Haiti governing council moves to replace PM in power struggle

Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille (L) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hold a press conference at the US Chief of Mission Residence in Port Au Prince, Haiti, on September 5, 2024. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti’s transitional council has moved to replace Prime Minister Garry Conille, according to an official gazette bulletin seen Sunday by AFP, as a power struggle threatens to plunge the crisis-wracked nation into fresh chaos.

The nine-member council’s decision, dated for publication on Monday November 11, seeks to push out Conille after just five months in office and replace him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime.

The bulletin says the council agreed by consensus on November 8 to remove Conille, a former UN official and academic tapped in May to lead the struggling Caribbean nation as it confronts soaring, long-standing political instability.

READ: Trenches, drones: Haiti gangs adapt to fight Kenya-led police

Conille, 58, has sent a letter to the transitional council asking for the decision not to be officially published, according to a copy obtained by AFP.

The two sides have been locked in a power struggle for weeks, with the council wanting to change the ministers of justice, finance, defense and health against the prime minister’s wishes, according to the Miami Herald.

And Conille sent the council a letter this week seeking the resignation of three of its members accused of corruption.

It was not immediately clear if the council — whose members represent various political and civil society groups — even has the power to dismiss Conille.

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The council is a new body that is not mentioned in the constitution and it was not approved by parliament because Haiti does not have a sitting legislature.

The country has not held elections since 2016, widening a political vacuum that has worsened existing security and health crises.

The country has long been rocked by gang violence, but conditions sharply worsened at the end of February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in the capital Port-au-Prince, saying they wanted to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel Henry.

Unelected and unpopular, Henry stepped down amid the violence, handing power to the transitional council, which has US and regional backing.

Despite the arrival of a Kenyan-led police support mission, gang violence has continued to soar in Haiti.

The United Nations reported late last month that over 1,200 people were killed from July through September, with persistent kidnappings and sexual violence against women and girls.

Gangs in recent years have taken over about 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince as any semblance of governance evaporated.

The United Nations report also said these powerful gangs are digging trenches, using drones and stockpiling weapons as they change tactics to confront the Kenyan-led police force.

Gang leaders have strengthened defenses for the zones they control and placed gas cylinders and Molotov cocktail bombs ready to use against police operations.

More than 700,000 people — half of them children — have fled their homes because of the gang violence, according to the International Organization for Migration.