Haitian PM arrives in Puerto Rico after long absence as he struggles to get home to quell violence

By EVENS SANON, JOSHUA GOODMAN and DÁNICA COTO (Related Press)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s prime minister landed in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, answering a key query on the minds of all Haitians ever since armed gangs plunged the long-suffering Caribbean nation into close to anarchy: The place on the earth is he?

The embattled Ariel Henry, who assumed energy following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, has been notably absent because the nation’s newest and most critical 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, exchanging gunfire with police at Haiti’s principal worldwide airport on Monday and instigating a mass escape from the nation’s two greatest 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,” mentioned Jake Johnston, a analysis affiliate on the Washington-based Middle for Financial and Coverage Analysis. “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 mentioned Henry landed in Puerto Rico. He arrived late within the afternoon to San Juan on a chartered flight that originated in New Jersey. Monitoring knowledge confirmed the flight was heading towards Dominican Republic, which shares with Haiti the island of Hispaniola, however circled mid-flight earlier than diverting to Puerto Rico.

Hours earlier than he arrived in Puerto Rico, the Dominican authorities introduced that it was instantly suspending all air visitors with Haiti.

In the meantime, Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer who leads a federation of gangs that has claimed accountability for the assaults, repeated Tuesday his aim of blocking Henry’s return and forcing his resignation.

“Our aim is to interrupt the system,” Chérizier, who fashions himself a Robin Hood crusader and goes by the identify of Barbecue, informed journalists at an impromptu information convention in a slum within the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. The gang chief was surrounded by males in ski masks carrying heavy assault rifles.

“We’re preventing towards Ariel with the final drop of our blood,” he mentioned.

Gangs opened fired on police late Monday exterior the Toussaint Louverture Worldwide Airport in Port-au-Prince, the place Henry would possible land ought to he return residence.

An armored truck might be seen on the tarmac taking pictures at gangs attempting to enter the airport as scores of staff and different staff 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 below the management of the gangs. The federal government isn’t current,” mentioned Michel St-Louis, 40, standing in entrance of a burned-down police station within the capital. “I’m hoping they’ll preserve 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 incapability to control successfully has stoked requires him to step apart that the gangs are additionally embracing, if solely to advance their very own prison pursuits, Johnston mentioned.

Henry was final seen Friday in Kenya on a mission to salvage a multinational safety drive the east African nation was set to steer below the auspices of the United Nations. 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 most recent explosion of violence. It started with a direct problem from Chérizier, who mentioned he would goal authorities ministers in an effort to forestall Henry’s return and drive his resignation.

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 mentioned when Henry expects to return.

A soft-spoken neurosurgeon, Henry positions himself as a transitional determine and peacemaker who has the backing of the U.S. authorities — lengthy Haiti’s dominant overseas ally and the important thing to any stabilization effort.

However the Biden administration’s assist has not translated into reputation at residence, the place Henry is reviled. Since he took energy greater than two years in the past, the economic system has been in free fall, meals costs have skyrocketed and gang violence has surged.

Final yr, greater than 8,400 individuals 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 individuals want humanitarian help, however this yr’s humanitarian enchantment for $674 million has acquired simply $17 million — about 2.5% of what’s wanted.

Moreover, Henry has been unable to convey 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 overseas powers to rapidly deploy a safety drive to forestall additional bloodshed. The Biden administration has pledged funding and logistical assist for any multinational drive 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, mentioned a U.S.-led army intervention can not be averted.

“It’s an absolute necessity now,” Foote mentioned in an interview. “We’ve let this slide from worse to worst, all of the whereas abdicating our accountability to others. However no person can argue that Haiti isn’t 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 mentioned he was unaware of any dialogue of a “formal U.N. peacekeeping mission” separate from the multinational safety drive the U.N. Safety Council endorsed final yr. That drive would contain 1,000 largely Kenyan law enforcement officials as an alternative of U.N. blue helmet peacekeepers.

Whereas elections stay one of the simplest ways to stabilize the nation as soon as the safety is restored, the U.S. must abandon its assist for Henry for an intervention to succeed, he mentioned.

“Any elections administered by Henry received’t be accepted by the Haitian individuals,” he mentioned. “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.

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