CNN publishes statements by Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry who says that his country’s constitution states that only he and his cabinet can appoint a council for the transition of power.
The seven organizations that would name the members of the presidential transition council that reportedly would replace Ariel Henry have not yet published the names of the members to be.
Once in place, the seven-member presidential transition council would decide who will be the interim prime minister and cabinet that will take on the task of dealing with priority security issues, with the assistance of a UN-backed security mission as planned following a US-Caricom Summit held 11 March 2024 in Kingston, Jamaica.
CNN reports that Henry’s special advisor Jean Junior Joseph stated on Wednesday, 13 March 2024: “According to the Haitian constitution, only the prime minister with the cabinet can appoint the presidential council. Yes, the PM expresses his patriotic intentions to resign with his cabinet, but we have to do this in order.”
Article 149 of Haiti’s constitution is being cited. It states that once the president is not available, only the ministerial cabinet possesses powers to make decisions in his absence.
“The council will have to go through the same process he went through when Ariel Henry became PM,” states Henry’s spokesperson.
The statement comes after a senior US State Department official made a related remark during a press conference on 13 March 2024 in response to a question posed by an AP journalist. The AP journalist questioned that the US State Department official had stated the department was dealing directly with the acting prime minister Michel Boisvert and asked for a clarification if Henry was no longer the prime minister and whether the actual authority in the country is now Michel Boisvert.
The senior US State Department official responded: “The – with regard to the status of Ariel Henry, he – in his statement of last night, he said that he was – he would turn over the government to this new presidential council once it is created. He’s not in Haiti now, and there’s been an acting prime minister, normally a finance minister, Michel Boisvert, who’s been exercising day-to-day administration while Prime Minister Henry is out of the country already, and he’s signaled his willingness to facilitate the orderly transfer of function to a new prime minister and cabinet once the presidential council names those individuals. And that’s our understanding of the status.”
In a follow-up remark on the possible impasse between Henry on the appointments to the presidential transition council, in an interview with the Corripio Media Group, Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez says the situation there is so uncertain it is difficult to make any forecasts for the next 30 days.
The country’s prime minister is impeded to return; there is an agreement to name a presidential transition council, but this is rejected by the gang forces that so far have controlled the country. The gangs got their start as security forces of the country’s elite businesses.
Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez says the difficulties are in the reality that there is a lack of a valid speaker for Haiti.
Alvarez says the Dominican Republic is the country most affected by the instability in Haiti as it shares a land border.
He said the Dominican Armed Forces are the only ones that patrol the border. He said there is a general confusion and total apathy on behalf of the international community in regards to Haiti.
Álvarez said he hopes that the negotiation process for the transition in Haiti, proposed by Caricom, will happen as quickly, smoothly and peacefully as possible.
Regarding recent statements from Henry that only the prime minister, together with the cabinet, can appoint a presidential transition power, he observed that international law has different norms than Haiti’s internal ones, so a middle point would have to be found between the two to reach a successor government.
He pointed out that according to article 149 of the Haitian constitution, in the absence of the president, the prime minister is empowered to assume the Presidency for 120 days until elections are held, then the prime minister, together with the Council of Ministers, will be the one who would transfer power to the provisional government agreed last Monday in Jamaica.
In a recent development, Secretary General Luis Almagro of the Organization of American States convened a meeting of the permanent council to discuss Haiti.
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14 March 2024