The leader of one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs has issued a threatening message aimed at political leaders who will participate in a future transitional council for the country, which has been shaken by the escalation of violence in recent weeks.
Since Prime Minister Ariel Henry said on Monday that he would resign once the council was established, the capital, Port-au-Prince, has been calmer, but on Thursday morning a fire broke out in its main penitentiary, according to reports from the local media.
Videos showed thick black smoke billowing from the facility, where gunmen freed prisoners earlier this month. It could not immediately be established if there were any people left in the jail or what caused the fire.
The Caribbean nation is struggling to resolve a long-running political and social crisis that has displaced thousands of people as heavily armed gangs have tightened their control over the capital.
Gang alliance boss Jimmy ‘Barbacoa’ Cherizier’s comments were recorded on Wednesday and distributed via a rambling 7-minute audio message shared on WhatsApp.
“Aren’t you ashamed?” Cherizier said, directing his comments at politicians he said were seeking to join the council. «They have taken the country to where it is today. “They have no idea what will happen,” he added.
“I know if their children are in Haiti, if their wives are in Haiti… if their husbands are in Haiti,” he said in an apparent threat to their families. “If you’re going to run the country, your whole family should be there.”
In his remarks, Cherizier said Henry’s resignation was only “a first step in the battle.”
Plan to install new government falls apart?
The CARICOM regional bloc has detailed the political parties and other social sectors that will form the nine-member transitional council that will replace Henry. Negotiations on the council were mediated by Caribbean leaders and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but no formal appointments have yet been made.
However, some Haitian political parties rejected the plan to create a presidential council to manage the transition.
Jean Charles Moïse, a former senator and presidential candidate who has allied himself with former rebel leader Guy Philippe, held a news conference on Wednesday to announce his rejection of the council proposal, backed by the international community.
Moïse insisted that the tripartite presidential council that he recently formed with Philippe and a Haitian judge should be installed.
“We are not going to negotiate it,” he said out loud while wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. “We have to make them understand.”
His ally Philippe, who led a successful revolt that deposed former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 and was recently released from a US prison after pleading guilty to money laundering, said no Haitian should accept overtures from the international community.
In a video posted Tuesday on social media, Philippe accused the international community of complicity with Haiti’s elite and corrupt politicians, and urged the population to take to the streets.
“CARICOM’s decision is not our decision,” he said, referring to the regional bloc that proposed creating the transitional council. “Haitians will decide who will govern Haiti.”
Cherizier has said the gangs support Philippe and will not accept any plan put forward by CARICOM.
While many Haitians support Philippe, he also has numerous political enemies, including current government ministers who are members of Aristide’s Lavalas party.
Other prominent politicians declined to participate in the proposed transitional council, including former Colonel Himmler Rébu, president of the Grand Rally for the Evolution of Haiti, a party that is part of a coalition that was offered a seat on the council. .
His party prefers that a Supreme Court judge take power, he said in a statement.
Rébu added that the party feels “ashamed and furious” to see “the search for positions of power that do not take into account the responsibilities that come with them.”
In Miami, the Haitian diaspora expressed concern.
“We don’t need the old rats (longtime politicians) at all,” Sonondieu, a Haitian who shops at a Little Haiti supermarket, told VOA. “We don’t need old people, we need new politicians.”
A client who declined to give her name criticized CARICOM for taking a leading role in resolving Haiti’s political impasse.
“It’s like they sold Haiti, without us knowing,” he said.
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