Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News

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More than 100 faith and advocacy groups joined forces late last week to urge the Biden administration to remove its support of the “de facto prime minister” of Haiti.

As first reported by The Hill, the groups wrote to President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols requesting that the U.S. discontinue its policy of propping up  Ariel Henry, who has served as both acting president and prime minister in Haiti since 2021.

Already Prime Minister at the time, Henry became acting president in 2021 in the months following the assassination of late President Jovenel Moise, this despite the fact that Henry and numerous other Haitian officials were accused of having played a role in the assassination. 

The groups complain that Henry has allowed Haiti  to deteriorate into “a ‘new normal’ characterized by constant fear of kidnapping and violence, a near total lack of accountability, and a growing humanitarian crisis on every front.”

The United States has long backed Pati Ayisyen Tèt Kale (PHTK), the party to which Moise belonged. Henry, though not technically a member, now sits atop a PHTK government that has, to put it mildly, been antagonistic toward efforts to democratize Haiti. 

“This crisis is the direct result of the corrupt, repressive rule of the Pati Ayisyen Tèt Kale (PHTK) and its associates over the past decade,” the letter reads. “PHTK has systematically dismantled democratic institutions, committed crimes against humanity, performed arbitrary arrests and dismissed legitimate judges, targeted journalists, looted the treasury, supported gangs, and generated massive inflation.” 

However, even as the U.S. theoretically endorses the idea of a freer Haiti, American support of a new Haitian government hinges on the inclusion of Henry as prime minister in whatever new government emerges.

“[The] United States effectively installed the current de facto Prime Minister, Dr. Ariel Henry, in July, and has since been consistently supporting his government, even though it has no constitutional or popular mandate and despite growing evidence implicating de facto PM Henry and other PHTK officials in the July assassination of President Jovenel Moïse,” the letter reads. 

Importantly, the groups in question do not have a preferred candidate who they’d like the United States to support instead of Henry. Rather, the groups want the United States to take a hands-off approach. 

“Haitians have been asking the Biden Administration to stop supporting de facto PM Henry’s rule and PHTK more generally,” the letter reads. “They are not asking the US government to support any other party, either. They just want the US to stop interfering, and to allow a Haitian-led solution to emerge.”

In May 2021, four Democrats – Rep. Val Demings of Florida, Congressman Andy Levin of Michigan, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke of New York, and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts – formed the House Haiti Caucus with the stated aim of seeing “Haitian democracy thrive.”

As of this week, none of the four have mentioned Haiti or offered any response to the letter. Pressley and Clarke both have been outspoken about helping migrants, many of whom originated in Haiti, but their advocacy in this instance is more focused on how the nation is responding to the arrival of asylum seekers rather than meaningful steps the nation might take to alleviate the pressures that have caused those seekers to leave their nations of origin. 

Neither the White House nor State Department had responded to the letter as of this writing.