINUSTAH has already shifted from military to formed police in a number of departments in Haiti. It has also concentrated its security presence in a smaller group of hubs in cities such as Port-au-Prince and Gonaives.