Crisis in Haiti: what future for Prime Minister Ariel Henry?
In recent days, the country has been plunged into a spiral of violence.
The death toll from the National Human Rights Defense Network stands at eight dead.
Nine sub-police stations were burned or looted and 21 institutions vandalized.
The Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, traveling abroad when the situation deteriorated, has still not managed to return to Haiti.
For its part, Caricom, the Caribbean Community, cannot agree on the behavior to adopt.
Police officers patrol outside police headquarters while Haiti remains in a state of emergency, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti March 6, 2024. © Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters
By: RFI with AFP
Advertisement
Read more
Haiti
is a country without a president and where Prime Minister Ariel Henry is absent.
Since
armed gangs
attacked the capital's two main prisons, freeing thousands of prisoners, the country has been gripped by gang warfare.
Armed bands sow terror.
The state of emergency has been extended for a month in Port-au-Prince, which has been plagued for several days by a sharp surge in gang violence, according to the Thursday March 6 publication of Le Moniteur, the official journal of this country of Caribbean.
The authorities, who have lost control of large areas of the capital to criminal gangs, have published a “
decree establishing a state of security emergency across the entire extent of the West department
”, which includes Port- au-Prince, “
for a period of one month
”.
A police station was set on fire again on Wednesday evening in the capital Port-au-Prince.
Since this weekend and
the escape of thousands of detainees
, the situation is even more tense.
And for the residents, it is difficult to live in these conditions.
Read alsoHaiti: a gang leader brandishes the threat of civil war and genocide
No political solution to the crisis yet
But how can we try to regain control of the situation?
The Caribbean Community and the United States are involved.
At present,
Prime Minister Ariel Henry
has still failed to return to his country.
Ariel Henry is still stuck in Puerto Rico.
It is impossible to know how and when he will be able to return to Haiti.
The meetings continue, but there is no political solution to the crisis for the moment.
Caricom is struggling to find an agreement between the Haitian government, the various political actors and the country's elites.
And the absence of the Prime Minister, who has governed without Parliament for a year, does not help the situation, deplores the President of the Community.
However, now is the time for urgency.
In Port-au-Prince, more than 15,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in recent days, the UN worries.
The attitude of the United States towards Ariel Henry equally vague?
According to a Miami Herald
article
published Wednesday, the United States asked him to resign.
These assertions were denied shortly after by the White House, which declared that
it expected Ariel Henry “to accelerate the transition to free and fair elections
”.
And this would involve the creation of a presidential transition council, according to Washington.
Would Mr. Henry be one of them?
The question remains.
Also listen: Haiti: the future of Ariel Henry still uncertain
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your inbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Share :
Continue reading on the same themes:
Haiti
Crime
On the same subject
Portrait
Who is Jimmy Chérizier aka “Barbecue”, gang leader in Haiti who is plunging the country into chaos?
Interview
“In Haiti, we assume that gangs always have strong links with power”