Haiti's prime minister says he'll resign once a transitional council is created
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Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry speaks to students during a public lecture on bilateral engagement between Kenya and Haiti, at the United States International University (USIU) Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 1.Simon Maina / AFP via Getty Images -
Members of the G9 and Family gang speak to each other while standing guard at their roadblock in the Delmas 6 neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday.Odelyn Joseph / AP
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, and SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Haiti's prime minister has agreed to resign once a transitional presidential council is installed and a new interim prime minister is named.
"The government will resign immediately after the installation of this council and will remain in office to handle current affairs until the appointment of a prime minister and a new government," Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry said in a video statement posted online early Tuesday.
Stranded in Puerto Rico and unable to return to Haiti, Henry had come under mounting pressure to step down from Haitian stakeholders and criminal gangs, as well as leaders of neighboring Caribbean countries, the United States and other countries.
The regional bloc known as Caricom (Caribbean Community) met in Jamaica with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss Haiti's deepening institutional, security and humanitarian crises. Caricom brokered a deal for a peaceful transition of power and announced Henry's resignation, even before he did.
The president of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, said they had agreed to a seven-voting-member transitional council made up of the major political parties in Haiti, and two observers. Ali said the gangs, which control about 80% of Haiti's capital, were not consulted in the deal.
Henry, a 74-year-old neurosurgeon, had been tapped as prime minister by late President Jovenel Moïse just days before Moïse's assassination in 2021. Henry jostled his way into the top spot with the backing of the United States — and has had a tumultuous term ever since.
He promised to lead the country toward elections, but the vote was put on the back burner as gangs grew ever more powerful.
Last month, Henry announced he would delay elections until next year. Gangs in Haiti reacted by forging a federation and they began to systematically attack government facilities — the airport, the port, police stations.
Earlier this month, Henry met with Kenyan President William Ruto in Nairobi and signed an agreement allowing a Kenyan-led, U.N.-backed multinational security force to help quell growing violence in Haiti.
But on Tuesday Kenya said it had put plans to deploy the multinational force on hold until a new Haitian government is named. U.S. State department spokesman Matthew Miller said the council should be formed in the next day or two and that Kenya will wait for that to happen, before deploying.
With the prime minister still abroad, Haitian gangs attacked jails in the capital of Port-au-Prince — killing a number of police officers and releasing thousands of prisoners.
Henry has been unable to return to his country and remains in Puerto Rico.
The United Nations has welcomed the political transition agreement.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general, said in a statement the secretary-general "expresses appreciation to CARICOM, and other international partners, for facilitating a way forward to resolve Haiti's political crisis and calls on all Haitian stakeholders to act responsibly and to take steps towards the implementation of the agreement in order to restore the country's democratic institutions through peaceful, credible, participatory and inclusive elections."
On Monday in Kingston, Jamaica, Secretary of State Blinken announced the United States was increasing its approved support for a multinational security mission in Haiti to $300 million and pledged another $33 million for health and food security.
"We can help restore a foundation of security that can address the tremendous suffering that innocent Haitians are experiencing, and help create the conditions that will enable them to have that opportunity," Blinken said.
But the deal Caricom reached in Jamaica raises many questions, including whether the promise of Henry's resignation will assuage the gangs.
Haitians have become painfully accustomed to repeated crises over the years. Many remain cautious about expectations for whether the latest resolution will hold.
NPR's Eyder Peralta reported from the Dominican Republic; independent journalist Harold Isaac reported from Haiti.
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Transcript
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Facing a revolt by gangs at home and increasing calls for him to leave his post from the international community, Haiti's de facto prime minister says he intends to resign.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER ARIEL HENRY: (Non-English language spoken).
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In his speech, Ariel Henry thanked the Haitian people for the opportunity to serve his country with, quote, "integrity, wisdom and honor." For more than two weeks now, gangs have brought the country's capital to its knees. They've attacked the airport, police stations and jails, letting free thousands of inmates. Meanwhile, Ariel Henry has been stranded outside the country. Now, he says, he will resign once a transitional council is formed.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Eyder Peralta is making his way to Haiti. Joins us now to explain what's happening from the neighboring Dominican Republic. So let's start first with what happened, what caused this resignation?
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: So yesterday, CARICOM, which is the association of Caribbean nations, called an emergency meeting that included the United States. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, went to Jamaica. And then very late at night, the leaders from the Caribbean nations said they had brokered a way forward in Haiti. They said that Ariel Henry had agreed to resign and that it would happen after a nine-member transitional council appointed a new interim prime minister. We hadn't seen Henry for more than a week. He hasn't been able to get back into Haiti because of the violence, and we presume he's still in Puerto Rico. But we finally saw him in a video he released confirming the news last night. He said that watching all of the violence taking place in Haiti was revolting and that the government he led could not be insensitive to what was happening.
MARTÍNEZ: He hasn't been prime minister that long. What's made him so unpopular?
PERALTA: So Henry became prime minister in 2021 after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. He was appointed, not elected, and he has been controversial from the get-go. Haitian prosecutors have implicated him in the assassination of the president, a charge that he denies. And Henry had also promised to move Haiti toward elections and that hasn't happened. Haiti hasn't had elections in so long that the terms of all the country's politicians have expired, and at the same time, gangs have taken control of something like 80% of the capital. And this latest crisis was sparked by an announcement by Henry that he would delay elections until next year. That's when the gangs really got involved in politics. They used to fight each other, now they're united. They've launched coordinated attacks in an effort, they say, to topple the government.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow. All right. So gangs now getting into politics. I mean, so does this deal then now put an end to the chaos and violence in Haiti?
PERALTA: I think that's the hope of the international community, that at least it brings down the temperature. But I think the chances of that are not great. The gangs were not consulted in this deal, and whether anyone likes it or not, they are an important constituency in Haiti. We haven't heard from them, but in the past, they've said that they will not support a government imposed from abroad. Also, Haiti is a fractured country. There's something like 100 political parties, but this CARICOM deal only takes into account seven of them. And that feeds a common criticism I've heard in Haiti about all this, which is that the international community is making decisions for Haiti without consulting many Haitians. And finally, at the center of this deal is a peacekeeping mission led by the Kenyans. That's still what the international community thinks will bring order to Haiti, but it's still unclear when that deployment can happen.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Eyder Peralta on his way to Haiti. Eyder, thanks.
PERALTA: Thank you, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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