In recent weeks, thousands of refugees from Haiti have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, desperate for a better life. Most left Haiti years ago, after a 2010 earthquake ravaged what was already one of the most dismal economies in the world. They had originally settled in places like Chile, but the politics of the region have made them feel unwelcome, discriminated against, and fearful of the future.
The Haitian refugees hoped the United States, under President Biden, would offer them a lifeline. They were wrong. The Biden administration has been sending thousands back to Haiti, even though Haiti is a disaster zone, and many of the refugees fled it years ago. Some of those the U.S. government forcibly sent to Haiti are kids who have never lived there.
The best thing I can say about the Biden-Harris Administration's immigration and refugee policies is that they are Not As Bad As Trump's. The faintest praise it is possible to give.
Vice President Kamala Harris stated their basic asylum policy very well: "Do not come. Do not come."
Jake Johnston on the political violence and scandals in Haiti: "Think of it like the rapid-fire succession of Donald Trump’s outrages — but with death squads." (Haitians Don’t Need Another President Chosen Behind Closed DoorsThe American Prospect 07/19/2021)
Haiti is unlikely to be perceived as any kind of crisis for the US. But who knows? During the Reagan-Bush Administration, tiny Grenada because for a few days a critical battleground for the preservation of the Free World. At least if you accepted that administration's preposterous claims.
Johnston writes about Haiti for the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), which often provides important reporting and analysis on Latin American affairs, where the same column also appears. It provides addition information about US action in connection with the crisis of the moment, as well as the background over the last decade.
In a 2017 survey, only 18.5 percent of Haitians expressed trust in elections, the lowest rate in the hemisphere. It’s hard to believe that number has gone anywhere but down since. When [the non-assassinated Jovenel] Moïse was elected president that year, he did so with the votes of 590,000 in a country of 11 million. The U.S., U.N., and OAS recognized his victory, but it’s unclear if the population ever really did. When February 7, 2021, came, and many in Haiti argued that the president’s term had expired, Moïse pointed to the opinions of those same foreign entities, all of which backed his effort to remain in power. Without a functioning constitutional court in Haiti, there was no legal body to definitively rule on the matter. But rather than convening a dialogue to forge a broad political agreement, the support of international actors allowed Moïse to continue on as if nothing had changed.
For more than a year, Haitian civil society organizations have been coming together, discussing and debating a more responsible path forward. After the assassination, the U.S., U.N., and the OAS have insisted on the holding of elections later this year. But instead of another deeply flawed election under a political system that garners little trust, these civil society groups have instead advocated for a transitional government that could oversee needed reforms, restore some semblance of faith in government, and oversee truly free and fair elections at a time when those are actually possible. [my emphasis]
In a piece just before the assassination of the President Jovenel Moïse, Johnston was writing that Biden Continues Trump’s Policy in Haiti Despite Bipartisan Congressional Pushback CEPR 07/06/2021:
Last week, a prominent anticorruption activist, journalist, and emerging political leader, Antoinette Duclaire was brutally assassinated in Port-au-Prince. Killed alongside her was fellow journalist Diego Charles. Duclaire was shot seven times in the front seat of her vehicle, including once in her left temple. Duclaire had previously warned that she was facing death threats, and, In February, her house was shot up by unidentified gunmen.
Sadly, this shocking assassination is but the latest tragedy in Haiti. There have been more than a dozen massacres since the fall of 2018, when youth organizations launched a nationwide anticorruption movement. In 2020, the US sanctioned a former Haitian police officer and alleged death squad leader, Jimmy Cherizier, and two other government officials for their involvement in the 2018 La Saline massacre, in which some 71 people were killed. In just the last week, at least 60 people have been killed in the escalating violence.
Johnston read US policy as continuing the Trump-Pence Administration's support of Moïse rule, who since January 2020 had been governing "by decree without any checks or balances." He wrote that "even under Biden, the United States has continued to side with Moïse as he brazenly attempts to change the constitution to greatly expand executive powers and immunity for himself and other elected politicians."
