A regional analyst his warning that the Caribbean Community, Caricom, is in danger of falling apart if it doesn’t stand together against what he says is external pressure to recognise the interim Haitian administration. David Commissiong, president of the Barbados-based black activist group, the Clement Payne Movement, praised Vincentian leader Ralph Gonsalves' stand that Caricom should not recognise Haiti's interim government, describing it as a principled stand. But he said the credibility of 15-member regional grouping would be at stake if it went against Mr Gonsalves and recognised Haiti's interim government headed by Prime Minister Latortue. "Caricom had originally taken a very principled and correct position on this matter at the outset when Caricom said basically what Dr Gonsalves is still saying today, that there must be an investigation into Aristide's ouster and there must be these conditions of an end to lawlessness in the country and a return to constitutional government," Mr Commissiong said. Relations between Haiti and Caricom became strained after the former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, left office in February. Full engagement Caricom leaders were concerned about the part played by the US administration in bringing Mr Latortue to power following Mr Aristide’s departure. During a Caricom heads meeting in Grenada in July, the leaders agreed on conditions the Haitian government should meet in order to restore normal relations with Caricom. Following that, a delegation of five Caricom foreign ministers visited Port-au-Prince to meet the interim administration, political parties and civil society groups. When the visit concluded, the delegation reportedly recommended that the 15-member Caribbean community "fully engage" Haitian interim prime minister Gerard Latortue’s administration saying it was satisfied with Mr Latortue's response to the Caricom initiative. Caricom is to announce this month whether it recognises the Latortue administration. However, the Vincentian leader has since said he would not participate in any meetings of Caricom heads at which Mr Latortue is present. External pressure Mr Commissiong said that the other Caribbean leaders were now going back on their position. "The question is why are so many of our Caribbean governments reneging on that principled and correct position? We know that it’s an open secret that they have been put under pressure. They've been placed under tremendous pressure by the administration in Washington and what we are saying is we have to be prepared to stand firm. "We cannot simply cave in because the Americans say so, because they threaten us behind the scenes. We have to stand firm. "There's a fundamental principle at stake here, we in the Caribbean cannot afford to allow any great power to take down a constitutionally elected government, install their own puppet regime and then we go along and recognise that regime and bring them into a regional organisation. "If we do that, if we set that type of regional precedent then we could as well pack up Caricom, we could forget it. We could forget about the whole concept of maintaining sovereign nation states in the Caribbean and building a regional national process," he said. "If that happens they would have effectively destroyed the Caribbean integration process and movement," Mr Commissiong said. SOURCE: BBCCARIBBEAN.COM