Photo Credit: Raúl Pérez /OAS
“If we do not stop the money flow, we will not stop the gangs.”
That was the warning issued by Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organisation of American States, at the 56th OAS General Assembly in Panama City, telling delegates that Antigua backs the United Nations Authorised Gang Suppression Force and all efforts to restore public order in Haiti.
The General Assembly, held under the theme ‘Firm Multilateralism in Defence of Democracy, Hemispheric Security and Stability in the Americas’ saw members states discuss a variety of issues facing the Western Hemisphere including financial health of the OAS itself, the independence of its Secretary General, and the deepening security crisis in Haiti.
“Antigua and Barbuda comes to this General Assembly with hope,” Sir Ronald told delegates, framing that hope in the country’s conviction that the organisation, despite its challenges, remains essential to the hemisphere.
Since taking office, OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin has made Haiti a top priority since his address in Antigua last year, making the crisis a central plank of his agenda and publishing a Roadmap for Stability and Peace.
Sir Ronald welcomed the direction that the Secretary General is taking on this issue but pressed member states during his intervention to confront what he described as the deeper structural threat facing the country Haiti’s gangs feed off.
“We must disrupt drug trafficking, illicit financial flows, and money laundering that emanates from Haiti,” Sanders said. “We must identify, sanction, and prosecute those who finance and support gang activity wherever they operate, inside or outside of Haiti.”
Sir Ronald also called for greater attention to maritime surveillance, coastal monitoring, and border security, arguing that the flow of weapons, ammunition, drugs, and criminal actors into and out of Haiti has to be disrupted if the gangs are to be weakened.
He framed the crisis not as a problem isolated to one country but as a test for the hemisphere as a whole, telling delegates that the international community, and particularly countries of the Americas, must act in a coordinated manner against the transnational criminal networks operating in Haiti.
Beyond Haiti, Sanders turned to the financial health of the OAS itself, warning that the organisation’s regular fund is under significant strain and that its reserves, intended to protect against unforeseen shocks, have been depleted.
He told delegates that the approved budget ceiling for 2027 stands at 95.6 million US dollars, which in real terms is lower than the organisation’s budget 15 years ago, and that the proposed 2027 programme budget does not address 16.7 million US dollars in unfunded and underfunded needs identified by the General Secretariat.
“Antigua and Barbuda supported this budget to ensure continuity of operations, but not because the budget resolved the organisation’s structural financial challenges,” he said, adding that chronic underfunding carries real consequences for anti-corruption and security programmes, climate resilience initiatives, technical cooperation, and human rights mechanisms.
Sir Ronald further pressed the Assembly on the independence of the OAS Secretary General and the international civil service, describing it as a fundamental principle of the Charter that is essential to the institutional balance of the organisation and its ability to serve all member states impartially.
He noted that accountability is equally essential but said it must be exercised through established mechanisms and in accordance with the OAS Charter rather than through the unilateral preferences of any single government.
Sir Ronald, in closing, said Antigua and Barbuda values the OAS and believes it can do more for the peoples of the Americas, but that doing more requires an organisation that is consensus-driven, adequately financed, accountable, modern, and responsive.
“Antigua and Barbuda chooses an OAS that is strong, independent, properly resourced, and representative of all of the peoples of the Americas, whose states choose to be part of this common endeavour,” he said.
No country wants to see gangs and violence undermine communities and opportunities.