On March 5, 2024, Haiti’s prime minister Ariel Henry arrived in Puerto Rico and addressed a crucial query that has been bothering all Haitians since violent gangs brought the long-suffering Caribbean country to the verge of anarchy: What is going on with him?
After President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021, the country’s most recent and severe unrest began this week, and the beleaguered Ariel Henry took over as leader. Henry hasn’t said anything as he travels the globe, unannounced, from South America to Africa.
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A major breakout from the two largest jails in the nation has been sparked by armed groups that have taken advantage of the power vacuum. They recently engaged in gunfire with police at Haiti’s main international airport.
Neither was there an order establishing a state of emergency and curfew to bring about the order had Henry’s signature. It was signed by his acting prime minister and minister of finance.
“It’s the million-dollar question,” declared Jake Johnston, a research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “The fact that he hasn’t even opened his mouth since the violence began has stoked speculation.”
The confusion appeared to clear the day Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry arrived in Puerto Rico. On a chartered airplane that left from New Jersey, he landed in San Juan late in the afternoon. The airplane was headed toward the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, according to tracking data, but it circled midair and diverted to Puerto Rico.
The Dominican Republic’s government said just hours before he landed in Puerto Rico that it was stopping all flight travel to Haiti right now.
Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer and the head of a gang federation that has taken credit for the attacks reiterated on Tuesday his intention to prevent Henry from returning and to force his resignation.
“Our goal is to break the system,” Chérizier, sometimes known as Barbecue, is a self-proclaimed Robin Hood activist who informed reporters during an unplanned press conference in a Port-au-Prince slum. Men with powerful assault guns and ski masks encircled the gang boss. “We are fighting against Ariel with the last drop of our blood,” he said.
Henry would probably arrive at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince if he went home, but gangs have just started shooting at police there.
Numerous workers and personnel could be seen running from whizzing gunshots as an armored truck on the tarmac was spotted firing at gangs attempting to infiltrate the airport. At the time of the incident, the airport was closed, meaning that neither people nor planes were using it. It stayed closed.
This includes banks, schools, and public transportation came to a complete halt.
“Haiti is now under the control of the gangs. The government isn’t present,” stated 40-year-old Michel St-Louis as he stood in front of the capital’s destroyed police station. “I’m hoping they can keep Henry out so whoever takes power can restore order.”
While the issues facing Haiti are complex and difficult to resolve quickly, Henry is losing support. The gangs are also supporting demands for him to step down because of his incapacity to lead effectively, if only to further their illegal agendas, according to Johnston.
Henry was recently seen in Kenya while on a mission to save a multinational security force that the UN-backed East African country was supposed to command. He departed from Haiti almost a week ago to participate in a gathering of Caribbean leaders in Guyana, when a deadline was declared — not by Henry, but by others — to postpone elections once more. Voting was rescheduled till the middle of 2025.
The newest outburst of violence seems to have been sparked by that declaration. Chérizier issued a direct challenge from the start, threatening to go after government ministers to stop Henry from coming back and compel his resignation.
Over the next several days, gangs attacked the national football stadium, the airport, and even the central bank, seemingly fulfilling his warning. The concerted operation culminated over the weekend with the release of nearly 5,000 prisoners onto the streets of the nation’s capital following jailbreaks at the National Penitentiary and another prison. Many of the detainees were serving time for heinous crimes like as murder and abduction.
Henry’s expected return date has not been disclosed by the prime minister’s office, despite many requests for information.
Soft-spoken neurosurgeon Henry presents himself as a mediator and transitional figure with the support of the US government, which has historically been Haiti’s main foreign ally and is essential to any attempt at stabilization.
However, Henry is despised at home, so the Biden administration’s backing hasn’t translated into popularity. The economy has been in free decline, food prices have soared, and gang violence has increased since he assumed office more than two years ago.
More than 8,400 reports of deaths, injuries, or kidnapping were made last year—more than twice as many as in 2022. Only $17 million, or 2.5 percent, of the $674 million humanitarian appeal for Haiti this year has been received, despite the UN’s estimation that almost half of the country’s 11 million inhabitants require aid.
Furthermore, Henry has failed to reach a consensus amongst Haiti’s many political actors on general elections, which have not taken place since 2015.
The US and other foreign governments are under increased pressure to send out security forces as soon as possible to stop more killing considering the current spike in violence. The Biden administration has firmly refused to deploy US forces, but it has committed financial and logistical assistance for any international force.
