Barbecue, the chief of the “G9 and Household” gang, stands along with his fellow gang members after talking to journalists within the Delmas 6 neighborhood of Port-au-Prince in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Haiti’s newest violence started with a direct problem from the previous elite police officer Jimmy Chérizier, often known as Barbecue, who mentioned he would goal authorities ministers to stop the prime minister’s return and power his resignation. (AP Photograph/Odelyn Joseph)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — It’s the one query on the minds of all Haitians ever since armed gangs plunged the long-suffering Caribbean nation into close to anarchy: The place on the planet is the prime minister?
The embattled Ariel Henry, who assumed energy following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, has been notably absent for the reason that nation’s newest and most critical outbreak of violence began final week. Henry has stayed silent as he crisscrosses the world, from South America to Africa, with no introduced date of return.
In the meantime, armed teams have seized on the facility void, exchanging gunfire with police at Haiti’s important worldwide airport on Monday and instigating a mass escape from the nation’s two largest prisons.
Even a decree declaring a state of emergency and curfew to revive order lacked Henry’s imprint. It was signed by his finance minister, who’s serving as performing prime minister.
“It’s the million-dollar query,” mentioned Jake Johnston, a analysis affiliate on the Washington-based Middle for Financial and Coverage Analysis. “The truth that he hasn’t even opened his mouth for the reason that violence started has stoked all kinds of hypothesis.”
By Tuesday afternoon, the thriller appeared to ease after officers mentioned Henry landed in Puerto Rico. He arrived late within the afternoon to San Juan on a chartered flight that originated in New Jersey. Monitoring information confirmed the flight was heading towards Dominican Republic, which shares with Haiti the island of Hispaniola, however circled mid-flight earlier than diverting to Puerto Rico.
Hours earlier than he arrived in Puerto Rico, the Dominican authorities introduced that it was instantly suspending all air visitors with Haiti.
In the meantime, Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer who leads a federation of gangs that has claimed duty for the assaults, repeated Tuesday his purpose of blocking Henry’s return and forcing his resignation.
“Our purpose is to interrupt the system,” Chérizier, who fashions himself a Robin Hood crusader and goes by the identify of Barbecue, advised journalists at an impromptu information convention in a slum within the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. The gang chief was surrounded by males in ski masks carrying heavy assault rifles.
“We’re combating in opposition to Ariel with the final drop of our blood,” he mentioned.
Gangs opened fired on police late Monday exterior the Toussaint Louverture Worldwide Airport in Port-au-Prince, the place Henry would seemingly land ought to he return house.
An armored truck may very well be seen on the tarmac taking pictures at gangs making an attempt to enter the airport as scores of workers and different staff fled from whizzing bullets. The airport was closed when the assault occurred, with no planes working and no passengers on web site. It remained closed Tuesday.
Colleges and banks had been additionally closed Tuesday, and public transport floor to a standstill.
“Haiti is now below the management of the gangs. The federal government isn’t current,” mentioned Michel St-Louis, 40, standing in entrance of a burned-down police station within the capital. “I’m hoping they’ll hold Henry out so whoever takes energy can restore order.”
Whereas Haiti’s issues run deep and defy any fast repair, Henry himself is more and more unpopular. His incapacity to manipulate successfully has stoked requires him to step apart that the gangs are additionally embracing, if solely to advance their very own legal pursuits, Johnston mentioned.
Henry was final seen Friday in Kenya on a mission to salvage a multinational safety power the east African nation was set to guide below the auspices of the United Nations. He left Haiti greater than per week in the past to attend a gathering of Caribbean leaders in Guyana, the place a deadline was introduced — by others, not Henry — to delay repeatedly postponed elections but once more. The balloting was pushed again to mid-2025.
That announcement is what seems to have triggered the newest explosion of violence. It started with a direct problem from Chérizier, who mentioned he would goal authorities ministers in an effort to stop Henry’s return and power his resignation.
He appeared to make good on that menace over the subsequent few days as gangs launched assaults on the central financial institution, the airport, even the nationwide soccer stadium. The fruits of the coordinated offensive came visiting the weekend when a jailbreak on the Nationwide Penitentiary and one other jail launched onto the streets of the capital greater than 5,000 inmates, lots of whom had been serving time for homicide, kidnapping and different violent crimes.
The prime minister’s workplace didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark, nor has it mentioned when Henry expects to return.
A soft-spoken neurosurgeon, Henry positions himself as a transitional determine and peacemaker who has the backing of the U.S. authorities — lengthy Haiti’s dominant overseas ally and the important thing to any stabilization effort.
However the Biden administration’s assist has not translated into recognition at house, the place Henry is reviled. Since he took energy greater than two years in the past, the economic system has been in free fall, meals costs have skyrocketed and gang violence has surged.
Final 12 months, more than 8,400 people were reported killed, injured or kidnapped, greater than double the quantity reported in 2022. The U.N. estimates that almost half of Haiti’s 11 million folks want humanitarian assistance, however this 12 months’s humanitarian attraction for $674 million has obtained simply $17 million — about 2.5% of what’s wanted.
Moreover, Henry has been unable to convey Haiti’s disparate political actors into an settlement on common elections, which haven’t been held since 2015.
The current surge in violence has renewed strain on the U.S. and different overseas powers to rapidly deploy a safety power to stop additional bloodshed. The Biden administration has pledged funding and logistical assist for any multinational power however has steadfastly refused to commit U.S. troops.
Dan Foote, who because the Biden envoy opposed requires any American boots on the bottom in Haiti, mentioned a U.S.-led army intervention can not be averted.
“It’s an absolute necessity now,” Foote mentioned in an interview. “We’ve let this slide from worse to worst, all of the whereas abdicating our duty to others. However no one can argue that Haiti isn’t a failed state when the penitentiary will get emptied out.”
Kirby gave no indication the Biden administration was reconsidering its refusal to deploy troops.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric mentioned he was unaware of any dialogue of a “formal U.N. peacekeeping mission” separate from the multinational safety power the U.N. Safety Council endorsed final 12 months. That power would contain 1,000 principally Kenyan cops as an alternative of U.N. blue helmet peacekeepers.
Whereas elections stay one of the best ways to stabilize the nation as soon as the safety is restored, the U.S. should abandon its assist for Henry for an intervention to succeed, he mentioned.
“Any elections administered by Henry received’t be accepted by the Haitian folks,” he mentioned. “If not for our backing, Haitians would’ve thrown Henry out way back.”
Goodman reported from Miami. Related Press writers Edith Lederer on the United Nations and Matthew Lee and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
