US urges transfer of power in Haiti
Chaos, armed gangs on rise
Haiti’s security crisis is reaching a breaking point. An alliance of armed gangs is pressing the country’s prime minister to resign, placing the US in the middle of a power struggle gripping the country. Aiming to ease the standoff, the Biden administration is increasing pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Henry to enable a transfer of power.
The US was not actively “calling on him or pushing for him to resign,” Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the State Department, said. But, he said, “we are urging him to expedite the transition to an empowered and inclusive governance structure.”
The impasse points to a major inflection point in Haiti, which has been plagued by nearly perpetual crises over the past several years, as tempers flare in the country of 11.5 million people over spreading unrest, food shortages, and a lack of progress in moving toward democratic elections and restoring a sense of security.
The standoff emerged after Henry, who has been backed by the US since becoming Haiti’s de facto leader after the assassination in 2021 of President Jovenel Moïse, was unable to return to Haiti on Tuesday because of doubts over safely landing at the airport in the capital, Port-auPrince, which has been targeted in recent days by gang assaults.
Henry, after landing instead in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, has not made any public statements about his whereabouts or plans to return to Haiti. In the meantime, as scenes of looting and disarray have many people in Port-au-Prince on edge, gang leaders have rushed to fill a power vacuum.
“If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’re heading straight for a civil war,” Jimmy Chérizier, a top gang leader and former police officer known more widely as Barbecue, told reporters in Portau-Prince on Tuesday.
Chérizier and other gang leaders have gone on a rampage in Port-au-Prince over the past week, clashing with police and attacking the airport, bank offices, government buildings, and prisons, including the country’s largest penitentiary, allowing thousands of inmates to escape.
While different gangs appear to be behind the latest wave of unrest, security experts warn that any alliances between the gangs tend to be fluid and subject to change. It is not clear whether gang leaders are pressing to have a specific role in governing the country.
Gunfire could be heard around different parts of Portau-Prince early Wednesday morning despite a curfew aimed at keeping people off the streets outside normal business hours. At least one court building was partially burned Wednesday, and the airport remained closed.
The deteriorating security situation is limiting the choices available to the US, which has traditionally held immense sway in Haiti’s politics. The Biden administration has made it clear there are no plans to deploy US soldiers to Haiti to assert order.
“What we’ve asked the Haitian prime minister to do is move forward on a political process that will lead to the establishment of a presidential transitional council that will lead to elections,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters Wednesday. “And we think that is urgent — that it’s urgent that he moves forward in that direction and start the process of bringing normalcy back to the people of Haiti.”
The violence unleashed by gangs is making an already acute humanitarian crisis in Haiti worse. About 15,000 people were forced to leave their homes in the past few days due to escalating violence, said Martin Griffiths, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator.