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A drone view of the Jalousie neighbourhood after former President of the Senate Edgard Leblanc was named to lead the transitional council, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 30, 2024.
Who is Haiti’s new PM? Even Haitian heavyweights don’t know
Haiti’s transitional council unexpectedly elected obscure former Sports Minister Fritz Bélizaire as prime minister on Tuesday, dividing the council 4 to 3. Gangs, meanwhile, threaten chaos if they are excluded from government.
Didn’t Haiti just get a new PM? Yes, Michel Patrick Boisvert, the well-known finance minister, briefly took the premiership after Ariel Henry stepped down last week.
The appointment of Bélizaire came as a surprise, with four of the transitional council’s seven voting members suddenly revealing their consensus. The new PM has not held any political office in over a decade, and Leslie Voltaire, one of the council members, told the Guardian “I don’t know him.”
Some believe Voltaire’s appointment was orchestrated by former Senator Jean-Charles Moïse. Moïse had to be persuaded to join the council while he also flirted with an alternative transition plan proposed by former coup leader and convicted drug trafficker Guy Philippe. Appointing a nobody like Bélizaire could leave Moïse in a position to call shots.
What about the gangs? All the politicking feels farcical in the face of facts on the ground. The council was sworn in secretly last month as powerful coalitions of armed gangs hold most of the capital, Port-au-Prince. They’ve already toppled one government, and warlord Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier threatened to do it again if they aren’t brought in: “Either we are all at the table, or the table gets destroyed with all of us,” he said.
An armed vehicle is seen near the National Penitentiary following violent clashes in the capital that have damaged communications and led to a prison escape from this main penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti March 3, 2024.
Haiti jailbreak sows chaos
Haiti declared a state of emergency Sunday after armed gangs stormed Haiti’s largest prison Saturday night, setting around 3,700 of convicts free and killing many others. Notorious former police officer turned gang kingpin Jimmy Chérizier, aka “Barbecue,” claimed responsibility for the attack, which forced police unions to call for reinforcements on social media.
The attack was part of a coordinated assault that included Haiti’s international airport and two police stations, forcing the closure of businesses and schools, and prompting the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince to temporarily halt all official travel to the country.
Countering Kenya
Chérizier’s latest strikes were meant to capture Haiti’s national police chief and government ministers – and prevent Prime Minister Ariel Henry from coming back from Nairobi. Henry inked a deal on Friday that could see a UN-backed multinational force led by 1,000 Kenyan police officers attempt to restore order in Haiti. The island has been waiting a long time for help, after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 kicked off a growing anarchy that has left 80% of the capital under gang control. Five thousand people were killed in 2023, more than twice as many as in 2022.
The Kenyan-led initiative includes support from Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua & Barbuda, Benin, and others, and Washington pledged $200 million in assistance. If it succeeds in stabilizing the country, Henry has promised to hold elections next year, Haiti’s first in nearly a decade.
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni during a press conference in Rome.
What We’re Watching: Meloni’s migrant moves, a cartel for rainforests, Haiti’s hope for fuel
Meloni draws a line on migrants
Since becoming Italy’s prime minister two weeks ago, Giorgia Meloni has pushed back against media attempts to portray her as a far-right nationalist euro-skeptic troublemaker. Aware that Italy needs cash from the EU, she’s presented her government as ready to negotiate with Brussels on outstanding issues in good faith. She’s made clear her support for Ukraine and NATO. Yet, she does stand ready to strike a harder line on migration policy as asylum-seekers continue to arrive by boat. (Italy has already received 85,000 migrants from across the Mediterranean this year.) On Sunday, two rescue ships that made port in Sicily were told that children and people with medical problems were allowed off the ships, but able-bodied men were not considered “vulnerable” and must remain on board. The ships were then ordered to leave, but their captains refused to budge. Rights groups and Italian opposition politicians say Italy’s decision violates EU law and the Geneva Convention. Meloni knows that many Italians expect a harder line on asylum policy and that greenlighting the entry of all migrants encourages more people to take the risky journey across the Med. This standoff is just the beginning of the Meloni government’s battle with EU officials and aid groups over an issue that provokes strong emotions on both sides.
Rainforest cartel!
Well if the world’s largest oil exporters can form a cartel to influence crude prices, why can’t the world’s largest rainforest superpowers do the same to control deforestation? That’s precisely the idea behind a plan by Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to form a new “OPEC of Rainforests.” The three countries are home to more than half of the world’s total tropical forests, which environmentalists say are crucial “lungs of the earth” to mitigate the global warming effects of greenhouse gasses. The grouping would coordinate on limiting deforestation while also advancing proposals for developed countries to help finance conservation efforts in the Global South. This issue is a big one at COP27: Developing countries bear the brunt of climate change catastrophes while — with the exception of big polluters China and India — emitting relatively little. One major boon to the Rainforest OPEC idea was the election last week of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as president of Brazil. He has pledged to eliminate Amazon deforestation during his term. That’s a sharp contrast with outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro, whose pro-farmer policies caused a significant uptick in Amazon deforestation in recent years.
Gangster fuel politics rock Haiti
Jimmy Cherizier, a former cop who goes by the name "Barbecue" as Haiti's top gangster, says he's lifted the blockade on the main fuel terminal in the capital, Port-au-Prince. In theory, that should ease a severe shortage that has forced gas stations to close, hospitals to run only essential services amid a cholera outbreak, and banks and grocery stores to open just for a few hours. But there's a problem: While Barbecue — perhaps under pressure from fresh UN sanctions against him — claims that truckers are now free to get fuel, no one knows if any fuel has actually left the terminal or who really controls it. Neither the government nor police have yet to react to Barbecue's announcement, celebrated by some Haitians who now openly call him "Monsieur President." Meanwhile, the UN keeps dragging its feet on holding a vote on deploying foreign troops to end the crisis, which started two months ago when embattled PM Ariel Henry suddenly scrapped much-needed fuel subsidies that made prices skyrocket. And what about ordinary Haitians? They remain cut off from fuel and helpless to do anything amid the ongoing fight between Barbecue and Henry in the perennial failed state.