Haiti crisis: powerful gang leader Barbecue threatens politicians as fires break out in capital
- Haiti’s political future in limbo as country’s top gang leader issues warning to transition council candidates
- Prime minister agreed to step aside this week as gangs have taken over much of the Caribbean nation
A powerful gang leader in Haiti has issued a threatening message aimed at political leaders who would participate in a planned transition council, as fires broke out amid a fresh surge of violence in the Caribbean nation’s capital.
Nearby countries bolstered their border security and withdrew staff from embassies while plans to send a long-awaited international security force remain uncertain.
A fire broke out at the main penitentiary, emptied of prisoners by armed men earlier this month.
Thick black smoke earlier billowed out from the facility, but the fire appeared to be out by Thursday afternoon, when local media showed heavily armed police entering the partially blackened site filled with mounds of trash.
A police union said the national police chief Frantz Elbe’s house had also been set on fire on Thursday. It did not say whether anyone had been hurt or give details on Elbe’s whereabouts.
Kenya puts Haiti police mission on hold after chaos grips Caribbean nation
Haiti is struggling to resolve a long-running political and humanitarian crisis. Heavily armed gangs have taken over much of the capital, and rights groups have reported widespread killings, kidnappings and sexual violence. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.
Henry, who was never elected, had been appointed prime minister by President Jovenel Moise in 2021, shortly before Moise was assassinated. Henry repeatedly postponed elections.
The comments from gang alliance head Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier were recorded on Wednesday and distributed via a rambling seven-minute audio message widely shared on Thursday morning on messaging platform WhatsApp.
“Don’t you have any shame?” said Cherizier, directing his remarks at politicians who he said were looking to join the council. “You have taken the country where it is today. You have no idea what will happen,” he added.
“I’ll know if your kids are in Haiti, if your wives are in Haiti … if your husbands are in Haiti,” he said in an apparent threat to their families. “If you’re gonna run the country all your family ought to be there.”
In his remarks, Cherizier said the resignation of Henry was only “a first step in the battle” for the island nation of around 11 million.
Haiti’s government again extended a nightly curfew through Sunday, in an order signed by acting Prime Minister Michel Boisvert. Henry has been stranded abroad since trying to return from a trip to Kenya to secure support for a security mission.
Regional bloc CARICOM has detailed the political parties and other social sectors set to make up the nine-member transition council that will take over from Henry.
Negotiations over the council were brokered by Caribbean leaders and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but formal appointments are yet to be made.
US embassy staff, German ambassador evacuated as Haiti gang violence spirals
On Wednesday, the leader of a party declined an offer of a voting member of the council, backing instead an alternate three-member transition council that would empower former coup leader Guy Philippe, who was recently imprisoned in the United States and is seeking an amnesty for gang leaders.
With Haiti’s political future in limbo and the timing of the long-delayed Kenyan-led security mission unclear, the already sparse international presence in Haiti has been further receding.
Canada announced a reduction to its embassy staff that will leave only essential employees in the country, and said the embassy was temporarily closed to the public. That follows similar drawdowns by the United Nations and at the US embassy.
Fearing a spread of instability in the region, Britain said it was bolstering security in the Turks and Caicos Islands, an overseas territory, as did the governor of the US state of Florida.
The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispanolia with Haiti, closed its shared border with Haiti last year and has regularly deported Haitians.
