The U.S. has tried to ‘fix’ Haiti before. How will this time be different?
By Widlore Mérancourt,
Amanda Coletta and
John Hudson
March 16, 2024
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Heavily armed gangs are sowing mayhem, killing indiscriminately, breaking open prisons and blocking aid. Nearly half the country is hungry; 1 million people are starving. The country’s leader has announced plans to resign.
Haiti has been here before — several times, in fact, since the ouster of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986: Its government has fallen or been chased out, the streets have erupted, and the United States has stepped in to lead international efforts to stand up new leaders who can be seen as legitimate and will be friendly to Washington.
It has yet to work.
Haiti’s presidency has been vacant since the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moïse. Its National Assembly has been empty since the last lawmakers’ terms expired last year. Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been unwilling or unable to bring new elections.
When Henry left the country this month to build support for a U.N. security force to restore order, the gangs rampaged, shutting down the international airport and the main seaport and attacking at least a dozen police stations. They haven’t let him back in.
Now U.S. officials see a way forward. After emergency negotiations this week between U.S., Haitian and neighboring leaders, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) announced the creation of a panel of Haitian leaders to put the country on the path to elections. Henry said he’d resign once this transitional presidential council picked an interim prime minister to succeed him.
The United States has a long history of intervening in Haiti. U.S. Marines occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. Washington initially supported the murderous and kleptocratic Duvalier dictatorship. U.S. forces invaded in 1994 to restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and returned in 2004 to restore order after Aristide fled to exile.
In 2011, the United States helped Michel Martelly win the presidency. The United Nations last year accused him of using “gangs [during his term] to expand his influence over neighborhoods to advance his political agenda, contributing to a legacy of insecurity, the impacts of which are still being felt today.”
This time, U.S. officials say, they’ve learned the lessons of history. They’re not imposing a government on Haiti, they insist; they’ve made a concerted effort to center Haitians in the talks.
Haitian prime minister says he’ll resign, clearing way for new government
“It’s Haitian-designed,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Wednesday. “It’s Haitian-led.”
But critics ask just how Haitian-led an agreement can be that was negotiated by foreign diplomats meeting in Jamaica while Haitians joined by Zoom. They say it was cobbled together hurriedly and lacks a long-term vision for security.
U.S. Marines in an armored vehicle patrol Port-au-Prince in March 2004 after Aristide fled to exile in the Central African Republic. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
And they say the council would simply turn the problem over to a political and business elite that in some cases is responsible for the nation’s dysfunction. Many in this squabbling, insular group have been trying and failing to achieve political consensus and stability for years.
“The idea that this ultimately should be a Haitian-driven solution is right,” said Christopher Sabatini, senior Latin America fellow at London-based Chatham House. “The question is: Which Haitians?”
U.S. and other officials reject criticism that the agreement was drawn up in a backroom with little Haitian input. A senior State Department official told The Washington Post that at least 39 Haitian stakeholders participated in the Jamaica talks. A Jamaican official put the number at 66.
“It’s not one meeting at which things were agreed behind closed doors,” Kamina Johnson Smith, Jamaica’s foreign minister, told reporters this week.
More than two centuries of subjugation and exploitation by larger powers helped transform Haiti from the economic powerhouse of the Caribbean to the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. That history weighs heavily on the Biden administration.
Georges Michel, a Haitian historian, warned of the long history of the international community and the United States seeking to “impose their will — whether openly or discreetly.”
“The history of Haiti is replete with foreign actors trying to shape the outcomes and decisions around the leadership of Haiti,” a senior State Department official said. “And what they’ve said is that it’s vital that there be Haitian ownership of the political process and the way forward.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatically and politically sensitive situation.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, as Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness gets up from his chair, at a Kingston, Jamaica, meeting this week of the Caribbean Community to discuss Haiti. (Collin Reid/AP)
It’s difficult to overstate the severity of the crises in Haiti, a country where the legacies of colonialism include corruption, endemic poverty and warlordism. Gangs control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, the capital; they’ve killed thousands with impunity and driven hundreds of thousands more from their homes.
The country’s democratic institutions have been hollowed out. The few hospitals operating in Port-au-Prince are full. Schools are closed and businesses are shuttered; Haitians mostly stay home.
“The challenge that lies ahead is gigantic,” said Romain Le Cour, a senior expert with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. “You have to rebuild almost every institution from the ashes.”
As leader resigns, Haitian politicians rush to form new government
The council is to include seven voting members nominated by civil society, private-sector and political groups, including allies of the deeply unpopular Henry. There’s to be one nonvoting member each from the private sector and the faith community.
The panel is to make decisions by majority vote. Le Cour, for one, is skeptical it can work.
“We have to be realistic about the fact that building a transitional council with seven members — in some cases belonging to parties or currents that are antagonistic — and making them work together, align with common interests and advance toward a comprehensive and transparent and cohesive political solution is going to be a significant challenge,” he said.
U.S. officials reject claims that the council’s reliance on elite members of the business or political community poses a significant problem.
“Whether these are elites or whether or not these are people who have been active and known faces in Haitian politics or society for quite some time, I would note that those are the people that Haitians are turning to when they are trying to reach an agreement on who will represent them in this council,” the State Department official said. “This is not the group that will govern Haiti indefinitely as a group.”
Haitians shot dead in street and there’s no one to take the corpses away
There are signs already that standing up the council won’t be easy. U.S. officials said Tuesday that they expected members would be appointed in the next 24 to 48 hours. But by the end of the week, the council had yet to materialize, underscoring the deal’s fragility.
Moïse Jean Charles, a former senator and presidential candidate, told reporters here Wednesday that his Pitit Desalin party, which initially agreed to the proposal and was granted a voting spot on the council, had decided to “reject” it. He said he would not work with Henry’s allies.
“Like it or not,” he said, “we are going to install our own presidential council.”
His three-member council would include Guy Philippe, who led the 2004 rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Philippe has support from some gangs, but is barred from the negotiators’ transitional council on at least two grounds: He pleaded guilty to U.S. charges of money laundering and conspiracy, and he has publicly opposed the U.N. security mission.
