HAITI HELL: One Week After It Was Installed, Transitional Council Is Helplessly Divided Over New Prime Minister – Violence Continues as Gangs Demand Political Participation

Think about Haiti for a second.

A situation as dysfunctional as they have, with this extreme poverty and rampant violence, does not happen overnight – on the contrary, it is a work of decades.

And while the heavily armed rebel gangs are in the spotlight for their unrelenting attacks, the extreme societal collapse was caused by the utterly corrupt political elites.

The last elected leader in Haiti was President Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated on 7 July 2021 in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Since then, unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry extended his ‘transitional powers’ until the wave of gang attacks was unleashed while he was abroad and was unable to return.

While the situation on the ground deteriorated, elegant leaders negotiated a political solution from outside the country at the regional CARICOM community.

Their political solutions do not take into consideration the reality on the ground, and also, as they try to implement it, is impossible not to recognize how the various unelected elite players jockeying for political power are very much part of the problem.

In the words of the former police officer and current gang rebel leader Jimmy Chérizier, a.k.a. Barbecue: “It’s not just people with guns who’ve damaged the country but the politicians too.”

Gangs exchanged gunfire with police for hours in neighborhoods near the main international airport.

Associated Press reported:

“An armored police truck patrolled the streets, rolling past charred vehicles and cinderblock walls where someone had scrawled ‘Viv Barbecue’, a reference in Haitian Creole to one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders.

[…] [Chérizier] and other gang leaders have been blamed for coordinated attacks that began on Feb. 29 across the capital, Port-au-Prince. Gunmen have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

The attacks eventually forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign and led to the creation of a transitional presidential council whose majority unexpectedly announced a new prime minister on Tuesday: Fritz Bélizaire, a former sports minister. The move is threatening to fracture the nine-member council, which was sworn in last week.”

Yes, you read it right. Just one week after the unelected transitional council was installed, they are already at each others’ throats.

Haitian citizens demand a return to normalcy, while rebel gangs are still more powerful and better armed than Haiti’s National Police, but are not included in any negotiations.

Fox News reported:

“A surprise announcement that revealed Haiti’s new prime minister is threatening to fracture a recently installed transitional council tasked with choosing new leaders for the gang-riddled Caribbean country.

Four of seven council members with voting powers said Tuesday that they had chosen Fritz Bélizaire as prime minister, taking many Haitians aback with their declaration and unexpected political alliance.

The council members who oppose Bélizaire, who served as Haiti’s sports minister during the second presidency of René Préval from 2006 to 2011, are now weighing options including fighting the decision or resigning from the council.”

Some council members are reportedly considering other choices as potential prime minister.

The council was scheduled to hold an election and choose its president. But not only a council president was  chosen, but a new prime minister as well.

“A document shared with The Associated Press and signed by the four council members who chose the new prime minister state they have agreed to make decisions by consensus. The document is titled, ‘Constitution of an Indissoluble Majority Bloc within the Presidential Council’.”

The council must prepare for eventual general elections, but most of the council members are longtime politicians, and multiple analysts point out that some of the parties represented on the council are the same ones responsible for the current chaos in Haiti.

Michael Deibert, author: “The council is dominated by the same political currents who have spent the last 25 years driving Haiti over a cliff, taking advantage of impoverished young men in the slums to be used as political bludgeons before – bloated on the proceeds from kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises – these groups outgrew the necessity of their patrons.”

Read more:

HAITI HELL: Unelected ‘Transitional Council’ Chooses Second Interim PM in a Week, Gang Rebels Demand Political Participation

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