The former United Nations official tapped to lead Haiti through a gang-fueled crisis has been fired by the country’s ruling council, following a political power struggle that unfolded amid a wave of kidnappings and killings.
The official, Garry Conille, 58, a medical doctor who previously ran UNICEF’s Latin America regional office, was hired during the summer to serve as interim prime minister of Haiti. He and the country’s ruling council are supposed to pave the way for elections next year to choose a new president.
Haiti’s transitional council named Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, the owner of a chain of dry cleaners and a former candidate for the Haitian Senate, as his replacement, according to an executive order published Sunday afternoon in the country’s official gazette, Le Moniteur.
Haiti’s last president was murdered in July 2021 and no elections have been held since. The prior prime minister was forced from office earlier this year by a coalition of gangs that had taken over the capital, Port-au-Prince, waging attacks on a range of targets, from police stations to prisons to hospitals.
Unable to even return home from an overseas trip, the previous prime minister, Ariel Henry, stepped down in April as killings soared and thousands of people were forced from their homes because of gang violence.
Mr. Conille, who speaks fluent English and was seen as someone removed from traditional party politics because he hadn’t lived in Haiti for more than a decade, was considered a favorite of the international community, who are key financial donors and have considerable weight in Haitian affairs.
The decision to oust him was likened by some analysts as a politically-motivated coup, and they questioned whether the presidential council had the legal authority to do it.
The dismissal is another setback for the country because power vacuums and a lack of political stability are often cited as among the key reasons that Haiti has been unable to beat back gangs that have taken control of many neighborhoods.
Mr. Conille had helped oversee an international force of police officers, most of them Kenyan, who arrived in Haiti in June to try to restore order.
But Mr. Conille’s relationship with a transitional presidential council, a nine-member board ruling Haiti until presidential elections could be held, was contentious from the start. In a country known for party factions and political infighting, Mr. Conille rankled the council by doing things like traveling to Washington without letting the council know in advance.
As prime minister, Mr. Conille is the head of government, and the seven voting members of the council rotate the title of “president,” — head of state.
But Mr. Conille traveled to the United Nations with full diplomatic security, while a council member who held the title of “president” was initially refused official security from the U.S. government, and another council member was shut out of an important bilateral meeting.
The council had recently asked Mr. Conille to reshuffle his cabinet, and he refused, according to a spokesman for one presidential council member. The last straw appeared to be Mr. Conille’s efforts to have three council members who are accused of corruption removed from office.
As a member of the executive branch, it was inappropriate for Mr. Conille to meddle in matters that the judiciary must resolve, said Jean Junior Joseph, a spokesman for Edgar Leblanc Fils, a transitional council member who did not vote on the resolution to dismiss the prime minister or sign the order naming a replacement.
“That really upset his bosses at the Council of Transition,” Mr. Joseph said. “We all need full security and harmony among the leaders.’’
Mr. Conille’s spokesman did not return repeated requests for comment. It is the second time that Mr. Conille has held the prime minister role. He resigned in 2012 after just four months following increasing tensions with the president at the time.
The council voted to dismiss him on Friday, the same day that the United Nations announced that some areas of Haiti were reaching famine-like conditions.
Nearly 4,900 people were killed between January and September, said Stephanie Tremblay, a U.N. spokeswoman. That toll has already surpassed the 4,789 people who were killed during all of last year. A massacre last month led to the killing of more than 100 people in Pont-Sondé, in the Artibonite region.
More than 700,000 people have fled their homes nationwide.
“We are seeing pockets of famine-like conditions in some areas where displaced people are living,” Ms. Tremblay said.
The post Haitian Prime Minister Is Fired, Adding to the Nation’s Turmoil appeared first on New York Times.
