Uncertainty remains after Haiti's transitional government ousted its prime minister

1 week ago 2

Uncertainty remains after Haiti's transitional government ousted its prime minister

Haiti's transitional government has ousted their prime minister, but that transitional leader says the move is unconstitutional and he is not going anywhere.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

The transitional government in Haiti has fired its transitional prime minister, and the new leader was sworn in today. The ousted transitional prime minister is saying this is unconstitutional and he's not going anywhere. NPR's Eyder Peralta is following the story from his base in Mexico City. Hi there.

EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.

SUMMERS: So, Eyder, start by just telling us, how did we get here?

PERALTA: I mean, it's been brewing for a little bit. Some of the members of the council have been accused of corruption, and there's been disagreement about what exactly to do with them. And there's also been personal animosity between the members of the transitional council and the old prime minister. And then there's the part that actually matters. This council has been in power for about six months, and they are in control of a Kenyan-led international security force. But in part because of this infighting, they've been paralyzed. They've done very little to bring order to the country. In fact, in the past few months, the gangs that forced another prime minister to resign have actually taken over more territory. And now this transitional government, which was supposed to stop the chaos, is actually adding to the turmoil.

This weekend, a majority of the transitional council voted to oust the prime minister. But Prime Minister Garry Conille says the only one who can fire a prime minister in Haiti is parliament. And of course, at the moment, Haiti doesn't have a parliament. Either way, a new prime minister, a businessman named Alix Didier Fils-Aime, was sworn in, and he promised to reestablish security in Haiti.

SUMMERS: Interesting. OK, so clearly there's a big power struggle here. Do we have a sense of what could happen next?

PERALTA: You know, I called Robert Fatton, who studies Haiti at the University of Virginia, and he says he has no idea. It's the first time he has no idea. He says Haiti effectively has no constitution. It's unclear who the police, the Kenyan forces or even what's left of the military will listen to. But Fatton says this is a reminder that Haiti's political and economic elites are, quote, "bankrupt."

ROBERT FATTON: After each crisis, I always thought that the country had reached bottom and that some sense would come out of that sense that things were really falling apart. But that has not happened, so I don't see why this would be any different, unfortunately.

PERALTA: And he says when the international community put together this transitional government, they relied on many of the same people who had engineered chaos in Haiti before. So Fatton says it's unrealistic to appoint the same old people and expect a different result.

SUMMERS: Eyder, we have also been hearing reports of renewed violence in Port-au-Prince. What do you know about that?

PERALTA: It's been a really bad day. Local news are reporting that gangs are rampaging through Port-au-Prince, that houses have been burned and people killed. And at the same time, at the airport, a Spirit Airlines plane from Fort Lauderdale was likely hit by gunfire. A flight attendant suffered minor injuries, and the plane was diverted to the Dominican Republic.

And this is exactly the worry - that gangs will continue to be emboldened by a government that seems incapable of taking control of the country. And what we shouldn't forget is that this is devastating to regular Haitians. The U.N. put out new numbers last week, and they say that this year alone, almost 5,000 Haitians have been killed, 700,000 have had to flee their homes. And right now, humanitarian agencies say they're starting to see pockets of famine. So for the people of Haiti, this is dire.

SUMMERS: NPR's Eyder Peralta in Mexico City. Eyder, thank you.

PERALTA: Thank you, Juana.

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