An Organization of American States mission to Haiti in October 2019 produced a report that acknowledged the depth of the country’s political crisis while urging dialogue as the only viable path forward. The OAS, which has played an active if controversial role in Haitian political affairs for decades, called on both the government and opposition to engage in good-faith negotiations without preconditions.
The OAS report highlighted the governance vacuum created by the expiration of the terms of all members of the Chamber of Deputies and most senators in January 2020 — an impending deadline that threatened to leave Haiti without any functioning legislative body, with the president governing entirely by executive order. The report warned that this scenario would further delegitimize the government and deepen the constitutional crisis.
Opposition groups were skeptical of the OAS’s role, pointing to past instances in which the organization had been perceived as validating electoral processes of dubious integrity. Government officials welcomed the OAS engagement but rejected any framework that implied power-sharing arrangements outside the constitutional order.
The OAS mission’s visit added international momentum to search for a political solution but did not produce a breakthrough. Observers noted that Haiti’s political actors had a long history of appearing to engage with international mediation while actually waiting for conditions to shift in their favor.