Armed gangs, as widely reported since February 29, have caused an almost total breakdown of Haiti. They control 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, according to a United Nations report. The country has been without an elected president since July 2021, when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in the bedroom of his private residence.

Haiti had been ruled, or misruled, by a de facto prime minister, imposed by the CORE Group of Western ambassadors at Port-au-Prince, under the guidance of the State Department. No more. The CORE group includes envoys of the UN secretary-general, America, the European Union, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and the Organization of American States.

The discredited prime minister — Ariel Henry, a  neurosurgeon — has been out of the country since the last week of February. He went to Guyana to attend a summit of the 15-state Caribbean alliance known as Caricom. From there he traveled to Nairobi, the capital of the East African country of Kenya.

There he was seen, for the last time, at the signing of an accord with that country’s president, William Ruto, to make possible the deployment of an international security force, to be led by a Kenyan police force of 1,000, to help defeat the gangs in his country. 

Dr. Henry hasn’t been able to set foot in his country ever since, threatened with execution by the gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, alias Barbecue, who managed to pull together most of the gangs around the capital in a “Viv Ansanm” (Live Together) alliance.

On April 24, from Los Angeles, where he’s been secretly in exile at the home of a relative, the absent prime minister finally wrote his resignation letter. No doubt, his foreign enablers, who had set him in power, told him time is up, because a “Presidential Transition Council” to take charge in Haiti was about to be installed.

That council of Haitian personalities, who couldn’t even attend the deliberations, was fashioned in Kingston, Jamaica, in meetings of Caricom heads of states, with participation and guidance of leaders of major Western countries, including the United States, with Secretary Blinken playing a role.

The composition of the council was announced March 11, via Zoom, from Kingston. It included seven voting members of various Haitian political organizations and two non-voting representatives of civil society and the religious sector. In jest, some Haitian political analysts quickly referred to the Council as a “seven-headed snake.” 

Due to threats from gangs, the council members were  sworn-in at a secret  meeting on April 25 at the palace at Port-au-Prince, and later that day they participated in a public meeting held at the Villa d’Accueil, a government complex at the secured neighborhood of Musseau. That is where Prime Minister Henry had set up his office since July 2022, when he closed the regular office at the upscale Bicentenary zone of downtown Port-au-Prince, following the assault of the Five Seconds Gang on the main courthouse two blocks away and occupying it till now. 

Lavalas Family, the political party of the former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, issued a fiery press release, in which its representative in the Commission, the architect Leslie Voltire, is congratulated for his “courage, devotion to the task and tolerance,” and “doing the utmost to get people together to reach a true consensus for the success of this transition.”  

Then this blast against the decision: “Unfortunately, the masquerade exhibited on this day of April 30, at the Presidential Council, is a plot to guarantee that the legal bandit of the PHTK family and allies keep a hold to power during the transition period and maintain the tradition of corruption. The people are tired of the suffering, while the legal bandits and allies keep benefiting at their expense.”

To be noted, PHTK is the Creole acronym for Bald-Headed Political Party, which takes its name from the vaudeville bald-headed singer, Michel/Michael Martelly, the self-styled “Legal Bandit” former president who was “elected” in 2011, with full support from Secretary of State Clinton.

Obviously, Haiti is not out of the woods, notwithstanding the maneuvers of the international community, which has assumed sovereignty over the country. Only a secure Haiti, rid of gang rule and able to choose its leadership in free and honest elections will we see meaningful change.

In an emergency meeting Wednesday evening, the Council members responded to the slew of criticisms by issuing a statement, annulling their previous decision. They will abide by the signed accord and choose the Prime Minister to lead the transition from a pool of candidates from various parties. 

Unfortunately, the envoys of the international community have failed to heed to the advice I gave in a Creole slogan, launched September 8, 2021, and oft repeated: “Toutotan kesyon gang nan pa regle, anyen pa ka regle ann Ayiti.”  (As long as the gang issue isn’t addressed, nothing can be addressed in Haiti).

That won’t be realized until the Haitian army, disbanded in January 1995, is remobilized as a modern force, under democratic governance, eschewing corruption and impunity.