Most of the negotiators’ council has been named, but a couple of seats remained unfilled, Blinken told reporters during a visit to Austria on Friday.
“This is never going to be smooth and never going to be linear,” Blinken said.
The delay in forming a council is evidence of a rigorous and inclusive process, the State Department official said.
“If this had been simply an edict from the international community … it’d be decided by them,” the official said.
‘Collective rapes’ surge as weapon in Haiti’s gang war
The United States would like to see the process move along faster, the official said, but Americans should appreciate how long it can take to forge political consensus, the official said.
“It’s being hashed out by Haitians right now, and yeah, they have differences,” the official said. “But imagine trying to come up with a similar institution in the United States if you’re talking to stakeholders in our country, to form a presidential council and you have people on one end of our spectrum and people on another end of our spectrum, trying to find a way forward in an agreement. It’s complicated.”
The Caricom plan won’t be effective unless there are serious efforts to build state capacity, Sabatini said. In the past, he said, the international community has focused on getting Haiti to elections no matter their circumstances.
“That’s dangerously facile,” Sabatini said.
Coletta reported from Toronto and Hudson from Washington. Michael Birnbaum in Vienna contributed to this report
By Widlore MérancourtWidlore Mérancourt is a Haitian reporter and editor-in-chief of AyiboPost, a renowned online news organization. He has covered major news events in Haiti for The Washington Post, including the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Twitter
By Amanda ColettaAmanda Coletta is a Toronto-based correspondent who covers Canada and the Caribbean for The Washington Post. She previously worked in London, first at the Economist and then the Wall Street Journal. Twitter
By John HudsonJohn Hudson is a reporter at The Washington Post covering the State Department and national security. He was part of the team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He has reported from dozens of countries, including Ukraine, China, Afghanistan, India and Belarus. Twitter
By Widlore Mérancourt,
Amanda Coletta and
John Hudson
March 16, 2024
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Heavily armed gangs are sowing mayhem, killing indiscriminately, breaking open prisons and blocking aid. Nearly half the country is hungry; 1 million people are starving. The country’s leader has announced plans to resign.
Haiti has been here before — several times, in fact, since the ouster of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986: Its government has fallen or been chased out, the streets have erupted, and the United States has stepped in to lead international efforts to stand up new leaders who can be seen as legitimate and will be friendly to Washington.
It has yet to work.
Haiti’s presidency has been vacant since the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moïse. Its National Assembly has been empty since the last lawmakers’ terms expired last year. Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been unwilling or unable to bring new elections.
When Henry left the country this month to build support for a U.N. security force to restore order, the gangs rampaged, shutting down the international airport and the main seaport and attacking at least a dozen police stations. They haven’t let him back in.
Now U.S. officials see a way forward. After emergency negotiations this week between U.S., Haitian and neighboring leaders, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) announced the creation of a panel of Haitian leaders to put the country on the path to elections. Henry said he’d resign once this transitional presidential council picked an interim prime minister to succeed him.
The United States has a long history of intervening in Haiti. U.S. Marines occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. Washington initially supported the murderous and kleptocratic Duvalier dictatorship. U.S. forces invaded in 1994 to restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and returned in 2004 to restore order after Aristide fled to exile.
In 2011, the United States helped Michel Martelly win the presidency. The United Nations last year accused him of using “gangs [during his term] to expand his influence over neighborhoods to advance his political agenda, contributing to a legacy of insecurity, the impacts of which are still being felt today.”
This time, U.S. officials say, they’ve learned the lessons of history. They’re not imposing a government on Haiti, they insist; they’ve made a concerted effort to center Haitians in the talks.
Haitian prime minister says he’ll resign, clearing way for new government
“It’s Haitian-designed,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Wednesday. “It’s Haitian-led.”
But critics ask just how Haitian-led an agreement can be that was negotiated by foreign diplomats meeting in Jamaica while Haitians joined by Zoom. They say it was cobbled together hurriedly and lacks a long-term vision for security.
And they say the council would simply turn the problem over to a political and business elite that in some cases is responsible for the nation’s dysfunction. Many in this squabbling, insular group have been trying and failing to achieve political consensus and stability for years.
“The idea that this ultimately should be a Haitian-driven solution is right,” said Christopher Sabatini, senior Latin America fellow at London-based Chatham House. “The question is: Which Haitians?”
U.S. and other officials reject criticism that the agreement was drawn up in a backroom with little Haitian input. A senior State Department official told The Washington Post that at least 39 Haitian stakeholders participated in the Jamaica talks. A Jamaican official put the number at 66.
“It’s not one meeting at which things were agreed behind closed doors,” Kamina Johnson Smith, Jamaica’s foreign minister, told reporters this week.
More than two centuries of subjugation and exploitation by larger powers helped transform Haiti from the economic powerhouse of the Caribbean to the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. That history weighs heavily on the Biden administration.
Georges Michel, a Haitian historian, warned of the long history of the international community and the United States seeking to “impose their will — whether openly or discreetly.”
“The history of Haiti is replete with foreign actors trying to shape the outcomes and decisions around the leadership of Haiti,” a senior State Department official said. “And what they’ve said is that it’s vital that there be Haitian ownership of the political process and the way forward.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatically and politically sensitive situation.
It’s difficult to overstate the severity of the crises in Haiti, a country where the legacies of colonialism include corruption, endemic poverty and warlordism. Gangs control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, the capital; they’ve killed thousands with impunity and driven hundreds of thousands more from their homes.
The country’s democratic institutions have been hollowed out. The few hospitals operating in Port-au-Prince are full. Schools are closed and businesses are shuttered; Haitians mostly stay home.
“The challenge that lies ahead is gigantic,” said Romain Le Cour, a senior expert with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. “You have to rebuild almost every institution from the ashes.”
As leader resigns, Haitian politicians rush to form new government
The council is to include seven voting members nominated by civil society, private-sector and political groups, including allies of the deeply unpopular Henry. There’s to be one nonvoting member each from the private sector and the faith community.
