PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — It’s the one query on the minds of all Haitians ever since armed gangs plunged the long-suffering Caribbean nation into close to anarchy: The place on this planet is Prime Minister Ariel Henry?
The embattled chief, who assumed energy following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, has been notably absent because the nation’s newest and most severe outbreak of violence began final week. Henry has stayed silent as he crisscrosses the world, from South America to Africa, with no introduced date of return.
In the meantime, armed teams have seized on the ability void. They tried to take management of Haiti’s essential worldwide airport on Monday and exchanged gunfire with police and troopers. The explosion of violence additionally included a mass escape from the nation’s two largest prisons.
Even a decree declaring a state of emergency and curfew to revive order lacked Henry’s imprint. It was signed by his finance minister, who’s serving as performing prime minister.
“It’s the million-dollar query,” stated Jake Johnston, a analysis affiliate on the Washington-based Heart for Financial and Coverage Analysis. “No one is aware of the place he’s or when he’ll return. The truth that he hasn’t even opened his mouth because the violence started has stoked all types of hypothesis.”
By Tuesday afternoon, the thriller appeared to ease after officers stated Henry landed in Puerto Rico on his manner again to Haiti.
Officers instructed The Related Press that Henry arrived late within the afternoon on the Luiz Muñoz Marín Worldwide Airport within the capital of San Juan. The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to substantiate his arrival.
Henry was anticipated to journey to the Dominican Republic later to fly to Haiti, however hours earlier than he arrived in Puerto Rico, the Dominican authorities introduced that it was instantly suspending all air visitors with Haiti.
Dominican migration officers didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Gangs opened fired on police late Monday exterior the Toussaint Louverture Worldwide Airport within the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the place Henry would possible land ought to he return dwelling.
An armored truck could possibly be seen on the tarmac capturing at gangs making an attempt to enter the airport as scores of workers and different employees fled from whizzing bullets. The airport was closed when the assault occurred, with no planes working and no passengers on web site. It remained closed Tuesday.
Faculties and banks have been additionally closed Tuesday, and public transport floor to a standstill.
“Haiti is now underneath the management of the gangs. The federal government isn’t current,” stated Michel St-Louis, 40, standing in entrance of a burned-down police station within the capital. “I’m hoping they will hold Henry out so whoever takes energy can restore order.”
Whereas Haiti’s issues run deep and defy any fast repair, Henry himself is more and more unpopular. His lack of ability to control successfully has stoked requires him to step apart that the gangs are additionally embracing, if solely to advance their very own felony pursuits, Johnston stated.
Henry was final seen Friday in Kenya on a mission to salvage a multinational safety power the east African nation was set to guide underneath the auspices of the U.N. He left Haiti greater than per week in the past to attend a gathering of Caribbean leaders in Guyana, the place a deadline was introduced — by others, not Henry — to delay repeatedly postponed elections but once more. The balloting was pushed again to mid-2025.
That announcement is what seems to have triggered the newest explosion of violence. It started with a direct problem from a robust gang chief, Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer generally known as Barbecue who fashions himself as a Robin Hood crusader. Chérizier stated he would goal authorities ministers in an effort to forestall Henry’s return and power his resignation.
“With our weapons and with the Haitian folks, we’ll free the nation,” he stated in a video message asserting the offensive.
He appeared to make good on that risk over the following few days as gangs launched assaults on the central financial institution, the airport, even the nationwide soccer stadium. The fruits of the coordinated offensive came to visit the weekend when a jailbreak on the Nationwide Penitentiary and one other jail launched onto the streets of the capital greater than 5,000 inmates, lots of whom had been serving time for homicide, kidnapping and different violent crimes.
The prime minister’s workplace didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark, nor has it stated the place the prime minister is and when he expects to return.
Henry, a soft-spoken neurosurgeon, positions himself as a transitional determine and peacemaker who has the backing of the U.S. authorities — lengthy Haiti’s dominant international ally and the important thing to any stabilization effort.
However the Biden administration’s help has not translated into recognition at dwelling, the place Henry is reviled. Since he took energy greater than two years in the past, the financial system has been in free fall, meals costs have skyrocketed and gang violence has surged.
Final yr, greater than 8,400 folks have been reported killed, injured or kidnapped, greater than double the quantity reported in 2022. The U.N. estimates that just about half of Haiti’s 11 million folks want humanitarian help, however this yr’s humanitarian enchantment for $674 million has obtained simply $17 million — about 2.5% of what is wanted.
Moreover, Henry has been unable to carry Haiti’s disparate political actors into an settlement on normal elections, which haven’t been held since 2015.
The current surge in violence has renewed strain on the U.S. and different international powers to rapidly deploy a safety power to forestall additional bloodshed. The Biden administration has pledged funding and logistical help for any multinational power however has steadfastly refused to commit U.S. troops.
Dan Foote, who because the Biden envoy opposed requires any American boots on the bottom in Haiti, stated a U.S.-led navy intervention can not be averted.
“It is an absolute necessity now,” Foote stated in an interview. “We have let this slide from worse to worst all of the whereas abdicating our accountability to others. However no person can argue that Haiti is not a failed state when the penitentiary will get emptied out.”
Kirby gave no indication the Biden administration was reconsidering its refusal to deploy troops.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric stated he was unaware of any dialogue of a “formal U.N. peacekeeping mission” separate from the multinational safety power the U.N. Safety Council endorsed final yr. That power would contain 1,000 principally Kenyan law enforcement officials as an alternative of U.N. blue helmet peacekeepers.
Whereas elections stay one of the best ways to stabilize the nation as soon as the safety is restored, the U.S. must abandon its help for Henry for an intervention to succeed, he stated.
“Any elections administered by Henry will not be accepted by the Haitian folks,” he stated. “If not for our backing, Haitians would’ve thrown Henry out way back.”
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Goodman reported from Miami. Related Press writers Edith Lederer on the United Nations and Matthew Lee and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
