Haiti’s PM names new Cabinet as gangs challenge his rule
After four months and weeks of speculation, Haiti has a new Cabinet taking charge of its day-to-day governance amid an alarming spike in violence by gang members who are abducting people for ransom, blocking fuel distribution and carrying out attacks on neighborhoods.
Interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the 73-year-old who took charge of the country following a power struggle after the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, installed the new Cabinet on Wednesday.
Along with tackling the country’s widening insecurity, the Cabinet faces other challenges, including restoring the state’s authority, deciding on raising taxes and removing fuel subsidies in order to better serve the population.
Cabinet ministers, he said, will also need to help prepare the country to adopt a new constitution and elect a new president, parliament and mayors.
“It is an ambitious and difficult challenge, given the climate of insecurity that some have chosen to reign in various corners of the territory,” Henry said. “Our country is experiencing a difficult situation. By saying this I don’t want to panic anyone. But it is up to us to understand the complexity of the situation if we want to make the right decisions together.”
The new ministers include some familiar faces (former Education Minister
Nesmy Manigat and Health Minister Alix Larsen will once more resume the roles that they held in other administrations.) and new faces (Justice Minister Berto Dorcé). Henry also replaced Foreign Minister Claude Joseph with Jean Victor Géneus, a former ambassador to the Bahamas.
“With the installation of a new government, we are entering a decisive new stage in the interim period,” he said. “One of the main tasks of this government is to create a safe and stable environment, conducive to the organization of popular consultations for the adoption of a new constitution and the choice of new elected leaders who will have to manage our country both nationally and locally.”
The list released by Henry consists of only eight changes in the 18-member Cabinet, leaving some to speculate that two months after the signing of a political pact between Henry, political parties and other organizations, he still has not fully found a consensus on who should be in his interim government.
He hinted as much during Wednesday’s installation ceremony. Henry said that while some have found that he spent too much time in his search for a consensus in order to name a new Cabinet, he continues to believe that the rescue of Haiti requires an approach that is as inclusive as possible.
“I have not yet succeeded in convincing everyone, but I do not despair in being able to make one another understand the urgent need to join this common front against insecurity, corruption, misery and the recovery of our country,” he said.
The formation of the new Cabinet had been a source of intense negotiations, with members of the radical opposition known as the Democratic and Popular Sector writing to Henry on Wednesday morning requesting to see the configuration of the new Cabinet before its official publication in the country’s gazette. The group, which had agreed to support Henry’s Sept. 11 political agreement, reminded him that it would not participate “in a government dominated by those who have destroyed the country for the past 10 years.”
The reference was related to supporters of Moïse and former President Michel Martelly and their Tèt Kale Party, or PHTK, which made up the bulk of Henry’s previous Cabinet.
In reference to his political accord, Henry said, “this agreement is not an agreement between friends, but the result of a compromise between compatriots who only yesterday fought each other and who understood that the salvation of our country required of them a lot of self-sacrifice and a real going beyond their group interests.“
A neurosurgeon, Henry has faced a rash of criticism as gangs challenge his rule amid a worsening economic and political crisis that has pushed the country to the brink of complete collapse. The catastrophic situation has forced those with means to flee to the neighboring Dominican Republic and those without to take to
the high seas.
In response to the continual uncertainty, widespread insecurity and recent fuel shortage, citizens of both Canada and the United States have been urged to leave. The warnings come as 14 Americans and a Canadian remain hostages after being abducted at gunpoint on Oct. 16 by a gang east of Port-au-Prince.
‘UNBEARABLE’
On Sunday, two of the hostages, who are missionaries with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, were released on humanitarian grounds after one of them fell ill. But the others remain in captivity more than a month later.
In a statement, the medical-aid group Doctors Without Borders called the insecurity in Port-au-Prince “unbearbale.”
The armed clashes have led to people being gunned down and homes being pillaged and burned. A recent fuel shortage brought about by gang tensions over the port led to reduced access to healthcare and the closure of schools, businesses and even hospitals. At least 19,000 Haitians have been displaced by the violence since June, the United Nations has said.
“There are currently
about eight informal displacement sites in Port-auPrince in schools, stadiums and churches. The unsanitary conditions and overcrowding in these sites pose significant risks to people’s physical and mental health and increase existing vulnerabilities,” Doctors Without Borders said. “Some women and girls have reported sexual violence, harassment and physical violence in the sites, where they lack privacy and safe spaces.”
Despite its own efforts to provide potable water and health services through mobile clinics for the displaced people, there is an urgent need, the group said, for more humanitarian support, including food, water, sanitation services and permanent shelter.
ELECTIONS IN DOUBT
The crises have raised questions about whether Henry, who was named by Moïse, will be able to usher in a new constitution and general elections next year as promised. Moïse’s presidential mandate, according to the U.S. and others in the international community, ends on Feb. 7, 2022. Without presidential elections taking place by then, the date will pose new questions about the government in place.
Among Henry’s most vocal critics are civil-society members who support an alternative road map for getting Haiti out of its current crisis. Under their competing proposal, Haiti would enter into a two-year transition with a National Transitional Council overseeing the selection of a president and prime minister on the basis of certain criteria.
The council would be made up of representatives of different social and political sectors such as women and peasant organizations, human rights and private organizations, to name a few. Widely known as the Montana agreement after it was signed at the Montana hotel on Aug. 30, it has the backing of at least 40 political parties and more than 300 civil-society organizations, and some members of the U.S. Congress.
Inviting all sectors, including those who have so far shunned his Sept. 11 accord, “to rally around the government so that together” they can curb insecurity, Henry said: “If there is one issue on which we can find national consensus, it is the need to restore order and security.”