The panel is to make decisions by majority vote. Le Cour, for one, is skeptical it can work.
“We have to be realistic about the fact that building a transitional council with seven members — in some cases belonging to parties or currents that are antagonistic — and making them work together, align with common interests and advance toward a comprehensive and transparent and cohesive political solution is going to be a significant challenge,” he said.
U.S. officials reject claims that the council’s reliance on elite members of the business or political community poses a significant problem.
“Whether these are elites or whether or not these are people who have been active and known faces in Haitian politics or society for quite some time, I would note that those are the people that Haitians are turning to when they are trying to reach an agreement on who will represent them in this council,” the State Department official said. “This is not the group that will govern Haiti indefinitely as a group.”
Haitians shot dead in street and there’s no one to take the corpses away
There are signs already that standing up the council won’t be easy. U.S. officials said Tuesday that they expected members would be appointed in the next 24 to 48 hours. But by the end of the week, the council had yet to materialize, underscoring the deal’s fragility.
Moïse Jean Charles, a former senator and presidential candidate, told reporters here Wednesday that his Pitit Desalin party, which initially agreed to the proposal and was granted a voting spot on the council, had decided to “reject” it. He said he would not work with Henry’s allies.
“Like it or not,” he said, “we are going to install our own presidential council.”
His three-member council would include Guy Philippe, who led the 2004 rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Philippe has support from some gangs, but is barred from the negotiators’ transitional council on at least two grounds: He pleaded guilty to U.S. charges of money laundering and conspiracy, and he has publicly opposed the U.N. security mission.
Most of the negotiators’ council has been named, but a couple of seats remained unfilled, Blinken told reporters during a visit to Austria on Friday.
“This is never going to be smooth and never going to be linear,” Blinken said.
The delay in forming a council is evidence of a rigorous and inclusive process, the State Department official said.
“If this had been simply an edict from the international community … it’d be decided by them,” the official said.
‘Collective rapes’ surge as weapon in Haiti’s gang war
The United States would like to see the process move along faster, the official said, but Americans should appreciate how long it can take to forge political consensus, the official said.
“It’s being hashed out by Haitians right now, and yeah, they have differences,” the official said. “But imagine trying to come up with a similar institution in the United States if you’re talking to stakeholders in our country, to form a presidential council and you have people on one end of our spectrum and people on another end of our spectrum, trying to find a way forward in an agreement. It’s complicated.”
The Caricom plan won’t be effective unless there are serious efforts to build state capacity, Sabatini said. In the past, he said, the international community has focused on getting Haiti to elections no matter their circumstances.
“That’s dangerously facile,” Sabatini said.
Coletta reported from Toronto and Hudson from Washington. Michael Birnbaum in Vienna contributed to this report
By Widlore MérancourtWidlore Mérancourt is a Haitian reporter and editor-in-chief of AyiboPost, a renowned online news organization. He has covered major news events in Haiti for The Washington Post, including the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Twitter
By Amanda ColettaAmanda Coletta is a Toronto-based correspondent who covers Canada and the Caribbean for The Washington Post. She previously worked in London, first at the Economist and then the Wall Street Journal. Twitter
By John HudsonJohn Hudson is a reporter at The Washington Post covering the State Department and national security. He was part of the team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He has reported from dozens of countries, including Ukraine, China, Afghanistan, India and Belarus. Twitter
Gangs force nearly half of all Haitians to seek humanitarian aid as agencies unable to operate
EVENS SANON AND DÁNICA COTO
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man eats a meal and a child covers his face after both received containers of free food at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on March 14, 2024.
Inside Haiti’s descent into anarchy — what life is like under the rule of a gangster named BarbecueEVENS SANON AND DÁNICA COTO
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man eats a meal and a child covers his face after both received containers of free food at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on March 14, 2024.
ODELYN JOSEPH/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A crowd of about 100 people tried to shove through a metal gate in Haiti’s capital as a guard with a baton pushed them back, threatening to hit them. Undeterred, children and adults alike, some of them carrying babies, kept elbowing each other trying to enter.
“Let us in! We’re hungry!” they shouted on a recent afternoon.
They were trying to get into a makeshift shelter in an abandoned school. Inside, workers dipped ladles into buckets filled with soup that they poured into foam containers stuffed with rice to distribute to Haitians who have lost homes to gang violence.
About 1.4 million Haitians are on the verge of famine, and more than 4 million require food aid, sometimes eating only once a day or nothing at all, aid groups say.
“Haiti is facing a protractive and mass hunger,” Jean-Martin Bauer, Haiti director for the United Nations’ World Food Program, told The Associated Press. He noted that Croix-des-Bouquets, in the eastern part of Haiti’s capital, “has malnutrition rates comparable with any war zone in the world.”
Officials are trying to rush food, water and medical supplies to makeshift shelters and other places as gang violence suffocates lives across Port-au-Prince and beyond, with many trapped in their homes.
Only a few aid organizations have been able to restart since Feb. 29, when gangs began attacking key institutions, burning police stations, shutting down the main international airport with gunfire and storming two prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
Background: Roots of crisis in Haiti stretch back to old alliances between politicians and gangs
The violence forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to announce early Tuesday that he would resign once a transitional council is created, but gangs demanding his ouster have continued their attacks in several communities.
Bauer and other officials said that the gangs are blocking distribution routes and paralyzing the main port, and that WFP’s warehouse is running out of grains, beans and vegetable oil as it continues to deliver meals.
“We have supplies for weeks. I’m saying weeks, not months,” Bauer said. “That has me terrified.”
Inside the makeshift shelter at the school, things were a bit more orderly, with scores of people standing in line for food. More than 3,700 shelter residents compete for a place to sleep and share a hole in the ground for a toilet.
Marie Lourdes Geneus, a 45-year-old street vendor and mother of seven children, said that gangs chased her family out of three different homes before they ended up at the shelter.
“If you look around, there are a lot of desperate people who look like me, who had a life and lost it,” she said. “It’s a horrible life I’m living. I made a lot of effort in life and look where I end up, trying to survive.”
