On paper, the formal resignation of Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry, a leader who has lost control of his country to gang violence and organized crime, should pave the way for a transitional council and cooler heads to restore law and order. In a deal cut by CARICOM (an organization of Caribbean countries) and welcomed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a “transitional governance arrangement” will pave the way for a “peaceful transition of power” in the latest international effort to save Haiti.
Government officials and state institutions in Haiti are deeply intertwined with organized crime.
In reality, with gang members claiming control of 80% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, these diplomatic and political responses once again attempt to implement a system of governance that ignores the power dynamics at play. This is not a simple story of “uncivilized” gang members squaring off against “noble” democracy activists who need the support of other like-minded democratic nations; government officials and state institutions in Haiti are deeply intertwined with organized crime. Democratic ideals don’t determine who gets recognized as a leader. In the seven years since the last elections, whoever has been able to grab power has been able to control what happens to Haiti’s 11.7 million people.
Even the designation of Ariel Henry as the most recent prime minister was rooted in violence and undemocratic values. Unelected, he came to power in 2021 after Colombian militants (that were likely Haitian-funded) stormed the palace and assassinated Prime Minister Jovenel Moise. After his swearing-in ceremony, Henry promised to hold elections “as soon as possible.” Nearly 2-1/2 years later, with no elections in sight, Haitians took to the streets on Feb. 7 to demand Henry’s resignation, a demonstration symbolically timed for what should have been Inauguration Day for a new leader.
Henry was forced to recognize he lost power when gangs surrounded the airport last week, refusing to allow his plane to land anywhere on the island. In Kenya to support the United Nations’ effort to deploy an African-led, multinational police force, Henry found himself on the wrong side of a narrative about national pride and identity.
Henry was painted in social media posts as welcoming a foreign military invasion. Gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, a former special operations police officer who now leads a federation of gangs, has put himself in the role of freedom fighter against a corrupt regime. Going by the moniker Barbeque — he claims it’s a nod to his mother’s chicken shop in the slums; U.N. officials say it references his preferred method of punishing people — Cherizier fashions himself as the voice of the streets and leader of a revolution, blaming the international community’s support for Henry “for taking us to a civil war.”
Going by the moniker Barbeque, in a nod to his mother’s famous chicken recipe, Cherizier fashions himself as the voice of the streets and leader of a revolution.
Haiti is undoubtedly facing a humanitarian crisis. According to CARICOM, more people have died in Haiti in the early part of this year than in Ukraine. Violence has displaced more than 300,000 people. Access to water, food, hygiene and basic health care are unreliable. The United Nations is considering building a land bridge from the Dominican Republic to ship aid into Haiti. The United States, meanwhile, is providing more than $30 million in aid and preparing its military base on the island of Cuba to care for fleeing Haitians.
While the people of Haiti are struggling and being hurt by their own, this is not a crisis that can be solved by outside organizations who ignore the current politics of power. When CARICOM decided that no one who has a criminal conviction could serve on the interim council, Cherizier’s gang federation quickly released a statement that they “will not recognize any government resulting from these meetings. It is up to the Haitian people to designate the personalities who will lead the country.”
A senior State Department official said Tuesday, “Only one half of this equation is democracy and governance. The other half is security and that’s why we’re going to continue to push” on the U.N. police force.”
“We’re going to take this one step at a time,” the official added.
The careful steps of the international community must account for the deep roots and power now held by the federation of gangs. But the diplomatic community is between a rock and a hard place. Including any gang leaders in discussions is seen as legitimizing their violent power grab. But the reality remains that any governance plan that refuses to recognize the grip Cherizier and his team have on society will ultimately fail and continue Haiti’s current trajectory of corruption and violence.
Nayyera Haq is a global affairs journalist.