And he wrote:
Former president Donald Trump, whose administration provided steadfast support to the current Haitian president, notoriously referred to the nation as a “shithole” after a campaign stop in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood. During his own campaign, Biden stated that “The Trump Administration is abandoning the Haitian people while the country’s political crisis is paralyzing that nation.” Yet, under the Biden administration, there has been no sign of significant change in policy toward Haiti. Though the Biden administration did grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitian migrants this spring, in its first few months in office, the new administration deported more Haitians than the Trump administration did in the entirely of fiscal year 2020. Unfortunately, this has all occurred largely outside the spotlight of the international media. [my emphasis]
The acting Prime Minister of Haiti, Claude Joseph, has stepped down in favor of Ariel Henry, as Jacqueline Charles reports for the Miami Herald, Ariel Henry takes charge of Haiti as country continues investigation into president’s killing 07/20/2021:
As the latest person to take the helm of Haiti’s government, Henry faces a litany of challenges. The economy is in shambles, a political and constitutional crisis is deepening and gang violence remains a constant concern.
While the international community, which backed his nomination after initially supporting his predecessor, is pressing for elections, a divided opposition is pushing for a transition and seems unwilling to give him or the new government a chance.
“We have to reestablish trust,” Henry said. “We have to reestablish the authority of the state in all four corners of the country.”
Civic and political leaders, some of whom Henry once collaborated with, criticized his nomination because it was not the product of a political accord with the opposition but of Moïse’s own choosing. The criticism continued when the names of his cabinet members were released late Monday, and it was revealed that several ministers are holdovers from the previous government.
The United States, seconded by other “Core Group” nations like France, Canada, Germany, Spain, and Brazil, pushed out Haiti’s Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph in favor of Dr. Ariel Henry, 71, who was installed as the new Prime Minister on Tue., Jul. 20.
Joseph had assumed the role of leading the Haitian state in the aftermath of de facto President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination on Wed., Jul. 7 because Henry, who had been named to the PM post on Jul. 5, could not be found, apparently evading a security detail which had come to fetch him to take over as Haiti’s leader, a reliable source explained to Haïti Liberté. Henry, a neurologist and former minister, had been scheduled to be sworn-in later on the fateful day. But since Henry made himself scarce (perhaps frightened by the Moïse’s grisly murder), Joseph seized power and refused to relinquish it when Henry re-emerged a few days later, arguing that he was the rightful occupant of the PM offices.
The “big fishes” who masterminded the assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, remain at large, a senior government minister has admitted, as the Caribbean country unveiled a new prime minister in a bid to defuse a burgeoning struggle for power.
Police have named two Haitian citizens as key suspects in the murder: a Florida-based pastor called Christian Emmanuel Sanon and the former intelligence officer Joseph Felix Badio. On Friday Colombia’s police chief, Gen Jorge Luis Vargas, claimed Badio might have given the order for two retired Colombian soldiers to assassinate Moïse in the early hours of 7 July for reasons that remain obscure. Sanon was arrested in Haiti last week, and Badio’s whereabouts are unknown.
But speaking to the Guardian, Haiti’s elections minister, Mathias Pierre, said he doubted Sanon and Badio were the main architects of a brazen crime some fear could plunge the Caribbean country into a new chapter of volatility.
Henry tiene 71 años, se formó como médico en universidades de Francia y Haití y tiene experiencia en la administración pública: formó parte del Gobierno de Michel Martelly, el antecesor de Moise, durante 14 meses marcados por la inestabilidad política.
Entre enero y septiembre de 2015 [Henry] se desempeñó como Ministro de Interior y después estuvo al frente de la cartera de Asuntos Sociales y Trabajo hasta marzo de 2016.
Diez años antes, en 2004, tras la forzada dimisión del expresidente Jean Bertrand Aristide, Henry conformó junto con otras seis personalidades, el llamado Consejo de Sabios, órgano encargado de proponer a la presidencia provisional de Haití un nuevo primer ministro.
Fue miembro del Partido Social Demócrata, luego del Partido Nacionalista Progresista Revolucionario Haitiano, fundado por su mentor Serge Gilles. El médico también se unió a la estructura Fusión de los Socialdemócratas Haitianos e integró hasta 2014 la Unión Patriótica, creada por el expresidente René Preval (1996-2001 y 2006-2011).
[Henry is 71 years old, trained as a doctor at universities in France and Haiti and has experience in public administration: he was part of the government of Michel Martelly, Moise's predecessor, for 14 months marked by political instability.
Between January and September 2015 Henry served as Minister of the Interior and then headed the Portfolio of Social Affairs and Labour until March 2016.
Ten years earlier, in 2004, after the forced resignation of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide, Henry formed, along with six other personalities, the so-called Council of Wise Men, the body charged with proposing a new prime minister to Haiti's interim presidency.
