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Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro looks on during his swearing-in ceremony as caretaker president following the death of President Hugo Chavez in Caracas March 8, 2013.
Hard Numbers: Venezuelan opposition arrests, Bangkok’s murder mystery, Acropolis closed amid heat wave, More Kenyan police arrive in Haiti, Voting day for von der Leyen
102: Ahead of presidential elections set for July 28, Venezuelan authorities have arrested at least 102 people linked to the political opposition this year, according to Foro Penal, a local legal aid non-profit. Three-quarters of them were jailed after the official presidential campaign period began on July 4. On Wednesday, police arrested the security chief of opposition leader Marina Corina Machado. Polls show strongman President Nicolas Madurotrailing badly ahead of the vote.
6: Authorities said Wednesday that traces of cyanide were found in the blood of six Vietnamese nationals, two of whom had dual US citizenship, in a luxury suite of a Grand Hyatt in Bangkok. The group was last seen alive on Monday by a waiter delivering room service. Police say there was a possible financial motive related to an investment … and that the suspected perpetrator is among the six dead.
5: Greece’s most-visited archaeological site, the Acropolis, was closed for five hours by the Ministry of Culture on Wednesday amid a brutal southern European heat wave. Wildfires, meanwhile, are proving difficult to contain amid the extreme heat and led to the closure of a major border crossing between Greece and North Macedonia for several hours on Wednesday.
200: Another 200 Kenyan police officers joined the UN-backed mission in Haiti this week to support local authorities against the violent gangs who took over the capital city of Port-au-Prince in a joint offensive last February. The Kenyan-led mission also expects new arrivals from Jamaica, Bangladesh, Chad, and others to help grow the force to 2,500 personnel in the coming weeks.
361: In the EU parliament later today, MEPs will decide whether to confirm Ursula von der Leyen as Commission president in a knife-edge vote that will either result in another five-year mandate for the EU executive’s first female leader or tip the bloc into a temporary crisis. Despite no other candidate standing, it looks like she will just barely, if at all, get the 361 votes she needs.
Haiti's Prime Minister Garry Conille shakes hands with members of the first contingent of Kenyan police as part of a peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti June 26, 2024.
Haiti takes back major hospital from gangs
On Tuesday, Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Garry Conillevisited the country’s largest hospital in the capital city of Port-au-Prince to celebrate taking it back from armed gangs on Sunday.
Haiti has been engulfed in deadly gang violence since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. Since then, over 200 armed gangs formed large alliances that brought Haiti to a state of anarchy, with intensifying violence that eventually forced former Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation this spring. Coordinated gang attacks in February — strategically timed to occur while Henry was overseas — seized control of harbors and airports, effectively cutting the country off from the world.
Conille, a former doctor himself, described the hospital as a “war zone” that had been left inoperable by the violence. In recent months, gangs have taken control of 80% of the capital and driven Haiti’s already weak health system to the brink of collapse.
The Haitian government’s reclamation of this hospital, expected to be back in full service by February 2026, is a rare victory for Haiti and an early success for the UN-backed, Kenyan-led police mission that has been fighting on the ground since it deployed on June 25.
What’s next? Can Haitians with the help of their Kenyan allies hold the territory they’ve retaken while also ingratiating themselves with ordinary people who have endured years of violence and scarcity? If they can win back territory without losing hearts and minds, they may create a window to begin the long road to recovery.
Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Commercial flights in and out of the airport have been suspended since early March 2024 when armed groups targeted the facility and nearby domestic airport.
Kenyan officials arrive in Haiti to prep police deployment
An advance team of Kenyan security officials has arrived in Haiti to make final preparations for the deployment of a long-awaited police force to help take back the streets from gangs. If they find the facilities for the mission are adequately prepared, it could mean Kenyan cops hit the streets of Port-au-Prince within weeks or even days.
The arrival coincides with Kenyan President William Ruto’s state visit to Washington, DC, during which he and President Joe Biden are planning to discuss the deployment. The US has opened its wallet to the tune of $300 million to support the Kenyan mission to Haiti — after all, a stable Haiti is much more in Washington’s interest than Nairobi’s. But the ties go deeper.
The Biden administration has pulled Kenya closer to the center of its Africa policy as relations cool with Ethiopia and South Africa, formerly Washington’s best allies on the continent, and military juntas in the crucial Sahel region expel US forces. Kenya has a stable democracy and growing economy, and it has proven its commitment to regional stability with troop deployments to Somalia, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, among other conflicts.
But the deployment to Haiti presents big risks. It will be the first time an African country has led a security deployment outside the continent, and it will be under heavy scrutiny given the atrocious behavior of past foreign peacekeepers in Haiti. The UN force that operated there after the 2010 earthquake is accused of abandoning hundreds of children they fathered with Haitian women and of bringing cholera back to the country.
If Kenyan officers fall or are injured, a domestic political crisis could ensue for Ruto, whose constituents don’t necessarily see the sense in sending their boys to die on an island 7,500 miles away. We’re watching for how much Washington backs up Nairobi when the going gets tough — and with Haiti’s gangs promising a hard fight, that could be soon.Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry speaks while addressing the nation, at an unidentified location on a date given as March 11, 2024, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video.
Haiti’s embattled prime minister resigns amid chaos
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his resignation overnight amid mounting international pressure for him to step down. The move follows weeks of civil unrest and violence by rival gangs in the Caribbean country.
Henry said he would turn over power to a transitional council made up of political leaders, the private sector, civil society, and a religious representative. The handover marks the end of Henry’s unelected term as Haiti’s acting president, a post he has held since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021.
The precise membership of the transitional council has not been named, but the gangs that now control some 80% of Port-au-Prince, the capital, are now pushing to be included in the political solution. So is convicted drug trafficker Guy Philippe, who says he can bridge between the gangs and ordinary society.
The international community, however, is not eager to invite either to the table and is setting its hopes on a Kenyan-led intervention force to help the Haitian police win back control of the streets. Washington announced it would commit another $100 million to the force and $33 million in humanitarian aid, bringing total US pledges to $333 million.