Haitians expect everything and expect nothing from the transitional government finally formed last week in Port-au-Prince, more than three months after Prime Minister Ariel Henry, abandoned by the international community, was resigned. They have no illusions at the same time as they only want to see the new Prime Minister Garry Conille, who will also be Minister of the Interior, manage to curb insecurity in the island plagued by gang violence. and create the conditions for credible elections by the beginning of 2026. The project is colossal, as it is a project whose ills have their roots in the Duvalier dictatorship (1957-1986).
“Where will the Conille government start? » asked this week on the front page of the Haitian daily The Nouvelliste. Where, indeed? A doctor by training, Mr. Conille is a development expert trained at the UN school, which makes him, we presume, a man with a social conscience. More technocrat than politician, he was prime minister for a few months in 2011-2012 before resigning due to disagreement with the corrupt president Michel Martelly. He had previously been chief of staff of the Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti, created in the wake of the 2010 earthquake (which left at least 220,000 dead) and co-chaired by former American President Bill Clinton. Expert in development, therefore, at the same time as an actor in the historical and structural interference of the United States and the international community in Haitian affairs.
The new authorities are slow to present a strategy to combat the gangs, which still control 80% of the capital. The Haitians are waiting for them on this, first and foremost. For now, note The Nouvelliste, Garry Conille limited himself to saying that it was necessary to strengthen the Haitian national police, which is obvious, and that changes will have to be made to its staff. He is counting a bit – like Ariel before him, who was appointed by former President Jovenel Moïse, assassinated in July 2021 – on the arrival of yet another multinational force, which this time will be led by Kenya and whose deployment, postponed more than once, should begin by the end of June. We understand, however, that this mission, of which Canada politely refused to take the lead despite American pressure, will not be a panacea. The crisis is multiple – security, humanitarian, political: attacking it by force alone will not solve anything fundamental, obviously.
It took time for the international community to renounce the holding of elections at all costs, without democratic value, and to accept, although only under its own conditions, the idea of a “transitional government” promoted since then. at least two years by civil society. Two years during which the situation only got worse; where armed gangs, yesterday exploited by elected officials and corrupt business people, have gradually become autonomous, to the point of claiming to aspire to take power, as did the gang leader and former police officer “Barbecue” . We always come back to this: namely the need to hear the Haitian social movement. Read: all the voices of Haitian society. Mr. Conille may talk about “inclusiveness”, but unfortunately the composition of his provisional government largely reproduces the old political balance of power.
It is still difficult to speak of Haiti as a specifically sovereign country since, since the Duvaliers, its sovereignty has been ceded to the United States and foreign donors. Bypassing the State and citizen associations, the aid policies applied after the 2010 earthquake, including by large NGOs, accelerated this usurpation.
Mr. Conille’s mission would be more promising if he worked to recover and rebuild this sovereignty; to expand the scope of democratic life; to fight against impunity and rebuild justice and public institutions; to undo the influence of local elites who, relaying extraterritorial interests, are to foreign governments what Haitian drug traffickers are to the transnational cocaine economy; to say loud and clear that the United States must act against the trafficking of arms which are shipped in the ports of Miami destined for Haiti. The Montana agreements, drawn up in 2021 by a broad coalition of unions, peasant organizations, churches and youth and women’s movements, say nothing else by calling for a “disruptive” transition and profound reforms. Because rupture, and patient will to anchor it, it will be necessary to return their country to the Haitians. May the task undertaken by Mr. Conille and his government not turn into a missed opportunity.