She said she occasionally ventures out to sell beans to buy extra food for her children – who sometimes eat only once a day – but ends up being chased by armed men, spilling her goods on the ground as she runs.
Erigeunes Jeffrand, 54, said that he used to make a living selling up to four wheelbarrow-loads of sugar cane a day, but that gangs recently chased him and his four children out of their neighbourhood.
“My home was completely destroyed and robbed,” he said. “They took everything I have. And now, they’re not even letting me work.”
He sent his two youngest children to live with relatives in Haiti’s more quiet countryside, while the two eldest live with him at the shelter.
“Can you believe I had a home?” he said. “I was making ends meet. But now, I’m just depending on what people provide me to eat. This is not a life.”
More than 200 gangs are believed to operate in Haiti, with nearly two dozen concentrated in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. They now control 80 per cent of the capital and are vying for more territory.
Scores of people have died in the most recent attacks, and more than 15,000 have been left homeless.
The situation has prevented aid groups like Food for the Hungry from operating at a time when their help is needed the most.
“We’re stuck, with no cash and no capacity to move out what we have in our warehouse,” said Boby Sander, the organization’s Haiti director. “It’s catastrophic.”
Food for the Hungry operates a cash-based program that helps about 25,000 families a year by sending them money, but he said that the ongoing looting and attacks on banks have crippled the system.
“Since Feb. 29, we have not been able to do anything at all,” he said.
On a recent morning, the fragrance of cooking rice drew a group of adults and teenage boys to a sidewalk near a building where aid workers prepared meals to distribute to shelters elsewhere in the city.
“Can you help me get a plate of food? We haven’t had anything to eat today yet,” they asked people going in and out of the building. But their pleas went unanswered. The food was destined for the shelter at the school.
“We know it’s not a lot,” said Jean Emmanuel Joseph, who oversees food distribution for the Center for Peasant Organization and Community Action. “It’s too bad we don’t have the possibility to give them more.”
At the shelter, some adults and children tried to get back in line for a second serving.
“You already had a plate,” they were told. “Let others get one.”
Shelter resident Jethro Antoine, 55, said the food is meant only for residents, but there’s little that can be done about outsiders who squeeze in.
“If you go and complain about it, you’re going to become the enemy, you might even be killed for that,” he said.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said that around 5.5 million people in Haiti – nearly half the population – need humanitarian aid, and pledged $25-million in addition to the $33-million announced earlier this week.
The WFP’s Bauer said the humanitarian appeal for Haiti this year is less than 3 per cent funded, with the UN agency needing $95-million in the next six months.
“Conflict and hunger in Haiti are moving hand-in-hand,” he said. “I’m frightened about where we’re going.”
A crowd of about 100 people tried to shove through a metal gate in Haiti’s capital as a guard with a baton pushed them back, threatening to hit them. Undeterred, children and adults alike, some of them carrying babies, kept elbowing each other trying to enter.
“Let us in! We’re hungry!” they shouted on a recent afternoon.
They were trying to get into a makeshift shelter in an abandoned school. Inside, workers dipped ladles into buckets filled with soup that they poured into foam containers stuffed with rice to distribute to Haitians who have lost homes to gang violence.
About 1.4 million Haitians are on the verge of famine, and more than 4 million require food aid, sometimes eating only once a day or nothing at all, aid groups say.
“Haiti is facing a protractive and mass hunger,” Jean-Martin Bauer, Haiti director for the United Nations’ World Food Program, told The Associated Press. He noted that Croix-des-Bouquets, in the eastern part of Haiti’s capital, “has malnutrition rates comparable with any war zone in the world.”
Officials are trying to rush food, water and medical supplies to makeshift shelters and other places as gang violence suffocates lives across Port-au-Prince and beyond, with many trapped in their homes.
Only a few aid organizations have been able to restart since Feb. 29, when gangs began attacking key institutions, burning police stations, shutting down the main international airport with gunfire and storming two prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
Background: Roots of crisis in Haiti stretch back to old alliances between politicians and gangs
The violence forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to announce early Tuesday that he would resign once a transitional council is created, but gangs demanding his ouster have continued their attacks in several communities.
Bauer and other officials said that the gangs are blocking distribution routes and paralyzing the main port, and that WFP’s warehouse is running out of grains, beans and vegetable oil as it continues to deliver meals.
“We have supplies for weeks. I’m saying weeks, not months,” Bauer said. “That has me terrified.”
Inside the makeshift shelter at the school, things were a bit more orderly, with scores of people standing in line for food. More than 3,700 shelter residents compete for a place to sleep and share a hole in the ground for a toilet.
Marie Lourdes Geneus, a 45-year-old street vendor and mother of seven children, said that gangs chased her family out of three different homes before they ended up at the shelter.
“If you look around, there are a lot of desperate people who look like me, who had a life and lost it,” she said. “It’s a horrible life I’m living. I made a lot of effort in life and look where I end up, trying to survive.”
She said she occasionally ventures out to sell beans to buy extra food for her children – who sometimes eat only once a day – but ends up being chased by armed men, spilling her goods on the ground as she runs.
Erigeunes Jeffrand, 54, said that he used to make a living selling up to four wheelbarrow-loads of sugar cane a day, but that gangs recently chased him and his four children out of their neighbourhood.
“My home was completely destroyed and robbed,” he said. “They took everything I have. And now, they’re not even letting me work.”
He sent his two youngest children to live with relatives in Haiti’s more quiet countryside, while the two eldest live with him at the shelter.
“Can you believe I had a home?” he said. “I was making ends meet. But now, I’m just depending on what people provide me to eat. This is not a life.”
More than 200 gangs are believed to operate in Haiti, with nearly two dozen concentrated in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. They now control 80 per cent of the capital and are vying for more territory.
Scores of people have died in the most recent attacks, and more than 15,000 have been left homeless.
The situation has prevented aid groups like Food for the Hungry from operating at a time when their help is needed the most.
“We’re stuck, with no cash and no capacity to move out what we have in our warehouse,” said Boby Sander, the organization’s Haiti director. “It’s catastrophic.”