He was a member of the Social Democratic Party, then the Haitian Revolutionary Progressive Nationalist Party, founded by his mentor Serge Gilles. The doctor also joined the Fusion structure of the Haitian Social Democrats and until 2014 was a member of the Patriotic Union, created by former President René Preval (1996-2001 and 2006-2011).] (my translation; emphasis in original)
And Peter Beaumont provides a description of the recent increase of political violence in Haiti, which he describes as "the western hemisphere’s most impoverished nation, a country that since 2018 has been convulsed by protests and violence, where guns – and those prepared to use them – are the currency in an escalating crisis." (Guns, gangs and foreign meddling: how life in Haiti went from bad to worseGuardian 07/19/2021)
Beaumont also makes this very important point about the dysfuntional relationship between Haiti and its supposed foreign benefactors:
It has become routine to see one of the world’s most corrupt and ill-governed states lurch from catastrophe to catastrophe, amid coups, failed governments and natural disasters. But this current crisis brings a particular question to the fore – how, despite being the recipient of $13bn (£9.5bn) in international aid since the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 220,000 people, has the situation for Haitians, by most indicators, continued to worsen?
The very modest gains in poverty reduction in Haiti, according to the World Bank, has gone into reverse, with 60% of the country living in poverty and the richest 20% of the population holding more than 64% of its income.
Haiti is unusual among failed and fragile nations. It is not only an “aid state”, hugely dependent on external development assistance and remittances from Haitians living abroad, but one where aid and foreign intervention, far from helping, has helped undermine an almost nonexistent administration. [my emphasis]
Please excuse the double "neos," but Beaumont's account is a good brief description of how the toxic combination of neoliberalism (cutthroat "free-market" economics) and neocolonialism (indirect but very real foreign domination) have had such disastrous effects on Haiti.
My impression is that the American public, to the extent that they hear much at all in the media about US policy in Latin America, they probably imagine it's more-or-less benevolent. And the MAGA crowd thinks it's terribly weak and overindulgent because refugees.
The fact is that US policy in Latin America has generally ranged from bad to not-quite-as-bad. And the crisis in Haiti has provided a moment where that fact has imposed itself for a moment into the mainstream news.
Breaking a relative silence on the events in Haiti, President Duque told La FM radio in Colombia that his administration is providing good leads to the investigation to the assassination. ...
The president’s revelations came on the same morning that Colombian National Police Chief Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia held a news conference that was equally explosive. Highlights of his presentation were tweeted out from his Twitter account.
Three more Colombians are being sought in connection with the assassination, Vargas said, in addition to the three “neutralized,” or dead, and 18 captured. He did not reveal their names, but said the three had met with Christian Enmanuel Sanon, the Haitian doctor from South Florida who is in custody in Haiti and has been called one of the alleged intellectual authors of the killing.
Vargas also shed light on the leadership of the group that traveled to Haiti. He said a former Army captain by the name of Germán Alejandro Rivera García was wired $50,000 from the United States. He did not say by whom, although a Haitian authorities in a news conference late Wednesday identified both the Doral security company’s owner and a South Florida lender named Walter Vientemilla as persons of interest. Neither man returned phone calls Thursday afternoon. [my emphasis]
Haitian officials contend that Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a doctor and pastor who divided his time between Florida and Haiti, conspired with the others to take the reins of the country once Mr. Moïse was killed. During a raid of Mr. Sanon's residence, they say, the police found six holsters, about 20 boxes of bullets and a D.E.A. cap - suggesting that it linked him to the killing because the team of hit men who struck Mr. Moïse's home posed as agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Mr. Sanon is now in custody.
Haitian officials are investigating whether the president's own protection force took part in the plot as well, and on Thursday they detained the head of palace security for Mr. Moïse. Colombian officials say the palace security chief made frequent stopovers in Colombia on his way to other countries in the months before the assassination. The Haitian authorities offered little explanation as to how Mr. Sanon - who did not hold elected office - planned to take over once the president was killed. It was also difficult t understand how he might have financed a team of Colombian mercenaries, some of whom received American military training when they were members of their nation's armed forces, to carry out such an ambitious assault, given that he filed in Florida for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2013.
But the interviews show that several of the key suspects met to discuss Haiti's future government once Mr. Moïse was no longer in power - with Mr. Sanon becoming the country's new prime minister. [my emphasis]
Arrests are continuing, including two Americans and a bunch of Colombians:
Two South Florida men have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moïse, along with 15 Colombian nationals, Haiti police said Thursday night.
