Today 80 US religious denominations, human rights groups, and development agencies including the Jubilee USA Network, the AFL-CIO, the ONE Campaign and TransAfrica Forum sent a letter to US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, urging him to negotiate immediate debt cancellation for Haiti by the international financial institutions.

As the International Monetary Fund prepares to meet on Wednesday to vote to approve a $100 million emergency loan for Haiti and discuss possible debt cancellation, the groups urge the United States use its leadership to ensure that Haiti’s existing debt be cancelled definitively and that any new money comes in the form of grants, not loans.