Food for the Hungry operates a cash-based program that helps about 25,000 families a year by sending them money, but he said that the ongoing looting and attacks on banks have crippled the system.
“Since Feb. 29, we have not been able to do anything at all,” he said.
On a recent morning, the fragrance of cooking rice drew a group of adults and teenage boys to a sidewalk near a building where aid workers prepared meals to distribute to shelters elsewhere in the city.
“Can you help me get a plate of food? We haven’t had anything to eat today yet,” they asked people going in and out of the building. But their pleas went unanswered. The food was destined for the shelter at the school.
“We know it’s not a lot,” said Jean Emmanuel Joseph, who oversees food distribution for the Center for Peasant Organization and Community Action. “It’s too bad we don’t have the possibility to give them more.”
At the shelter, some adults and children tried to get back in line for a second serving.
“You already had a plate,” they were told. “Let others get one.”
Shelter resident Jethro Antoine, 55, said the food is meant only for residents, but there’s little that can be done about outsiders who squeeze in.
“If you go and complain about it, you’re going to become the enemy, you might even be killed for that,” he said.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said that around 5.5 million people in Haiti – nearly half the population – need humanitarian aid, and pledged $25-million in addition to the $33-million announced earlier this week.
The WFP’s Bauer said the humanitarian appeal for Haiti this year is less than 3 per cent funded, with the UN agency needing $95-million in the next six months.
“Conflict and hunger in Haiti are moving hand-in-hand,” he said. “I’m frightened about where we’re going.”
By Phoebe Hosier and Brad Ryan
Pierre Ricot is one of hundreds of thousands who have been displaced amid spiralling gang violence in Haiti.(Supplied: Amina Umar)
As Yousaf al-Omari shows us through the blackened rubble of one of Haiti's many razed homes, he warns us there are questions he can't safely answer.
"There is some things we cannot say right now," he says.
"There is gangsters around us now."
Yousaf, a volunteer charity worker, is translating for Pierre Ricot, a sound engineer who lives in the Caribbean nation's besieged capital, Port-au-Prince.
The men are giving us a tour via video call through what remains of Pierre's home.
It was torched by gangsters while Pierre was at work last week, they tell us. His wife and three of their children were home at the time but managed to escape.
The car he relies on as a taxi — his second job — was also set alight.
"Everything he was working hard to make, to build — in one day, in one minute, he loses everything," Yousaf says.
Mr Ricot stands in the rubble of his home after it was torched by gangs with his wife and children inside.(Supplied: Amina Umar)
Gang violence was already rampant in Haiti but it exploded in late February while the unelected and unpopular prime minister, Ariel Henry, was overseas.
Gangs hell-bent on overthrowing him set fire to buildings and cars and stormed prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates.
"Now every prisoner [who escaped] rejoined the gangster group," Yousaf says. "Now every gangster group [has] become more stronger."
Henry has stepped down, and Port-au-Prince is now largely under gang control.
"Every day, I see bad things," Yousaf says.
"I saw people die in front of me by hunger, I saw people die by thirst, I saw the gangsters killing people and burn[ing] their body."
The streets of Port-au-Prince resemble something of a hellscape under gang control.(Reuters: Ralph Tedy Erol/file)
After we speak, Yousaf films the area around him. He sends us videos showing the charred remains of a body and stray dogs sniffing about in the rubble. Mounds of tyres burn nearby. Plumes of toxic smoke descend over the desolate streets.
It's a snapshot of a nation that's been plunged into anarchy.
According to the UN, more than 360,000 Haitians have now been displaced by gang violence — half of them children. And 1.4 million people are on the brink of famine.
Violent protests erupted against the now ousted prime minister and his government.(Reuters: Ralph Tedy Erol/file)
"We've had plenty of really significant crises … [but] this is really the most acute crisis in modern times," says Robert Fatton, a Haitian American and professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia.
"You have no government, virtually all institutions have collapsed and the formation of a new government is a very complicated business.
"And you have increasingly powerful armed men that may ultimately be the arbiter of what happens next, which is very bad news for the country."
A lawless island with no leader
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have been displaced by recent gang violence.(Reuters: Ralph Tedy Erol )
Haiti hasn't had an elected president since 2021. In July of that year, then-president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by armed men in his home in the middle of the night.
A group of ambassadors later selected Ariel Henry to become the nation's interim prime minister.
The de facto leader promised to hold elections, but they were never held — his administration citing instability as a major obstacle.
Decades of political turmoil have fanned the flames of civil unrest, fuelled by anger over corruption and foreign interference.
Questions over Ariel Henry's political legitemacy have fuelled protests in the Haitian capital.(Reuters: Ricardo Arduengo)
Amid the power vacuum, gangs have flourished. The terror unleashed on residents has become increasingly violent. Kidnappings are common.
People who live in the capital's sprawling Cite Soleil slum are routinely raped, beaten and killed.
Now more than 8,400 people are estimated to have been victims of gang violence in Haiti last year, according to the UN Security Council.
This includes murder, kidnappings and injuries — an increase of 122 per cent on 2022.
The rise of a notorious gangster
Professor Fatton painted a picture of a vast and deeply rooted gang landscape home to some 200 groups.
At the top of them sits Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier — the former elite police officer who leads an alliance of several gangs known as the G9.
Asked about his nickname, Barbecue claims he got it after his mother's famous grilled chicken. But his opponents claim it alludes to his penchant for setting his victims on fire — an accusation he denies.
Violent mobster Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier leads the G9 gang alliance.(Reuters: Ralph Tedy Erol/File Photo)
The 47-year-old is the most high-profile face of the nation's recent unrest and has been an outspoken critic of Henry.
"He considers himself Che Guevara sometimes, [Fidel] Castro other times, then Martin Luther King, [Nelson] Mandela," Professor Fatton said.
"He presents himself as a revolutionary, as the guy who's going to change Haiti."
In a seven-minute voice recording circulated on WhatsApp, the mobster threatened the politicians appointed to join a "transitional council", which is set to replace the prime minister under a deal brokered with Caribbean nations, the US and Canada.
