PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, (AFP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Wednesday at a Caribbean summit where he will meet Haiti’s prime minister to discuss ways forward in the violence-ravaged country.

The top US diplomat joined heads of government at the meeting of the Caribbean Community, or Caricom, in Trinidad and Tobago, where he will also meet separately with Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently visited Haiti and warned that the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation was facing “unprecedented violence” at the hands of gangs.

“The security situation is rapidly deteriorating, and humanitarian needs are soaring,” Guterres said Monday in Trinidad and Tobago, where he attended the Caricom summit following his stop in Haiti.

Guterres has led calls for a robust international force to stabilise Haiti, where the government has effectively lost control of broad stretches of territory.

But no country has stepped forward, and US President Joe Biden’s administration has made clear that it will not risk Americans’ lives, instead prioritising bolstering Haiti’s fledgling national police force.

Last week, UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said after a trip to Port-au-Prince that the world was “failing the Haitian people.”

Aides said Blinken will discuss prospects for an international force and also seek a political solution in Haiti, which has not held elections since 2016.

Blinken will “urge Prime Minister Henry to work urgently with Haitian stakeholders to enlarge the political consensus and fashion a political path forward that returns Haiti to democratic order,” said Barbara Feinstein, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Caribbean affairs and Haiti.

Haiti’s last elected president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in July 2021.

Blinken will also visit the South American nation of Guyana on his two-day trip.