From an abandoned medical clinic in Port-au-Prince, members of the Viv Asamn gang federation fire rifles and Molotov cocktails at police armoured vehicles in late April.Goran Tomasevic/The Globe and Mail
Latest updates
- Civilian contractors have begun work in Haiti to prepare the way for a Kenyan-led international security force, the U.S. military said Thursday as the 1,000 police officers get ready to deploy, possibly by month’s end. The mission, financed in part by Canada, is a long-delayed response to the gang insurrection and a political crisis that has plunged the Caribbean country into violence.
- The gangs that control most of Port-au-Prince have continued skirmishes with police in recent weeks to disrupt the recently sworn-in transitional council, which appointed a new prime minister late last month. “Right now we are in a situation of a failed state,” Rosy Auguste Ducéna, program manager for the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights, told The Globe and Mail.
Where is Haiti and what is happening there?
Haiti is the oldest independent republic in the Caribbean, the product of a Black revolution against French colonialism and slavery in the early 19th century. Poverty, foreign interventions, coups and the 2010 earthquake have left it with fragile state institutions, but things have been more fraught since 2021, when foreign mercenaries assassinated then-president Jovenel Moïse.
Haiti has no standing army, and its underfunded National Police – whose former chief was indicted in the Moïse plot – is ill-equipped to fight the armed gangs that have seized control of much of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.
The most recent fighting started on Feb. 29, when Haiti’s then prime minister arrived in Kenya to salvage a planned deployment of 1,000 police officers. Gangs in Port-au-Prince barricaded streets, burned police stations and broke thousands of people out of Haiti’s two biggest prisons. Months later, the security situation remains shaky and gangs are in control of about 80 per cent of the capital.
Key people and groups to know in Haiti
Ariel Henry is Prime Minister of Haiti.Andrew Kasuku/The Associated Press
Ariel Henry
Mr. Henry had been prime minister for only a week when Mr. Moïse, the man who appointed him, was killed in 2021. Mr. Henry quickly seized de facto leadership of the country, promising to eventually hold elections. But when he failed to do so last year – citing the dangers of gang violence – it stoked more public anger and calls for his resignation, which boiled over during his political visit to Kenya. On March 11, hoping to restore order, he said he would step down as soon as a transitional government could take charge. He made that official in a resignation letter dated April 24 and signed in Los Angeles. His cabinet picked Michel Patrick Boisvert, the finance minister, as his interim successor.
Fritz Belizaire
The transitional council did not keep Mr. Boisvert in his post for long. On April 30, they announced Fritz Belizaire, the former youth and sports minister, would be the new prime minister.
Edgard Leblanc, Regine Abraham and Fritz Alphonse Jean confer after their April 25 swearing-in as members of the transitional council.Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters
Presidential transitional council
On April 25, a nine-member council took their oaths in Port-au-Prince to lead Haiti till Feb. 7, 2026, when a new president is due to be sworn in. The council has seven voting members:
- Edgard Leblanc, former senate president who, as the council’s elected leader, is effectively the interim president of Haiti
- Fritz Alphonse Jean, former central bank governor
- Smith Augustin and Leslie Voltaire, former diplomats
- Emmanuel Vertilaire, lawyer
- Louis Gerald Gilles, former senator
- Laurent Saint-Cyr, businessman
Two members can observe but not vote: pastor Frinel Joseph and Regine Abraham, a former official in Haiti’s environment ministry.
The parties behind the council
Five factions were each allowed to pick one of the council’s voting members:
- Fanmi Lavalas: This Haitian centre-left party was founded by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the last democratically elected president of Haiti, who was overthrown in a 2004 coup.
- Petit Desalin: Founded by former senator Jean Charles Moïse after a political falling-out with Fanmi Lavalas.
- EDE/RED: The party of Claude Joseph, who briefly served as Haiti’s prime minister after the Moïse assassination and is now one of those accused in the plot (though he says the indictment is politically motivated).
- Jan. 30 Collective: Represents parties including that of ex-president Michel Martelly.
- Montana Accord: A group of civil-society leaders who laid out a democratic transition plan in 2021.
Jimmy Chérizier, alias Barbecue, is leader of the G9 Family and Allies federation of gangs.Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters
Jimmy (Barbecue) Chérizier
As leader of the G9 gang federation, Mr. Chérizier is one of the most influential and feared figures in the Haitian underworld, though he likens himself more to revolutionary figures such as Che Guevara. He took responsibility for the Feb. 29 uprising, saying its objective was to stop Mr. Henry from returning to power.
UN peacekeepers, like this one detaining a suspect in 2007, were last in Haiti as part of MINUSTAH, a Brazilian-led mission from 2004 to 2017.Kena Betancur/Reuters
What the U.S., Canada and allies are doing
Military intervention in Haiti has a long, messy and rarely successful history, and many Haitian diasporas are not keen to see their countries take that step. For now, countries including Canada have focused on finding a political solution and financing foreign aid to help Haitians through the crisis.
United Nations
Last year, the United Nations set out a framework for an international force in Haiti that it would finance and facilitate, but not lead. Instead, Kenya will send 1,000 police officers and command thousands more from participating countries including Benin, Bangladesh, Chad and Barbados. The mission’s timing in flux since Kenya, responding to Mr. Henry’s resignation, said it would pause deployment until there is a transitional council in Haiti for their officers to work with.
Haitian police stand guard outside the Canadian embassy on Feb. 25 during protests against Mr. Henry.Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters
United States and Canada
Washington and Ottawa have pledged up to $200-million and $59-million, respectively, to the international force in Haiti. Their embassies in Port-au-Prince have scaled down to essential personnel only.
Caricom
The Caribbean regional trade bloc has spent months encouraging Haiti’s political factions to form a transitional unity government.
Dominican Republic
Haiti’s neighbour – which has cracked down hard on Haitian migrants in recent years– says it will not join the international force or allow Haitian refugee camps on Dominican soil. President Luis Abinader also refuses to let Mr. Henry into the country.
Recommended reading on Haiti
The Decibel podcast
Who is best equipped to restore order in Haiti’s crisis? Political scientist Chalmers Larose spoke with The Decibel about the security problems and whether international intervention would help.. Subscribe for more episodes from The Globe and Mail’s news podcast.
Commentary
Greg Beckett: The world needs to let Haiti write its own story
Konrad Yakabuski: Haiti cannot wait another year for the U.S. and Canada to help
Robert Muggah: Haiti’s elites should be held accountable for backing gangs
With reports from Associated Press, the Canadian Press, Reuters and Globe staff