Once formed, the council will appoint another de facto prime minister and prepare for a future presidential election.
"You have taken the country where it is today. You have no idea what will happen," Barbecue told the politicians.
"I'll know if your kids are in Haiti, if your wives are in Haiti … if your husbands are in Haiti. If you're going to run the country, all your family ought to be there."
Another gang leader thought to be more powerful but less visible than Barbecue is Johnson André, also known as Izo.
Weapons and wealth on display in a music video featuring Johnson "Izo" André on YouTube.(Supplied: YouTube)
The 26-year-old is known for the brutal violence he inflicts on those he perceives to have targeted his members and the rap videos he posts to social media.
Professor Fatton said the mass prison break that happened this month, which triggered a state of emergency, was made possible with the help of drone surveillance provided by Izo's gang.
The Mawozo gang is yet another key group. It is believed to have been behind the 2021 abduction of 17 American and Canadian missionaries from an orphanage in Port-au-Prince.
"These gangs are not something that came out of the blue — they were nurtured. They were financed by powerful interests in Haiti, businessmen, politicians, et cetera," Professor Fatton said.
"What's more alarming is that at one point, there was warfare between the different gangs … but for the last 10 days the gangs have federated, they've united," he said.
Now a coalition of dangerous armed groups control 80 per cent of the nation's capital and are independently funded by the proceeds of arms and drug trafficking, kidnappings and extortion.
"They control the main arteries from the southern part of Haiti to the capital city … so every major convoy of gas, which is essential for the functioning of the city have to go through territories controlled by the gangs."
Brokering a deal with gangsters
Security concerns have plunged the Caribbean nation further into the depths of a humanitarian crisis. Roadblocks have led to shortages of food and fuel, while water is unable to be distributed.
The World Food Bank estimates 44 per cent of the population faces critical food insecurity.
Hospitals are deserted as medical staff are unable to get to work without risking their lives.
Haitian women carry containers to collect water after a state of emergency was declared.(Reuters: Ralph Tedy Erol)
Médecins Sans Frontières runs seven emergency health facilities across Haiti but even their operation has at times been forced to close.
The organisation's lead Samora Chalmers said an attack on one of its ambulances this year left staff traumatised after unidentified men killed one of their patients.
"We had to close for two months to really talk to the community, to make sure that we can function in security, and … to make sure they won't harm us," she said.
"We have this guarantee, for now."
Samora Chalmers says a deadly attack stopped MSF's emergency medical care earlier this year.(Supplied: Médecins Sans Frontières)
Ms Chalmers estimates her organisation will run out of some critical medicines within two weeks. Blood supplies are also running low.
Meanwhile, women and girls as young as 12 are suffering systemic sexual violence in areas controlled by gangs, according to the UN.
Ms Chalmers has seen this firsthand. She says her organisation has seen more than 4,000 women seeking help for rape and sexual assault in the past three months alone.
Finding homegrown solutions
Now a transitional council, backed by the US and Caribbean nations, is in the process of being established.
Once it's formed in the coming days, it will vote to appoint the future de facto prime minister of Haiti and prepare the nation for a future presidential election.
The council is made up of nine members, seven of which have voting powers. These include foreign representatives and local Haitian political parties.
The US, which is one of the voting members, has chosen career diplomat Dennis Hankins to represent America on the council.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Jamaica for an emergency meeting with Caribbean nations.(Reuters: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/file)
It comes as an international security mission, to be led by Kenya, is set to be deployed to restore order to Haiti once a new government is in place.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the council and security force were "a work in progress" but were moving forward.
"This is never going to be smooth and never going to be linear," he said on Friday, as the US announced a further $33 million in humanitarian aid.
Professor Fatton isn't convinced the answer lies in more foreign intervention: "Haitians want Haitian solutions to Haitian problems," he said.
"I don't know how you extricate the country from the current crisis. If I knew I would tell you. But I have a very bleak view of the future."
On the ground in the besieged Caribbean capital, many cling to hope for what's left of their country.
"One day Haiti will be nice," Yousaf said.
"Because Haiti was not like this … [and] because the people of Haiti are good people."
Crisis in Haiti comes after decades of turmoil: A chronology
By Bryan Pietsch
March 16, 2024
Chaos in Haiti has reached new heights in recent weeks.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he would step down amid growing violence and a humanitarian crisis. Armed gangs, whose power has surged in the vacuum left by the still-unsolved assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, have overrun much of the Caribbean country, leaving it on the brink of collapse.
But social and political turmoil are no anomaly in Haiti, which has fought through waves of upheaval since its founding.
The first nation forged by a rebellion of enslaved people, Haiti in the 19th century struggled for decades under debt to France, coerced into paying reparations to former enslavers. The indemnity was an economic drain on the country, which remains impoverished even today. The United States invaded Haiti in the early 20th century, imposing a system of forced labor.
In the past 40 years, an era that began with a popular uprising that ended decades of dictatorship, the country has been beset by compounding crises — coups, violence, economic hardship and natural disasters, atop a history of botched or repressive interventions, imperialism and international exploitation.
Here’s a chronology of key events in Haiti’s modern political history, leading up to the ongoing crisis.
1. 1986: ‘Baby Doc’ flees to France
Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier was the only son of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, the physician who was elected president of Haiti in 1957. Initially supported by the United States, Papa Doc held on to office for years, stealing millions of dollars in public money and international aid, while ruling through sham elections and fear.
When Jean-Claude, 19, came to power upon his father’s death in 1971, many hoped he would use a lighter hand. He chose the opposite course. He leaned heavily on his father’s shadowy Tonton Macoute — a paramilitary force named for the Haitian child-stealing boogeyman “Uncle Knapsack” — to terrorize the people into silence. Rampant corruption, violence and killings continued.
In the 1980s, as the increasingly dysfunctional country sank into economic turmoil, Baby Doc faced growing opposition at home and abroad. He fled the country in 1986 on a U.S. Air Force plane — his Louis Vuitton luggage allegedly stuffed with $120 million in cash — to exile on the French Riviera.