James Solages, 35, of Fort Lauderdale, was identified as one of the assailants by Mathias Pierre, a minister in charge of Haitian elections. Solages, originally from Haiti, is an American citizen, Pierre said.
Haitian officials have not released the names of the other men arrested, but they said there are a total of 15 Colombians under arrest along with the two South Florida Haitian Americans. Police said three of the assailants, Colombians as well, were killed. Earlier, Haiti police had said seven of the assailants were dead. They did not explain the discrepancy, but said they are still looking for eight other assailants, all Colombians.
And there are two significant additional contenders for heading the government, as Jacqueline Charles reports in Two politicians have been claiming they are in charge in Haiti. Now there are threeMiami Herald 07/09/2021. The article gives an idea of how seriously the national institutions of governance has deteriorate as Haiti is undergoing its own authoritarian trend. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was the first democratically elected president, winning the office in 1990. He was illegally ousted, and later restored to power by the US under the Clinton Administration.
The US is heavily involved in Haitian politics. Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America.
What the Biden-Harris Administration does in the coming weeks and months in Haiti will be a glimpse at what his Latin American policy more generally is. It's a safe bet that Haitian policy will not be a high priority for this Administration and will be largely ignored by the US corporate media. Biden gave this description of the US interest in Haiti earlier in hi career (Joe Biden In 1994: If Haiti Fell In The Sea, ‘It Wouldn't Matter A Whole Lot’)
Claude Joseph's government, the one officially recognized by the Biden-Harris Administration at the moment, is asking for US assistance, unsurprisingly. (Maria Ortiz, El gobierno interino de Haití solicitó asistencia de seguridad de Estados UnidosLa Opinión 10.Julio.2021; Evens Sanon et al, Haiti’s interim government asks the U.S. to send troopsLos Angeles Times/AP 07/09/2021) This may be an entirely sensible request on Joseph's government's part. But if the US intervened with military or other security forces on behalf of this government, that obviously could provide a real political advantage to Joseph. Although, in the situation there right now, that's not even clear.
As the LA Times/AP repots:
Haiti had grown increasingly unstable under Moise, who had been ruling by decree for more than a year and faced violent protests as critics accused him of trying to amass more power while the opposition demanded he step down.
The U.N. Security Council met privately Thursday to discuss the situation in Haiti, and U.N. special envoy Helen La Lime said afterward that Haitian officials had asked for additional security assistance.
The apparent involvement of Colombian mercenaries is another part of the story that will likely provide some interesting details as the story unfolds. The Argentine Página/12 reports (Tres colombianos más detenidos en Haití 10.07.2021):
La capital de Haití volvió a reanudar sus actividades este viernes con la reactivación gradual del servicio transporte público y un mayor número de personas en las calles, aunque la incertidumbre está latente en la población y en las distintas teorías que emergen. "Se trata de extranjeros que llegaron al país para perpetrar este crimen. Los haitianos estamos consternados", declaró un habitante de la capital. "Necesitamos saber quién está detrás de esto, sus nombres, sus antecedentes para que la justicia pueda hacer su trabajo". Algunos, como el exsenador Steven Benoit afirmaron que pueden haber policías haitianos involucrados. "Moïse fue asesinado por sus agentes de seguridad. No fueron los colombianos quienes lo asesinaron. Fueron contratados por el Estado haitiano", dijo el viernes en la radio el exsenador Steven Benoit, sobre la confusa trama que desestabiliza al país con mayor pobreza del continente.
[Haiti's capital resumed its activities on Friday with the gradual reactivation of public transport service and a greater number of people on the streets, although uncertainty is latent in the population and in the different theories that emerge. "These are foreigners who came to the country to perpetrate this crime. Haitians are dismayed," said a resident of the capital. "We need to know who is behind this, their names, their background so that justice can do its job." Some, like former Senator Steven Benoit, claimed that Haitian police may be involved. "Moïse was killed by his security agents. It was not the Colombians who murdered him. They were hired by the Haitian state," former Senator Steven Benoit said on the radio Friday, about the confusing plot destabilizing the continent's most poverty-stricken country.] {my translation}
The ongoing police operation was expected to go through the night, Communications Minister Pradel Henriquez said. He reminded Haitians that “a state of siege” had been declared that “involves a curfew” and also limits press freedom. ...
Moïse was guarded by his own personal security, who are part of a specialized unit of the Haitian National Police assigned to the presidential palace. But sources say there have always been concerns about his security being inadequate, which at one point led him to hire foreigners to beef up his guard. Last August the head of the Port-au-Prince Bar Association, Monferrier Dorval, was gunned down not far from the president’s private residence. No one has been charged with the killing.
