The Prime Minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, resigned on Wednesday through a letter sent to the Council of Ministers of the Caribbean country. Henry’s decision comes due to intense international pressure and while the small Caribbean nation is immersed in a deep political and security crisis that is expelling thousands of Haitians outside its borders. “I hereby, taking note of the state of affairs, present my resignation. I congratulate the members of the Government, the collaborators, the Public Administration, the Security Forces, and all those who have accompanied me during this patriotic journey,” Henry wrote in the letter, signed from Los Angeles, in the United States. . This Thursday, the so-called Haitian Transitional Presidential Council was established, which is called to organize the presidential elections and form a new Government. Meanwhile, the population awaits the arrival of a UN mission to help solve the serious crisis of violence. Michel Patrick Boisvert has been appointed interim prime minister.
Henry had advanced his resignation in mid-March, days after it was reported that at least 3,000 prisoners had escaped from the main prison in Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital, following an assault by criminal gangs that spread terror in the country. Caribbean. Among the escapees was the feared Jimmy Chérizier, known as BBQ, a former police officer who had threatened to start “a civil war” if Henry did not resign. At that time, the Government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew in much of the country to prevent a worsening of the security crisis.
Henry had assumed the position of prime minister in July 2021, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, which plunged the Caribbean country into instability and a deep political crisis. “We have served the nation in difficult times. I thank everyone who had the courage to face these challenges with me. “I sympathize with the losses and suffering suffered by our compatriots during this period,” said the prime minister. To which he added that he has served the country “with integrity, wisdom and honor.”
This Thursday morning the members of the so-called Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti were sworn in. The council was defined on April 12, after several weeks of negotiations, and its mandate includes the formation of new institutions to overcome the security crisis, unleashed by a war between dangerous gangs that are disputing large territories in the country. The violence has already generated thousands of displaced people and there are areas in the capital taken over by criminals. The clashes in Port-au-Prince have caused hundreds of inhabitants of the northern area to abandon their homes. The UN has reported that more than 2,500 people died in the first quarter of the year, while the diaspora to the neighboring Dominican Republic, with which it shares an island, has generated strong tension that has led the Dominican president, Luis Abinader, to launch a desperate cry for help to “save Haiti.” The Caribbean country is still waiting for the UN to send an international mission to help contain the violence and provide stability.
“The international community must take an active role in the situation in Haiti, but it must do so from a human rights perspective and ensure that Haitians and civil society play a role in defining solutions,” he said. Ana Piquer, director for America at Amnesty International. The crisis also keeps human rights organizations on alert. “It must be guaranteed that any foreign participation in these solutions is done within a human rights framework, learning from the very bad experiences that occurred in the past,” Piquer added in a telephone interview with this newspaper. She has also spoken of the decomposition of the country, whose situation has worsened since 2010, when a powerful earthquake destroyed much of its territory and left tens of thousands of dead.
The activist has also shown her concern about the mistreatment, discrimination and racism suffered by people fleeing the country due to violence, denouncing “racist practices” in both the Dominican Republic and the United States, the main destinations for Haitians. who go into exile. “They are people seeking international protection, fleeing a situation of massive human rights violations, a humanitarian crisis. It is not economic migration in search of opportunities, but rather it is people who have no other alternative. Despite that, they are not being given protection,” Piquer lamented.
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