HAITI-CARICOM welcomes selection of prime minister in Haiti

On Thursday, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC -Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders welcomed the selection of a” transitional” prime minister in Haiti, where efforts continue to end the French-speaking CARICOM country’s political and socio-economic crisis.

“The unanimous election of Dr. Garry Conille by the Transitional Presidential Council (TPC), following a selection process with nominations from several stakeholder sectors, is another important step forward on the path to free and fair elections and the return to constitutional order in Haiti,” the regional leaders said in a statement.
Dr. Garry Conille

They said they are aware that there are “still many challenges ahead.” Still, they expressed their support “for the new Prime Minister-designate and reiterated their commitment to the Transitional Presidential Council and the people of Haiti.

“CARICOM looks forward to the early completion of the process to officially establish the institutions of transitional governance by the agreement of March 11, 2024,” they said.

Conille, 58, a former United Nations development specialist, was named Haiti’s new prime minister on Tuesday evening. This comes nearly a month after a coalition within a fractured transitional council sought to choose someone else for the position.

In his first public statement on Wednesday, Conille vowed to seek unity and thanked the civil society groups, political parties, and members of the Haitian diaspora who proposed him as a candidate, saying he was “very honored” to have been chosen.

“Together, we will work for a better tomorrow for all our nation’s children,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Conille has since submitted his resignation as UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, a post he has held since January 2023. He served as Haiti’s prime minister from October 2011 to May 2012 under then-President Michel Martelly.

Conille faces a massive task in bringing together Haitians, given that the country has been under siege by criminal gangs that control at least 80 percent of the capital. It is awaiting the arrival of the United Nations Security Council-sanctioned multi-national security system (MSS) that will be led by Kenya, including military and police officers from some CARICOM countries, notably the Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica, and Antigua and Barbuda.

Conille will share power with the head of the TPC, Edgard Leblanc Fils. Haiti has been without a president ever since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

In its statement, CARICOM said it commends the PC “for putting the interest of the country and the people of Haiti above all else.

“This will remain a paramount objective as the TPC, working with Transitional Prime Minister Conille, continues to move forward in restoring security and in establishing the critical broadly representative institutions necessary for the delivery of public services, the provision of humanitarian relief, facilitating socio-economic improvement, and the holding of free and fair elections promptly,” it added.