Earlier this year, Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders, along with the Friends of Haiti group, had moved nearly every obstacle in their path to put together an interim administration in Haiti as heavily armed gangs were threatening to take control of the capital and nearby areas.
They had cobbled together a nine-person transitional presidential council to stabilize the country, liaise with international partners willing to send peacekeepers to the island, and prepare for fresh general elections by early 2026, among other tasks.
Since the first-quarter move by regional leaders, the interim administration has tried to battle with a series of crises, from a deteriorating security situation, emerging pockets of famine, growing mountains of uncollected garbage, and internal wrangling between coalition members themselves.
In the past week however, the tensions and infighting among the council members have boiled over into a full-scale political war, with members voting to oust Prime Minister Garry Conille.
Conille, 58, has, only able to serve as head of government for six months before eight of the nine members of the council voted over the weekend to let him go. A formal announcement was made on Monday.
Conille had been feuding with council President Leslie Voltaire about how the business of government should be conducted, with Conille refusing a presidential request to reshuffle and reorganize it for alleged greater efficiency. Several meetings between the two to agree about a way forward bore no fruit, so the situation was put to a vote, with Conille emerging as the loser.
Reacting to his plight on Monday, a defiant outgoing prime minister dismissed the move by the council as unconstitutional, noting that such powers are reserved for parliament even though the country currently has no functioning national assembly.
“Although the presidential council has the prerogative to appoint the prime minister, no legal text gives it the power to dismiss him,” Conille said in an open letter to the public. “The agreement of April 3 and the decree of May 27, 2024, which organize the transition, clearly define the governance procedures, but they do not in any way allow the council to unilaterally terminate the functions of the prime minister. We are currently going through a deep and extremely urgent crisis. Haiti faces colossal challenges. Gangs that control a large part of our capital, widespread insecurity that affects the population, a food crisis that is hitting the most vulnerable hard, and thousands of displaced families.”
Local business owner Alix Didier Fils-Aime, 52, will replace Conille as PM. Conille was a United Nationals development expert. He previously served as a PM just over a decade ago but was forced out by fellow high officials.
Speaking Monday, Caricom officials pointed out that Conille was bound to have lost a battle with Voltaire largely because he had not only overrated himself but also had not been the most popular among colleagues on the council, so the proverbial writing was always on the wall for an early departure. His dismissal was expected to be announced later on Monday, Nov. 11, even as arguments about the legality of his firing are swirling in Haiti.
As locals monitor developments, the main armed gang in Haiti Monday served notice of a major resumption of gang warfare. Vivre Ensemble, led by former police officer Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, asked locals to remain indoors while gangsters took on the foreign legions of troops and police officers collaborating with local enforcement groups. Barbecue announced plans for gang warfare in a video message released to local media outlets.
Sensing that the internal disagreements were debilitating to Haiti, regional leaders in a recent statement chided the council, noting that “this growing lack of cohesion imperils the transitional process based on the spirit and the principles of compromise, consensus, and inclusiveness set out in the Political Agreement of March 11, 2024 in Jamaica and the Political Accord of April 3, 2024 drawn up by the Haitian stakeholders.”
These differences between the leaders of the executive branch also undermine confidence among Haiti’s partners and the wider international community, impeding the provision of the critical assistance that Haiti urgently requires to address and overcome the complex crisis in which it is presently mired. “Caricom is deeply concerned by the ongoing differences being played out in public between the [p]resident of the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) and the prime minister of Haiti,” the bloc had stated.