DRAFT LETTER TO HENRY

Hopes for a new interim government that could settle down strife-torn Haiti, host a multinational peacekeeping force to take on heavily armed gangs and organize fresh general elections soared in CARICOM this week after all but one participating group submitted names to sit on the administration.

And leaders who met virtually in emergency sessions up to late Tuesday, have already drafted a letter to outgoing Prime Minister Ariel Henry informing him of the formation of the new eight-person council, paving the way for him to begin liaising with them as he hands over the reins of power to them.

Leaders led by current CARICOM Chairman and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali have been meeting almost nightly in a bid to establish the interim government with Haitian stakeholders. Officials say they are close to formally announcing its formation, red carpeting the way for an official invitation to the UN to deploy the rescue force. An announcement is expected this week.

One group, The Platform Pitit Dessalines group linked to ex-senator Jean Charles Moise, has flatly refused to sit on the council that includes two non-voting civil society representatives. The others are political parties.

The hold out among the council members had been the December 21 group of ex-senator Jean Charles Moise. They had offered three names instead of the one allotted to them. In the end, they submitted ex-senator Louis Gerald Giles as the compromise candidate. The members have already started to meet even as their names have not yet been made public by CARICOM.

Under the terms agreed at an emergency CARICOM meeting in Jamaica 10 days ago, the council members will pick a chairman from among themselves, then decide on an interim prime minister to replace Ariel Henry who is in temporary exile in Puerto Rico, unable to return because gangs have threatened to kill him and because they control the main airport in the capital. Additionally, they will name a cabinet, a provisional electoral council that will organize general elections, a national security council to liaise with the US force, work to restore public order, while formally inviting in the UN mission.

Officials say that leaders have already prepared a formal letter to Henry informing him of developments and paving the way for his departure as interim PM. He had stepped in after President Jovenel Moise had been assassinated in early July 2021. Henry has said he will quit once the council is in place.

Meanwhile, authorities in the neighboring Turks and Caicos Islands have banned Henry from entering the group of islands, fearing he may pose a national security risk.

Announcing that he is on the no fly list this week, Premier Washington Misick described the move as “reasonable, smart, intelligent and the strategic thing to do” as Henry was believed to be hatching a plan to land there and make his way by boat back to Haiti.

“I think we owe our country a duty to protect the people of these islands and to avert any possible risk of having the former PM come in these islands. I am sure that there are supporters and there are oppositions to his tenure in office and we have no idea what that could lead to,” Misick told the Sun newspaper. “Anybody who would do anything other than that would not be acting in the best interest of these islands.”

The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti has already done likewise to the neurosurgeon.