Le Nouvelliste, Haiti’s largest newspaper, reported Wednesday that Moïse’s body was riddled with bullets. There were signs the president may have been tortured.
Mehdi Hasan reports on the Haitian situation, also giving some historical background. "It's easy to dismiss the nation of more than 11 million people as a mess," he says - presumably referring mainly to his American audience - "but it's important to know how much the US has been intimately linked with the social, political, and economic crisis that Haiti has faced." Haiti On The Brink Of Chaos After President AssassinatedThe Mehdi Hasan Show 07/08/2021:
Luis Bruschtein in the Argentine paper Página/12 describes the assassination against the background of a long history of American influence and intervention in the small, very poor country (La condena de Haití 08.07.2021):
El asesinato del presidente Jovenel Moise en Haití, por una banda parapolicial, de las más de 70 que existen en ese país, ha generado el temor de que se produzca una nueva intervención internacional seguramente encabezada por Washington o de que se afiance el poder territorial de las bandas de narcos parapoliciales. ...
Haití no pudo levantar cabeza, condenado por su origen esclavo afroamericano. Se sucedieron los dictaduras y la miseria hasta que en 1957 asumió el médico rural Francois Duvalier, con un discurso antimperialista que rápidamente viró hasta convertirse en aliado de Estados Unidos. Papá Doc y su grupo parapolicial, los Tonton Macoute, se convirtieron en el paradigma de las dictaduras terroristas latinoamericanas.
Ante la inestabilidad permanente de la dictadura militar y la presión de la migración multitudinaria de haitianos que huían de la miseria, el presidente Bill Clinton volvió a invadir Haití, pero esta vez para reponer a Aristide. El popular sacerdote resistió las presiones, se negó a privatizar las empresas estatales, pero las concesiones en el plano económico hicieron fracasar su gobierno y terminó exiliado en Sudáfrica.
[The assassination of President Jovenel Moise in Haita by a parapolice gang, one of the more than 70 that exist in that country, has generated the fear that there will be a new intervention, surely led by Washington or that the territorial power of the parapolice drug gangs will take hold. ...
Haiti {in its history as an independent country} could not raise its head, condemned by its African-American slave origin {which greatly affected its relations to the US}. Dictatorships and misery followed until 1957 when the rural doctor Francois Duvalier took office, with an anti-imperialist discourse that quickly turned to become an ally of the United States. Papá Doc and his parapolice group, the Tonton Macoute, became the paradigm of Latin American terrorist dictatorships.
Faced with the permanent instability of the military dictatorship and the pressure of the massive migration of Haitians fleeing poverty, President Bill Clinton again invaded Haiti, but this time to restore {[Jean-Bertrand} Aristide to power. The popular priest resisted pressure, refused to privatize state-owned enterprises, but economic concessions brought his government to ruin and he ended up in exile in South Africa.] {my translation: emphasis in original}
Aristide's restoration to power by the Clinton Administration in 1994 under the immediate threat of an military invasion by the US was arguably an intervention to restore a legitimate democratic order. How beneficial that intervention may have been for Haiti and is people is certainly questionable. Former President Jimmy Carter took the lead in cooperation with the Clinton Administration in negotiating a peaceful transition for Aristide's restoration in face of the impending invasion.
Britannica Online's description of Aristide's career as President provides a good summary and timeline (Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 2020):
Encouraged to run for president by the mass movement known as the Lavalas (which means “flood” or “torrent” in Creole), Aristide in 1990 won Haiti’s first free democratic election and was inaugurated on February 7, 1991. As president he initiated a literacy program, dismantled the repressive system of rural section chiefs, and oversaw a drastic reduction in human rights violations. His reforms, however, angered the military and Haiti’s elite, and on September 30, 1991, Aristide was ousted in a coup. He lived in exile until October 15, 1994, when the military, faced with a U.S. invasion, agreed to let Aristide return to power. He resumed the presidency, and, although he remained popular with the masses, he was unable to find effective solutions to the country’s economic problems and social inequalities. Barred constitutionally from seeking a consecutive term, he stepped down as president in 1996.
In 1997 Aristide formed a new political party, the Lavalas Family, and in 2000 he was again elected president. Although the opposition boycotted the election and charges of electoral fraud led to international calls for new or runoff elections, the results were declared official, and Aristide was inaugurated in February 2001.
