PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC—A new provisional government was sworn in on Thursday in this French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state, nearly two months after a criminal insurrection plunged the capital into chaos.
The nine-person “transitional council” was officially sworn in as Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is in the United States, having been locked out of Haiti by the gang uprising, announced in a letter that he was stepping down.
“We have served the nation during difficult times,” wrote Henry, a neurosurgeon turned politician who came to power after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
Thursday’s early morning ceremony was reportedly cloaked in secrecy and was not publicly announced because of the threat of violence.
On the eve of the event, reports suggested it would occur in another government property, a mansion on the outskirts of town.
Despite threats, the United States and 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom)-backed council pressed on with its inauguration on Thursday, almost two months after the start of the criminal rebellion, on February 29.
Serving as interim Prime Minister is Michael Patrick Boisvert – Henry’s former finance minister.
The members of the Presidential Transitional Council are Smith Agustin, Louis Gérald Gilles, Fritz Alphonse Jean, Edgard Leblanc Fils, Laurent Saint-Cyr, Emmanuel Vertilair, Leslie Voltaire, Régine Abraham, and Frinel Joseph. They took the oath in small groups at the National Palace before going to the Villa d’Accueil for the ceremony and the speech.
The presidential advisors are scheduled to proceed to the election of the Transition Council’s president-coordinator; four names come up most often for this position: Louis Gérald Gilles, Lesly Voltaire, Edgard Leblanc Fils, and Fritz Alphonse Jean, although no candidate has been officially announced.
In recent months, Port-au-Prince has been almost isolated from the rest of the world, with its international airport and port closed because of gunfights and the roads linking it to other cities abducted by armed groups notorious for kidnapping and extortion.
In addition, foreign governments have evacuated hundreds of citizens to the United States or the neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
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