By Jean Daniel SENAT with Ines BEL AIBA in Washington
PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 14, 2024 (AFP) – Gunfire rang out Thursday in Haiti’s capital and “bandits” set a police official’s house ablaze, ending three days of relative calm as politicians pressed on with talks to form an interim governing body.
The country has been convulsed for two weeks by a gang uprising, with the well-armed groups saying they wanted to topple Prime Minister Ariel Henry, an unpopular and unelected leader.
Amid the conflict, which has come with warnings of famine and civil war, bodies have littered the streets in recent days as social order melted away.
Overnight Wednesday into Thursday and during the morning hours, a lull in fighting was broken as automatic weapons fire boomed in Port-au-Prince, which is 80 percent controlled by gangs.
“I heard shots all night. I did not sleep a wink,” said a resident of Vivy Mitchell on the outskirts of the capital, who declined to give her name out of fear of reprisal.
Just outside Port-au-Prince, “bandits looted and then set fire to the residence of the director general of police” in Santo, the national police union said, adding that an officer was shot and wounded in the courtyard of police headquarters near the airport.
Overwhelmed by the violence, Haitian authorities extended a nighttime curfew until Sunday.
Shots also broke out Thursday near the shuttered Toussaint Louverture Airport, where repairs were underway after gangs attacked it and other key infrastructure earlier this month.
US cruise operator Royal Caribbean said it was pausing stops in Labadee, on Haiti’s northern coast and far from Port-au-Prince, “out of an abundance of caution.”
– PM steps down –
Embattled Prime Minister Henry had agreed to step aside after an emergency meeting Monday that brought together parties including the US, UN and Caribbean representatives, yielding a blueprint for Haitians to form a governing Transitional Presidential Council until elections can be held.
The transitional body is to have seven voting members drawn from political parties and the private sector, and is supposed to quickly name an interim prime minister.
But on Wednesday, powerful gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier vowed to keep fighting even though Henry agreed to step down as the armed groups had demanded.
“We are going to continue the fight for Haiti’s liberation,” the former policeman, currently under UN sanctions, told Spanish-language network W Radio.
Six of the organizations tapped to make up the interim governing body have picked their representative and notified CARICOM, the regional Caribbean body that took part in the crisis meeting, several sources told AFP.
But a small leftist party called Pitit Desalin has balked at taking part, and talks are underway to find another party or group to replace it, these sources said.
Another group, loyal to Henry, could not agree on a single delegate and wants to name three people to the transitional body, the sources added.
– Crisis and lawlessness –
Haiti has not held an election since 2016 and there is currently no president or parliament.
President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021 and has not been replaced. Henry, appointed by the president shortly before the assassination, has led Haiti since then in an atmosphere of crisis and lawlessness, with rampant gun battles, kidnappings and sexual violence.
Henry has been stranded in Puerto Rico since early this month after a visit to Kenya, where he hoped to nail down details of a plan for Nairobi to lead a UN-approved police force to restore order in Haiti.
He announced late Monday he would resign when the transitional council is stood up.
But a special advisor to Henry told CNN Thursday that under the Haitian constitution, only Henry and his cabinet can appoint the transitional council.
“We will not deliver the country to just a group of people without following the procedure,” advisor Jean Junior Joseph said. “We must stay inside of the law and set a good example.”
US Republican candidate Donald Trump meanwhile spread false information about the crisis online, posting that “hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into our country from Haiti. They are headed to Florida.”
His 2017-2021 presidency, as well as his current White House run, have been characterized by hard-line immigration policies and xenophobic rhetoric.