A coup against Aristide failed in July 2001, but during the next several years opposition to his rule increased. He fled the country in February 2004 amid antigovernment protests that had turned into a full-scale rebellion. Despite efforts by the United States to ensure that he remain in South Africa — where he had been living in exile — he returned to the country several days prior to the presidential runoff elections of March 2011. [my emphasis]
At age 67, Aristide was in Cuba being treated for COVID-19, as AFP reported, Haiti ex-president Aristide being treated for Covid in CubaFrance 24 25.06.2021. The report also notes, "Aristide was again forced out in 2004 under threat of another armed insurrection, popular demonstrations and pressure from the United States and France."
"Haiti always been a bad example that the US needed to eradicate." So says Brian Concannon, human rights attorney and executive director of Project Blueprint in The Majority Report episode below, explaining that he thinks the US is chronically worried about a vibrant democracy developing in Haiti, the poorest country in Latin America. He notes that there are no particularly lucrative private US interests concerned about access to Haiti. He thinks US policy is based on a kind of domino theory that democratic reforms might be contagious to other Latin American countries.
It important to remember that early reports in situations like this may include a lot of "noise," i.e., unclear information, speculation, deliberate misinformation.
As Concannon explains, the US has been very involved in intervening in Haitian politics. What happens going forward may not attract much attention in the US press. But what role the Biden-Harris Administration plays in the coming weeks and months may provide important clues about their Latin American policy.
Both the Majority Report and Aljazeera English report above describe the recent authoritarian trend in Haiti. The McClatchy newspaper Miami Herald editorially calls for the US to take an active role in the current political transition. Exactly what they envision the US doing isn't clear. But they frame their pitch in the familiar language of "humanitarian intervention":
All of this adds up to one thing: The United States, which has been content to stay mostly quiet on Haiti in both the Trump administration and the Biden administration, will have to get off the sidelines — immediately.
The lack of real engagement by the U.S. as Haiti continued to spiral down was seen by many as tacit support of Moïse, despite worrying signs for months that the president was becoming the region’s newest strongman.
In February, members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the U.S. to back a transition government in Haiti. The lawmakers said the human rights situation there was perilous, and accused Moïse of flouting democracy.
In May, the U.S. extended 18 months of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to Haitians already living in the United States, an important acknowledgment that conditions in the country had grown too unstable for citizens to return safely.
“The United States offers condolences to the people of Haiti,” a statement from the White House said on Wednesday, “and we stand ready to assist as we continue to work for a safe and secure Haiti.”
Haiti will need help from the U.S., no doubt. But what is the practical translation of working to help Haiti become safe and secure?
It’s clear that Haiti will need both immediate and longer-term guidance to move forward in a democratic way. This is a country that started out with weak institutions, and they’re now virtually non-existent. The U.S., as Haiti’s biggest donor, has no choice but to take the lead — with international partners and, importantly, Haiti’s own civil society — to stabilize Haiti. [my emphasis]
The president’s death will throw Haiti into further disarray. Since coming into office in 2017, Moïse had faced mounting protests over his governance amid a deepening political and constitutional crisis, questions about his legitimacy and accusations that he used armed gangs to remain in power. He also was accused of corruption as part of a far-reaching report into how multiple Haitian governments spent nearly $2 billion in aid from Venezuela’s PetroCaribe program.
The amended constitution of Haiti says in the case where there is a presidential vacancy in the fourth year of the term, the National Assembly has to meet within 60 days to elect a new provisional president for the remainer [sic] of the term.
But there is no parliament in Haiti to form a National Assembly.
“There is no constitutional answer to this situation,” said Bernard Gousse, a former justice minister and legal expert.
There are only 10 elected officials in the country, all senators. Joseph, the current interim primer minister, has not been ratified by the country’s parliament and has resigned. The new prime minister Moïse appointed this week, Ariel Henry, has yet to be sworn in. There isn’t even a president of the Supreme Court: René Sylvestre, the president, died last week from COVID-19 and the oldest member of the court currently heads a shadow government put in place earlier this year by the opposition.
Charles and Fils-Aimé also note:
Moïse had been ruling by decree since January 2020, and had been under pressure by the Biden administration to hold presidential and long-over due legislative elections before the end of the year.
The U.S., which has supported Moïse, had increasingly criticized some of his decisions, such as the creation of a secret intelligence agency and a decree redefining common protest practices like burning tires as terrorism. He was also criticized for firing three Supreme Court justices, whom the opposition had singled out as possible leaders of a transition.
