(Port-Au-Prince) Haiti’s transitional presidential council named a new cabinet on Tuesday, the final step in rebuilding the government that will lead a country besieged by criminal gangs.
Government spokesperson Kettia Marcellus confirmed to the Associated Press the composition of the new cabinet.
Carlos Hercules, Prime Minister Garry Conille’s lawyer, was named Minister of Justice and Public Security. Mr. Conille himself will be Minister of the Interior, while Jean Marc Berthier Antoine becomes Minister of Defense.
Haiti is grappling with gangs that control at least 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The country is preparing for the deployment, with the support of the United Nations, of a Kenyan police force expected in the coming weeks.
Weeks of coordinated gang attacks forced former Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign in April and his cabinet was dissolved. Armed men took control of police stations, opened fire on the main international airport – which remained closed for almost three months – and stormed Haiti’s two largest prisons.
More than 2,500 people were killed or injured in the first three months of this year and more than half a million others were displaced.
Prime Minister Conille is committed to suppressing this violence.
Only four women
Dominique Dupuy, ambassador to UNESCO and who was a member of the transition council before resigning, will be Minister of Foreign Affairs. She resigned in part because of political attacks and death threats.
The new Haitian cabinet has four women. Only one woman, without the right to vote, sits on the transitional presidential council and no woman has been found to occupy the post of prime minister.
“It is an insult to the 6 million women and girls in Haiti whose participation is necessary for the success of the transition,” said Pascale Solages of Nègès Mawon, a Haitian feminist organization.
The new prime minister has publicly acknowledged that women should have their place in government. “At this pivotal moment in Haitian democracy, we have nothing but a chance to watch men make decisions from an observer’s seat,” said Rosy Auguste Ducena of the National Rights Defense Network. humans.
Other members of the new cabinet include Ketleen Florestal, Minister of Economy and Finance. She will take office at a time when Haiti is experiencing growing poverty, with inflation reaching nearly 30% in recent years. People continue to lose their jobs due to gang violence, which has forced businesses to close their doors. Mme Florestal previously worked at the World Bank as an advisor to the executive directors for Haiti.
Antoine Augustin will be education minister as hundreds of schools in Port-au-Prince remain closed due to criminal gang violence.
It was not immediately clear on Tuesday when the new government would be sworn in.
The work of the presidential transition council is not finished, however. He is also responsible for appointing a provisional electoral commission, a prerequisite for holding general elections. The council’s non-renewable term expires on February 7, 2026, when a new president is expected to be sworn in.