2. 1986 to 1990: Rapid succession
Baby Doc’s legacy persisted. Henri Namphy, a wealthy lieutenant general who had been close to Papa Doc, led a council installed after Baby Doc’s departure.
Namphy promised to bring democracy to Haiti, but his tenure was marred by more killings, including a massacre that disrupted voting. Still, Namphy kept his promise to hand over power to an elected president.
Leslie Manigat, a professor, won the 1988 election with just over 50 percent of the vote. But his administration didn’t last long: Namphy took power months later after a coup forced Manigat out.
Another coup followed that year, when another lieutenant general, Prosper Avril, declared himself president. Avril had been an associate of Baby Doc’s, and in 1990, as the specter of civil unrest loomed, he also fled on a U.S. Air Force plane.
3. 1990: Aristide appears to usher in a new era
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a polyglot priest from the slums, was elected in 1990 with about two-thirds of the vote. Jubilant Haitians were hopeful that the charismatic leader could provide calm and prosperity for the country, although Haiti’s military and elites were skeptical of him.
His term lasted less than a year: He was pushed out by a coup. Nearly three years of military rule followed, until the United States helped return him to power in 1994.
Elections were held in 1995, and the following year, René Préval assumed the presidency in what was seen as the first peaceful transfer of power in Haiti’s history. But the quiet didn’t last long. A series of coup attempts set off another power struggle. Aristide was reelected in 2000.
Aristide’s return came with echoes of his predecessors, as he came to rely on gangs known as the chimères to snuff out dissent.
Prominent rebel leader Guy Philippe celebrates with fellow fighters in Cap-Haïtien in February 2004, the month they would overthrew Aristide. (Daniel Morel/Reuters)
4. 2004: U.N. mission seeks to stabilize Haiti
In 2004, Aristide faced an uprising seeking to oust him yet again, led by Guy Philippe, a prominent rebel leader. (He would go on to serve a prison sentence in the United States on a money-laundering conviction, before returning to Haiti late last year as something of a political wild card.)
Haiti appealed for international help to quell the unrest, and the United States, Canada, France and Chile sent in troops as the United States helped Aristide evacuate. A United Nations mission, known by the French acronym MINUSTAH, entered the country, where it remained until 2017.
The U.N. mission meant to stabilize Haiti failed to do so, and faced accusations of sexual misconduct committed by U.N. peacekeepers.
Outside the remains of Haiti's National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince on the first anniversary of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit the country on Jan. 12, 2010. People were still living in tents. (Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images)
5. 2010: Earthquake devastates Haiti
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, killing more than 200,000 people. The temblor devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince, reducing much of it to ruins and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
International relief efforts sought to help Haiti recover, but were criticized as slow and ineffective. Two years later, half a million people were still living in tents. U.N. troops from Nepal brought cholera to the country, setting off an outbreak that killed about 10,000 people. The United Nations in 2016 accepted responsibility for its role in the outbreak, but many Haitians say it has failed to adequately compensate those affected.
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse walks on the grounds of the National Palace after his February 2017 inauguration in Port-au-Prince. (Dieu Nalio Chery/AP)
6. 2021: President assassinated after power struggle
Jovenel Moïse was elected to a five-year term in 2016 but did not take office until the following year because of disputes over the election. That delay entitled him to stay in office beyond the scheduled end of his term, he argued, though opponents said it had ended in February 2021. He said efforts to replace him amounted to a coup attempt. The disarray led to a constitutional crisis: Moïse maintained that he was still president while opponents said Supreme Court Judge Joseph Mécène Jean-Louis was interim president.
In July 2021, armed men stormed Moïse’s Port-au-Prince home and he was fatally shot. The circumstances surrounding the killing remain unclear, with Colombian nationals, U.S. citizens and Moïse’s wife accused of involvement.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry, center, talks with former acting prime minister Claude Joseph on July 20, 2021, after being officially sworn in. The two had struggled for power after the assassination of Moïse. (Joseph Odelyn/AP)
7. 2024: Henry resigns amid gang turmoil
Two days before Moïse was assassinated, he had appointed Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon, as the next prime minister. But he had not been sworn in when Moïse was killed.
The assassination set off a power struggle between Henry and Claude Joseph, who had been serving as acting prime minister. Joseph continued to assert that he was acting prime minister.
But as international support, including that of the United States, coalesced around Henry, Joseph stepped down. The State Department said at the time that it was doing all it could “to support the formation of a unity government that is inclusive and that puts Haiti down a more united path.”
Gang violence worsened after Moïse’s assassination. In an effort to quell the chaos, Henry appealed to the international community to help restore order in Haiti. Other governments, including that of the United States, have been reluctant to intervene, however, after decades of failed foreign involvement. Kenya has said it would lead a U.N.-backed multinational police force deployed to Haiti, but has faced logistical and domestic legal obstacles in standing one up.
While Henry was in Kenya trying to further that plan, Haiti fell further into chaos. Gangs this month led a mass prison break and shut down the international airport. Amid clamor for his resignation, Henry went to Puerto Rico.
On Monday, Henry announced in a video address that he would resign once a transitional presidential council was put in place and an interim leader selected. With the country in shambles, it was not immediately clear who that person might be. If a coalition of gangs continues to strengthen its hold on Haiti, it could be the emergent leader of that bloc, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, who determines the country’s direction.
Widlore Mérancourt, Ruby Mellen, Adam Taylor, Anthony Faiola and Stephanie Hanes contributed to this report.
By Bryan Pietsch
March 16, 2024
Chaos in Haiti has reached new heights in recent weeks.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he would step down amid growing violence and a humanitarian crisis. Armed gangs, whose power has surged in the vacuum left by the still-unsolved assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, have overrun much of the Caribbean country, leaving it on the brink of collapse.
But social and political turmoil are no anomaly in Haiti, which has fought through waves of upheaval since its founding.
The first nation forged by a rebellion of enslaved people, Haiti in the 19th century struggled for decades under debt to France, coerced into paying reparations to former enslavers. The indemnity was an economic drain on the country, which remains impoverished even today. The United States invaded Haiti in the early 20th century, imposing a system of forced labor.
