Haitian politicians yesterday began to forge alliances while the country remains semi-paralyzed, with schools and businesses closed, amid shootings and with 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, under the control of armed gangs. Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Puerto Rico yesterday after he was not allowed to land in the Dominican Republic, where airspace to and from Haiti was closed. According to the Miami Herald, Henry received a message mid-flight from the Biden Administration asking him to resign and accept a transitional government.
Henry was appointed prime minister with the support of the international community after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. On February 28, Henry agreed to “share power” with the opposition, within the framework of an agreement that provides for elections in a year.
Armed gangs began attacking critical infrastructure late last week while Henry was in Kenya pushing for the African country to deploy a U.N.-backed police force to help combat violence in Haiti. It was after the signing of that agreement, on Tuesday, that Jimmy Chérizier, alias Barbecue, a former police officer who heads a group of gangs called G9, threatened “a civil war that will lead to genocide” if Henry remains in power. Also last weekend, the country’s two largest prisons were raided and more than 4,000 inmates were released.
In this situation, a new political alliance involves former rebel leader Guy Philippe and former presidential candidate and senator Moïse Jean Charles, who told Radio Caraïbes yesterday that they signed an agreement to form a three-person council to lead Haiti. Philippe, a key figure in the 2004 rebellion that toppled Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has been calling for Henry to resign.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, yesterday urged the international community to act “quickly and decisively” to prevent Haiti from “descending further into chaos.” Türk recalled in a statement that since the beginning of this year at least 1,992 people have been killed and another 692 have been injured by gang violence. The country’s health system is on the verge of collapse, with many hospitals without the capacity to care for gunshot wounds; Children are recruited by gangs and “the economy is suffocated,” said Türk. This violence has caused the internal displacement of at least 313,000 people, and even basic goods such as clean water are difficult to obtain.
