The U.S. has pressured Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, to resign in favor of a transitional government. It is an about-face for the Biden administration which has supported Henry’s government, despite opposition from civil society groups who said the leader, appointed just days before President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021, lacked legitimacy and the ability to carry out democratic elections in a violence-wracked country, reports the Miami Herald.
Henry appeared in Puerto Rico, yesterday, after days off the radar while Haiti was subsumed in violent attacks by criminal organizations — who stormed the country’s largest penitentiaries and freed inmates — apparently aimed at destabilizing his government.
“Our goal is to break the system,” gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, who has claimed responsibility for a spate of attacks starting last week, told journalists at an impromptu news conference in Port-au-Prince. He threatened “civil war” if Henry doesn’t step down. (BBC) He was “surrounded by men in ski masks carrying heavy assault rifles,” reports the Associated Press.
The gang onslaught against Henry appears to have been motivated by the prime minister’s announcement that oft-delayed elections would pushed back to the second half of 2025. (See last Thursday’s post.) He had been pushed to resign by Caribbean leaders at the recent CARICOM summit (see Feb. 27’s post) and had travelled to Kenya last week to arrange for a multinational security mission to support Haiti’s embattled police. He’s been silent since Sunday.
Secretly, Henry was in the U.S. over the weekend, reports the Miami Herald, negotiating a stealth return to Haiti via the Dominican Republic, because gangs have sieged Haiti’s main airport and the country’s airspace has been declared a no-go zone for charter pilots. The original plan involved Henry flying to Santo Domingo and “taking a helicopter across the border, a plan that had been briefed to U.S. and United Nations officials, perhaps using a rotorcraft with night vision for the mission.”
Instead, Henry arrived late in the afternoon yesterday to San Juan on a chartered flight that originated in New Jersey, reports the Associated Press. Tracking data showed the flight was heading toward Dominican Republic, which shares with Haiti the island of Hispaniola, but circled mid-flight before diverting to Puerto Rico.
Yesterday, CARICOM leaders met over Zoom with opposition leaders in Haiti, reports the Miami Herald. “During the calls, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Motley asked for their position on how to navigate the current crisis.” In another call with the private sector, the issue of Henry’s possible resignation prompted mixed reactions.
More Haiti
Port-au-Prince is largely shut down and under gang control, amid the wave of violence that started last week. “Residents are now trying to flee the city, or only venturing out for essentials, after authorities imposed a state of emergency,” reports Al Jazeera.
U.S. lawmakers are concerned the Haiti crisis could unleash further migration. (Politico)
Venezuela election date announced
Venezuela will hold presidential elections on July 28, authorities announced yesterday. The date met an opposition demand that the much anticipated vote be held in the second half of the year, part of a timeframe agreed on by Nicolás Maduro’s government and a unity opposition platform in negotiations last October.
But Venezuela’s court has maintained a ban against the main opposition presidential contender, María Corina Machado, profoundly undermining negotiations aimed at creating a minimally free and fair playing field in a country where the government has carried out systematic repression of critics for years.
Maduro is expected to announce his bid for reelection. Pollsters believe Machado would beat him in a fair contest, but it is unclear who the opposition will field if she is not permitted to run. The deadline for candidate registration is March 25.
The short timeframe also complicates international observation agreed upon by the opposition and the government in October — such missions typically require months to prepare.
Maduro’s government seeks to thread the needle with the July 28 date, fulfilling enough the Barbados agreement to keep it alive “while pushing on the opposition to try to get it to split or abstain,” Venezuela expert David Smilde told the Associated Press.
(Associated Press, New York Times, Financial Times, Reuters)
Peru
Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otárola resigned yesterday, in the midst of a scandal involving accusations that he obtained a government contract for a woman he was allegedly romantically involved with. He denies the allegations, reports EFE. (See yesterday’s briefs.)
El Salvador
President Nayib Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party obtained 61% of the country’s municipalities in local elections on Sunday — but has interpreted the results as a near total victory, as all but one of the remaining municipalities will be governed by allies. The mayor of the last remaining opposition bastion, Antiguo Cuscatlán, already offered to work closely to Bukele as well, reports El Faro.
The results of the general and municipal elections in El Salvador over the past month confirm the demise of the once dominant FMLN party, reports the Associated Press.
Last week Bukele attacked gender theory and said it would be excluded from public education. (El País)
Colombia
Coca farming is an alternative livelihood in Colombia, “in the midst of poverty and state abandonment,” but it brings a curse: “armed groups, massacres, murders, and displacements. This dichotomy can only be truly understood by those who have experienced it firsthand, as Ana has. Through her story, InSight Crime explores the evolution of organized crime in Putumayo, Colombia — and how, despite promises of peace, coca continues to affect the fate of an entire department.”
Panama
“Panama’s electoral tribunal disqualified former President Ricardo Martinelli from running in the May presidential election in light of a 10-year sentence he received for money laundering,” reports the New York Times.
Argentina
Parts of Argentina are enduring an unprecedented mosquito outbreak, which has been blamed for a spike in dengue, reports the Guardian.