In the past 40 years, an era that began with a popular uprising that ended decades of dictatorship, the country has been beset by compounding crises — coups, violence, economic hardship and natural disasters, atop a history of botched or repressive interventions, imperialism and international exploitation.
Here’s a chronology of key events in Haiti’s modern political history, leading up to the ongoing crisis.
1. 1986: ‘Baby Doc’ flees to France
Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier was the only son of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, the physician who was elected president of Haiti in 1957. Initially supported by the United States, Papa Doc held on to office for years, stealing millions of dollars in public money and international aid, while ruling through sham elections and fear.
When Jean-Claude, 19, came to power upon his father’s death in 1971, many hoped he would use a lighter hand. He chose the opposite course. He leaned heavily on his father’s shadowy Tonton Macoute — a paramilitary force named for the Haitian child-stealing boogeyman “Uncle Knapsack” — to terrorize the people into silence. Rampant corruption, violence and killings continued.
In the 1980s, as the increasingly dysfunctional country sank into economic turmoil, Baby Doc faced growing opposition at home and abroad. He fled the country in 1986 on a U.S. Air Force plane — his Louis Vuitton luggage allegedly stuffed with $120 million in cash — to exile on the French Riviera.
2. 1986 to 1990: Rapid succession
Baby Doc’s legacy persisted. Henri Namphy, a wealthy lieutenant general who had been close to Papa Doc, led a council installed after Baby Doc’s departure.
Namphy promised to bring democracy to Haiti, but his tenure was marred by more killings, including a massacre that disrupted voting. Still, Namphy kept his promise to hand over power to an elected president.
Leslie Manigat, a professor, won the 1988 election with just over 50 percent of the vote. But his administration didn’t last long: Namphy took power months later after a coup forced Manigat out.
Another coup followed that year, when another lieutenant general, Prosper Avril, declared himself president. Avril had been an associate of Baby Doc’s, and in 1990, as the specter of civil unrest loomed, he also fled on a U.S. Air Force plane.
3. 1990: Aristide appears to usher in a new era
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a polyglot priest from the slums, was elected in 1990 with about two-thirds of the vote. Jubilant Haitians were hopeful that the charismatic leader could provide calm and prosperity for the country, although Haiti’s military and elites were skeptical of him.
His term lasted less than a year: He was pushed out by a coup. Nearly three years of military rule followed, until the United States helped return him to power in 1994.
Elections were held in 1995, and the following year, René Préval assumed the presidency in what was seen as the first peaceful transfer of power in Haiti’s history. But the quiet didn’t last long. A series of coup attempts set off another power struggle. Aristide was reelected in 2000.
Aristide’s return came with echoes of his predecessors, as he came to rely on gangs known as the chimères to snuff out dissent.
4. 2004: U.N. mission seeks to stabilize Haiti
In 2004, Aristide faced an uprising seeking to oust him yet again, led by Guy Philippe, a prominent rebel leader. (He would go on to serve a prison sentence in the United States on a money-laundering conviction, before returning to Haiti late last year as something of a political wild card.)
Haiti appealed for international help to quell the unrest, and the United States, Canada, France and Chile sent in troops as the United States helped Aristide evacuate. A United Nations mission, known by the French acronym MINUSTAH, entered the country, where it remained until 2017.
The U.N. mission meant to stabilize Haiti failed to do so, and faced accusations of sexual misconduct committed by U.N. peacekeepers.
5. 2010: Earthquake devastates Haiti
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, killing more than 200,000 people. The temblor devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince, reducing much of it to ruins and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
International relief efforts sought to help Haiti recover, but were criticized as slow and ineffective. Two years later, half a million people were still living in tents. U.N. troops from Nepal brought cholera to the country, setting off an outbreak that killed about 10,000 people. The United Nations in 2016 accepted responsibility for its role in the outbreak, but many Haitians say it has failed to adequately compensate those affected.
6. 2021: President assassinated after power struggle
Jovenel Moïse was elected to a five-year term in 2016 but did not take office until the following year because of disputes over the election. That delay entitled him to stay in office beyond the scheduled end of his term, he argued, though opponents said it had ended in February 2021. He said efforts to replace him amounted to a coup attempt. The disarray led to a constitutional crisis: Moïse maintained that he was still president while opponents said Supreme Court Judge Joseph Mécène Jean-Louis was interim president.
In July 2021, armed men stormed Moïse’s Port-au-Prince home and he was fatally shot. The circumstances surrounding the killing remain unclear, with Colombian nationals, U.S. citizens and Moïse’s wife accused of involvement.
7. 2024: Henry resigns amid gang turmoil
Two days before Moïse was assassinated, he had appointed Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon, as the next prime minister. But he had not been sworn in when Moïse was killed.
The assassination set off a power struggle between Henry and Claude Joseph, who had been serving as acting prime minister. Joseph continued to assert that he was acting prime minister.
But as international support, including that of the United States, coalesced around Henry, Joseph stepped down. The State Department said at the time that it was doing all it could “to support the formation of a unity government that is inclusive and that puts Haiti down a more united path.”
Gang violence worsened after Moïse’s assassination. In an effort to quell the chaos, Henry appealed to the international community to help restore order in Haiti. Other governments, including that of the United States, have been reluctant to intervene, however, after decades of failed foreign involvement. Kenya has said it would lead a U.N.-backed multinational police force deployed to Haiti, but has faced logistical and domestic legal obstacles in standing one up.
While Henry was in Kenya trying to further that plan, Haiti fell further into chaos. Gangs this month led a mass prison break and shut down the international airport. Amid clamor for his resignation, Henry went to Puerto Rico.
On Monday, Henry announced in a video address that he would resign once a transitional presidential council was put in place and an interim leader selected. With the country in shambles, it was not immediately clear who that person might be. If a coalition of gangs continues to strengthen its hold on Haiti, it could be the emergent leader of that bloc, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, who determines the country’s direction.
Widlore Mérancourt, Ruby Mellen, Adam Taylor, Anthony Faiola and Stephanie Hanes contributed to this report.
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