Just when Caribbean Community (Caricom) nations dared to think that they were seeing a bit of light at the end of the tunnel regarding Haiti, heavily armed gangs broke into the main state prison over the weekend, freeing nearly 4,000 prisoners in what local media houses have described as an attempt to block embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s return from a key trip to Kenya.
Henry, sworn in as prime minister shortly after the early July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, left for Kenya in the middle of last week after attending a summit of fellow Caricom trade bloc leaders in Guyana, where he was severely roasted for his reluctance to share power with opposition and civil society groups to form a transitional council that would organize fresh elections in a bid to stabilize the strife-torn nation of more than 11 million.
At their meeting last week, the leaders boasted that they had pushed Henry into agreeing to make concessions and share power with other groups that oppose his continued presence in office—he is an unelected leader clinging onto power while heavily armed gangs try to oust him, and opposition parties refuse to recognize him as PM. They had even ordered him to ensure that elections will be held by the end of August next year. Once this is set in motion, the region and the international community would continue working together to land a multinational peacekeeping or stabilization force on the ground to drive back gangs.
Henry had gone to Kenya to sign a reciprocal agreement to deploy 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti as the lead nation in the force.
The Haitian Times newspaper said the jailbreak was “an apparent move to bar Henry’s return from Kenya.” More than 30 people were killed in the prison-related violence, including several police officers, and thousands of already struggling citizens were displaced.
The latest developments mean it is unclear whether plans by Caricom to organize a multi-stakeholder meeting with politically warring factions in Jamaica next week will still take place. The meeting is to be facilitated by the eminent persons group of former prime minister Bruce Golding of Jamaica, Perry Christie of the Bahamas, and Kenneth Anthony of St. Lucia. The group has held several rounds of talks with all the key sides since mid-last year, but the PMs have complained that Henry’s previous refusal to share power with other groups was a major stumbling block, even though they had made progress in nearly all other areas.
An electoral needs assessment team is to be assembled to help Haiti by the end of March, involving Caricom, the Organization of American States, Canada, the U.S., and France as well, the leaders said.
Delayed elections in recent months mean that the terms of nearly all parliamentarians, senators, mayors, and other officials have expired. As a result, the international community hopes to put a transitional government in place representing various factions that would help smooth the way for elections in the coming months.
Speaking at the end of the Guyana summit, Bahamian Prime Minister Phillip Davis said Haiti is “hemorrhaging” and needs help urgently. “The Caricom heads and the key partners recognized the depth of the suffering of the Haitian people. This has been exacerbated by the lack of consensus among the political stakeholders, civil society, the private and religious sectors, and the government of Haiti.
“In this regard, the Caricom heads called on all concerned to make the necessary concessions to arrive at a resolution of the political impasse. They urged that each stakeholder must recognize that they will not obtain all that they want, but Haiti must obtain what it needs. Against this background, Caricom will extend an invitation to the stakeholders to participate in a meeting urgently to address and settle the critical political path that is participatory and inclusive.”
