The unexpected appointment of Haiti’s new prime minister divides the new transitional council

71

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) — An unexpected announcement revealing Haiti’s new prime minister threatened to fracture the newly established transitional council charged with electing new leaders for the Caribbean country plagued by gang violence.

Four of seven voting council members said Tuesday they had chosen Fritz Bélizaire as prime minister, an unexpected announcement and political alliance that took many Haitians by surprise.

Councilors who oppose Bélizaire, who was Haiti’s Sports Minister during René Préval’s second presidency between 2006 and 2011, are now studying options such as challenging the decision or resigning from the council.

A person with direct knowledge of the situation, who did not want to be identified because negotiations were still underway, said the unexpected decision was a violation of the council’s political agreement, and that some council members were considering other people for the top job. Minister.

The council was scheduled to hold a vote Tuesday and elect its president. But two hours and an elaborate apology later, one of its members said that not only a council president had been elected, but also a prime minister. A murmur spread through the room.

The Montana Accord, a civil society group represented by a voting councilor, condemned in a statement Tuesday night what it described as a “plot” hatched “in the dead of night” by four councilors against the Haitian people.

“The forces of the economic and political mafia have decided to take control of the presidential council and the government so that they can continue to control the state,” the group stated.

Secret deals have long been a feature of Haitian politics, but many fear the country cannot withstand any more political instability as gangs lay siege to the capital, Port-au-Prince, and elsewhere.

“People change parties (like) they change shirts,” said François Pierre-Louis, a political science professor at Queens College in New York and a former Haitian politician, during a webcast Tuesday night.

Like others, he believed that Jean-Charles Moïse, a powerful politician who was a senator and presidential hopeful, was behind Bélizaire’s nomination.

“It’s interesting that of all the politicians there, it’s Moïse who calls the shots,” Pierre-Louis said.

However, Moïse does not sit on the council. His party, Pitit Desalin, is represented by Emmanuel Vertilaire, who is one of the four councilors who support Bélizaire.

The others are Louis Gérald Gilles, Smith Augustin and Edgard Leblanc Fils, the new president of the council.

At first it was not possible to contact them for comment.

Fils represents the January 30 political group, made up of parties such as PHTK, whose members include former president Michel Martelly and assassinated president Jovenel Moïse. For his part, Agustin represents the EDE/RED political party, founded by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph, and Gilles represents the December 21 agreement, associated with former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who recently resigned.

A document shared with The Associated Press and signed by the four councilors who elected the new prime minister states that they have decided to make decisions by consensus. The document is titled “Constitution of an Indissoluble Majority Block within the Presidential Council.”

Henry was on an official visit to Kenya to boost the U.N.-backed deployment of a police contingent from the East African country when gangs in Haiti began a series of coordinated attacks beginning on Feb. 29.

They have burned police stations, shot at the main international airport – which has remained closed since early March – and raided Haiti’s two largest prisons, where they freed more than 4,000 inmates. Violence continues unabated in some areas of Port-au-Prince, including around the National Palace.

Haitians demand that security be a priority for the council, which is tasked with selecting a new prime minister and government, as well as preparing for future general elections.

But some Haitians have misgivings about the council and the decisions it is making.

Jean Selcé, a 57-year-old electrician, pointed out that most of the councilors are veteran politicians and “their past is not very positive.”

“I hope their mentality can change, but I don’t think so,” he said. “They don’t really love the country. Who are dying? Haitians like me.”

Robert Fatton, an expert on Haitian politics at the University of Virginia, said some of the factions represented on the council are responsible for the current chaos in the country.

“It’s a contradiction,” he said. “Every time we seem to be in a crisis, we reappoint the same people and hope they change, but they don’t.”

Michael Deibert, author of two books on Haiti, echoed the same criticisms.

In a recent essay, he noted that the council is “dominated by the same political currents that have spent the last 25 years driving Haiti off a cliff, taking advantage of impoverished youth in the slums to use them as political weapons before, inflated with profits from kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises, these groups will no longer need their bosses.”

More than 2,500 people have been killed or injured in Haiti between January and March, according to the United Nations.

Additionally, more than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in just one month due to persistent gang violence.