By Widlore Mérancourt and Amanda Coletta, The Washington Post —
Embattled Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has submitted his resignation, clearing the way for a new government to accept the deployment of a U.N.-approved security forceto restore order to this gang-racked Caribbean nation and lead it to elections.
Henry is to be succeeded by Finance Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert, according to a decree published in the country’s official gazette. He has been leading the government since Henry left the country on a diplomatic trip two months ago. Boisvert is to work with a panel of representatives from several political parties until it appoints anew government and prime minister.
Henry, Haiti’s de facto leader since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, initially enjoyed the support of the United States and other foreign nations, but he proved ineffective at reducing endemic gang violence or restoring order in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation. He resigned in a letter dated Wednesday from Los Angeles but made public Thursday.
“We served the nation in difficult times,” Henry said in the letter. “I thank everyone who had the courage to face such challenges with me.”
While leaders in the hemisphere have expressed hope that the installation of the council would be a key milestone on a path to stability, the challenges it faces are enormous amid what observers have called Haiti’s worst crisis since a 2010 earthquake that killed 220,000 people.
Democratic institutions have been whittled away.Haiti’s presidency has been vacant since Moïse’s still-unsolved killing and its National Assembly empty since the last senators’ terms expired in early 2023. Henry has been locked out of the country since February, when a coalition of armedgangs shut down the airport, underscoring the pervasive lawlessness here and the inability of the poorly resourced police force to restore order.
The paramilitary groups, whichhave long wielded powerin Haiti, nowcontrol roughly 80 percent of the capital. In February, several of the gangs joined to attack Toussaint Louverture International Airport,several prisons, a key seaport, police stations and medical centers to demand Henry’s ouster. Some gang leaders have said they want a seat at the table in any new government.
Gangs have kidnapped or killed thousands of people, raped scores of women and children, and forcedseveral hundred thousand Haitians from their homes. Almost half of the country’s population faces acute hunger. The U.N. human rights office has called conditions here “cataclysmic.” This week, gangsattacked the Varreux fuel terminal, sparking fears ofshortages and skyrocketing prices.
Peterson Dorlus, a gas station attendant, said the station has been forced to close. It hasn’t had gasoline for a week, and diesel supplies ran out Wednesday.
“I hope the council will deliver results,” Dorlus said. “The insecurity crisis has gone on for far too long.”
Thenine-member transitional presidential council, set up by Haitian leaders, the intergovernmental Caribbean Community and the United States, includes representatives of several political parties, the private sector, civil society and the faith community. Henry had said in March that he would resign once it was sworn in.
After the arrangement was announced in March, U.S. officials said they expected the council to be stood up within 24 to 48 hours. But that was delayed. Gangs threatened chaos if the council was sworn in. One nominee stepped down after threats to her life, and members disagreed about the council’s responsibilities, highlighting the difficulties ahead for a body that must make decisions by majority vote and is made up of members who have often failed to agree on much of anything.
The council’s mandate ends Feb. 7, 2026, when a new president is to be elected.
Marie Rosy Auguste, a program director at Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network, told The Washington Post that “society must remain vigilant because some of the personalities [on the council] don’t inspire confidence.”
“Society must always remind itself that this council is transitional and does not have a blank check for life,” Auguste said. “We are already at 30 massacres and bloody events. Not a single criminal has been judged, not even in absentia. The council must set the Haitian justice system in motion.”
Jean Eddy Saint Paul, the founding director of the Haitian Studies Institute at the City University of New York, said he watched the installation of the council online and was glad to see members from across the political spectrum hugging.
“I didn’t think this council was the best option, but now this is what we have,” he said. “We … need to advise them, helping them to succeed, instead of crossing our arms and waiting for them to fail. I wish them all the best.”
Henry in 2022 called for the deployment of an international force to restore order, beat back the gangs and aid an outgunned Haitian police force. The U.N. Security Council approved the mission in October.
Kenya has pledged to lead the force, but the deployment has been held up by legal challenges. Henry traveled to Nairobi in February, before he was locked out, to finalize an agreement that would help Kenya overcome those obstacles. But the Kenyan government has said it won’t deploy a force until the council is sworn in and a new prime minister is put in place.
Funding for the international police force is also uncertain, and some members of Congress have demanded more information about its structure and rules of engagement from the Biden administration, which supports the mission but has vowed not to lead it or put boots on the ground.
Kenya’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brian A. Nichols, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said in a post on X that the swearing-in of the council is “a vital step in Haiti’s return to inclusive governance.”
Richard Senecal, a film director, said he had to move house because of gang violence and has had three contracts frozen. One is with international organizations and the Haitian government, but there is no minister to sign it. He said he lost his best assistant to the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program.
Senecal returned to Haiti in 2018 after spending eight years abroad. He said he doesn’t think that the council is the best solution, given the “challenges of unity” it will face, but he believes that it is “a compromise” and that citizens will encourage it to do its job.
“I’m still in the country because I have hope,” Senecal said. “We can’t all leave the country. We have a moral responsibility to genuine reconstruction. If we all give up, what will happen to the country? Do we hand the keys over to Uncle Sam?”
Widlore Mérancourt is editor-in-chief of the independent Haitian Creole-French-English news organization AyiboPost. Based in Port-au-Prince, he contributes regularly to The Washington Post.
Amanda Coletta is a Toronto-based correspondent who covers Canada and the Caribbean for The Washington Post. She previously worked in London, first at the Economist and then the Wall Street Journal.
Source: The Washington Post
Featured image: Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, left, and Finance Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert during a ceremony in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on July 20, 2021. (Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP/Getty Images)
