Flag of Haiti (Photo: Wikipedia)
Politicians across Haiti are vying for power after Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced Tuesday that he would resign once a transitional presidential council was established.
But powerful gangs working their way into the race control 80% of Haiti’s capital and demand a say in the future of the troubled country under siege.
No one mentioned the armed groups as Caribbean leaders congratulated themselves Monday night for putting Haiti on a new political path, and experts warned that nothing will change unless gangs become part of the conversation.
Gangs have become stronger and have the upper hand in security, says Renata Segura of the International Crisis Group. This transition will not impact Haiti’s day-to-day security. We are very concerned.
Gangs have close ties to Haiti’s political and economic elite but have become more independent, financing their operations with ransom kidnappings to buy smuggled weapons, including belt-fed machine guns and .50-caliber sniper rifles that allow them to overpower underfunded police.
It is estimated that there are more than 200 gangs active in Haiti, mainly in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. More than twenty of them are based in the capital and rally around two main coalitions: G9 Family and Allies led by Jimmy Chziier, a former elite police officer known as Barbecue; and G-Pep, led by Gabriel Jean-Pierre, who is an ally of Johnson Andr, leader of the 5 Seconds gang and known as Izo.
Shortly before Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he would resign and Caribbean officials announced the creation of a transition council, Chzier held an impromptu news conference and rejected any solution led and supported by the international community.
It is the Haitian people who know what they are going through. It is the Haitian people who are going to take their fate into their own hands. The Haitian people will choose who will govern them, Chzier said.
He has not yet responded to the threatened resignation, which he has long sought, for claiming responsibility for the coordinated attacks on critical government targets that began on February 29, while the prime minister in Kenya was pushing for the UN-backed deployment of a police force to help fight gangs.
In recent weeks, mobs have torched police stations, forced the closure of Haiti’s two international airports and stormed the country’s two largest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 prisoners.
Dozens of people have been killed and according to the UN, more than 15,000 Haitians have been left homeless by the recent attacks.
It is unclear whether Chzier, considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader, and other armed groups will accept the plan to create a transitional council.
The council will be responsible for appointing an interim prime minister, and the new leader will work with the council to select a council of ministers.
The process that led to this presidential council… is deeply flawed and will make that process even more difficult, said Jake Johnston, a research fellow at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. Announcing a new foreign-backed government will be an uphill battle to gain any legitimacy in Haiti.
Critics of the prime minister noted that he was appointed to his position with the support of the international community, rather than elected, shortly after the assassination of President Jovenel Mose in July 2021.
While Chzier and other gang leaders have long demanded Henry step down, Johnston says it is unclear whether they are seeking power for themselves or for someone else, such as former rebel leader Guy Philippe.
Philippe, who helped lead a successful uprising against former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, was recently released from a US prison after pleading guilty to money laundering and repatriated to Haiti in November.
Johnston said he believes some armed groups want to facilitate Philippe’s rise to power.
Philippe is allied with former senator and presidential candidate Mose Jean-Charles, whose Pitit Desalin party was promised a seat on the proposed nine-member transitional council, where she will have voting rights.
Segura said the role Philippe and Jean-Charles will play in the coming days is crucial.
Philippe is one of the few politicians who currently has an open channel with gangs, she said, adding that negotiations with them are likely still ongoing. He has a foot in both worlds.
Gang violence has subsided in recent days as public transport has resumed and some banks have reopened, although schools and petrol stations remain closed. A growing number of Haitians are returning to their daily routines, but food and water remain scarce in some areas.
Jonas Jean-Pierre, a 40-year-old high school social studies teacher who withdrew money from a bank, said he doubts Haiti’s current trajectory will change.
Knowing that our politicians in this country can never put their heads together, Ariel could stay in office for another year, he said of the prime minister.
Jean-Pierre also said he was bothered by Henry’s short speech announcing his impending resignation.
This is not the first time a prime minister has gone out the back door without saying pardon to the Haitian people, he said.
Even if a multinational foreign force were ever deployed to Haiti, it would not guarantee a resolution to the crisis, Jean-Pierre added.
Johnston agreed.
You cannot stop the proliferation and activity of armed groups with violence alone, he said. If you draw this hard line and rely solely on external forces to more or less eliminate the problem, you’re not actually disrupting the root causes that are creating that violence and dynamic.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: March 13, 2024 | 6:52 am IST
