Haiti: Transitional government sworn in as gangs grow in strength

Vatican News and Reuters

A transition council took power in a ceremony in Haiti on Thursday, as the Caribbean nation seeks to establish security after years of gang violence.

Ex-PM Ariel Henry's finance minister, Michel Patrick Boisvert, will be interim prime minister until the transition council appoints a new head of government.

After the nine-person transition council was sworn in on Thursday morning, Boisvert said that "Today is an important day in the life of our dear republic; this day in effect opens a view to a solution.”

In a statement last month, Haiti's bishops had ruled out joining the council. 

“Total collapse” of institutions

Regine Abraham, a non-voting council member, thanked Haiti's security forces and international mediators, and said the council would focus on security, a national consultation on constitutional reform, preparing for elections, rebuilding the judiciary system and the economy.

"We are seeing the total collapse of our institutions and failure of a government," she said.

Port-au-Prince residents have "literally been taken hostage," she added. "Facing this unprecedented crisis, the entire population has recognized the urgent need of a firm hand to take us out of this spiral of despair and destruction."

Violence continues

Even as the council was sworn in, local media reported houses being set on fire and shooting in the capital's downtown and Delmas areas, posting photos of columns of gray smoke rising above the skyline and videos of families leaving the area with their belongings.

Armed gangs, equipped with weapons trafficked largely from the United States, have for years tightened their grip on the capital and sought to topple Henry. Since he pledged to resign last month, they have called for a broader "revolution".

Earlier this week, gang leader Jimmy "Barbeque" Cherizier warned members of the transition council to "brace" themselves.

Unverified voice recordings circulated on social media over the weekend in which Cherizier appeared to order his soldiers to indiscriminately burn houses in Lower Delmas, an impoverished part of the capital where he grew up.

Henry’s resignation

At the ceremony, hosted amid tight security at the prime minister's Villa d'Accueil office, Boisvert and members of the transition council were flanked by top police and military officials.

Henry announced last month he would resign once the council was in place, initially expected to happen within a couple of days but delayed amid disagreements as to who should sit on it.

Henry had left Haiti in late February seeking support for the country's outgunned police, but was left stranded in Puerto Rico as the gangs threatened to completely take over the capital. Boisvert has served as acting prime minister in Henry's absence.

The transitional government's mandate runs until February 2026, by when there are slated to be elections, and cannot be renewed. No date has been set for its naming of a new prime minister or council president.