Politician allied with coup leader rejects offer to join U.s.-backed transition
A former senator and Haitian presidential candidate whose connection to the streets and alliance with a one-time coup leader is viewed as both an asset and liability by those helping to chart a new future in Haiti has rejected an offer to join the country’s political transition and influence the new government.
Jean-charles Moïse, the founder of the Pitit Desalin party, is among several influential Haitian figures whose political parties or organizations were chosen by an international coalition to help select the members of a presidential panel to oversee Haiti’s transition and choose a new prime minister. The new government would ready the country for the arrival of a multinational security force and eventual elections.
But as members of the 15-member Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, on Wednesday awaited the names of those who will make up the presidential panel, Moïse officially announced his rejection of the offer.
“I can’t understand what CARICOM is asking of us,” he said in his trademark firebrand shouting voice, surrounded by journalists. “We reject it.”
Also known as Moïse Jeancharles, the veteran politician said his political bloc is not interested in joining the deal that emerged Monday in Jamaica during an emergency meeting about
Haiti’s worsening crisis. Instead, he reiterated support for his own plan: a three-person presidential council that includes Guy Philippe, the former rebel leader who led a 2004 rebellion that ousted Haitian President Jeanbertrand Aristide.
Imprisoned in the United States after pleading guilty to drug-trafficking related charges, Philippe was deported to Haiti in November after a six-year prison stint. Almost immediately, he began traveling throughout the country, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
“Like it or not,” Moïse said, “we are going to install our own presidential council.”
Haitians and the international community agree that after years of being wracked by violence and poor governance, Haiti needs stability. But how to achieve it remains a source of divisive debate and disagreement both among Haitians and the countries trying to help. The inclusion of Moïse’s political party in the transition had created angst for some of the other groups, which threatened to pull out if his party was included, fearing that he would bring with him his alliance with Philippe.
Sources told the Miami Herald that even before Caribbean leaders met in Kingston on Monday, Pitit Desalin had support to be included in the new transition plan despite Moïse’s recent alliance with Philippe.
For some Caribbean leaders Philippe, a former Haiti National
Police officer who has been amassing a following, is seen as more of an asset than a liability. So too is Moïse, who earlier this year, as he led a protest against Henry, told Haitians to destroy the country and he would help them rebuild it.
For the U.S., which canceled Moïse’s U.S. visa back in 2022, and others in the international community, the idea of Philippe being involved in any new Haiti government is a non-starter. However, recognizing that Moïse has support in the streets, the group of nations that met in Jamaica this week seemed open to having his party represented as long the person the party names to the presidential panel met the criteria set out for joining.