Above: Haiti President Michel Martelly

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Leaders from across the Caribbean are expressing their condolences over the tragic deaths at an elementary school in Connecticut this week.

Haiti President Michel Martelly said he expressed his “sorrow and dismay” at the murder of the 28 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“I bind my voice to the Haitian people to express my deepest condolences to the parents and families of the victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School,” Martelly said. “As a father, I feel the pain and grief you go through at this tragic time.”

Turks and Caicos Premier Dr Rufus Ewing said TCI “stood with the people of Sandy Hook in Newtown; we stand with goodhearted Americans — who have been the friends of Turks and Caicos for over 200 years — in their hour of unimaginable sorrow.”

“We are deeply saddened, our consciences are shocked and we are outraged by this assault against innocence and the prospects of an ordinary day, the pain of which echoes across the ocean,” Turks and Caicos Premier Dr Rufus Ewing said. “In the words of President Obama, ‘our hearts are broken.'”

In a statement, Jamaica Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said she was “saddened” by the killings.

“I weep for the victims and especially the children, cut down in such a brutal manner and at such a tender age,” she said. “On behalf of all Jamaicans, I send my deepest condolences to the families and friends who no doubt are going through a very difficult time. This is a tragedy from which they will never recover.”

Organization of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza also expressed his solidarity with the families of the children who were “brutally murdered in their classrooms, along with some of their teachers.”

“These tragedies should make us reflect on the factors that influence such dramatic events like the one today,” he said, warning that “the ease with which unbalanced people or criminals have access to guns is something that must be acted on, because crimes like these can not be repeated. As long as anyone can acquire, carry and use high-powered weapons, the risk of catastrophe will always be present.”