Two weeks after interim Prime Minster Ariel Henry has been forced to resign his position as the head of the nation, there’s still no credible or publicly known leader or group of leaders put in place to fill the vacuum. CARICOM leaders, national political actors and civil society are struggling to find the right formula to make the Presidential Transitional Council functional. Sources have disclosed that the very first working meeting of the members designated to the Council this past Saturday did not make it possible to move forward towards the appointment of the Council. Among the three points on the agenda, only the question of the voting rights of members of the Presidential Council was addressed and adopted. If the majority decided that only the seven regular members of the Council have the right to vote, René Jean-Jumeau, who was the designated representative for the Conseil par le Rassemblement pour une entente nationale (REN), with only an observer status and no right to vote threatened to withdraw from the process if the right to vote is not granted him. After the Saturday meeting, members of the Council were to meet with the CARICOM leaders on Sunday to present the mechanisms for the choice of the President of the Presidential Council, the choice of the Prime Minister and their decision on who has the right to vote in the Council, but the meeting was postponed till the next day.

During the past week, Jean Charles Moïse, leader of the of Pitit Dessalines and national peasants’ network, reseau national des paysants chose Me Emmanuel Vertilaire as their representative on the presidential council. This decision provoked reactions across the board and even within the party itself, solicit fears of a possible implosion of the party. In a voice message broadcast on Sunday March 24, 2024, the spokesperson and ethical and moral manager of the party, Father Amos Georges, announced the dismissal of Jean Charles Moïse from his position as Secretary General of Pitit Dessalines. The former senator is accused of serious misconduct detrimental to the party. According to Amos Georges, Jean Charles Moïse is prohibited from speaking and acting in the name of the party until the congress is held.

During an intervention on the Caribbean FM channel this Monday morning, Father Amos Georges confirmed this information, stating that the choice of the leader of Pitit Dessalines to send a representative to the CP is a unilateral decision. In the same vein, Guy Verlien, a member of the party’s board, contradicted the statements of Father Amos Georges. According to him, the latter is in a state of dementia. As an example, he pointed out that Jean Charles Moïse and Father Amos Georges have not spoken for a year. Decisions were made within the party to support Father Amos Georges in this situation. It was also mentioned that the presence of Pitit Dessalines within the presidential council disturbs several people, which is why they are using Father Amos Georges to attack the party leader.

Aside the struggles of the political class to come up with a consensus policy to designate people to steady the ship of state until elections are held, and permanent leadership formed, the gang crisis continues unabated and crippling the economic sector heavily. One sector that’s bleeding is the textile sector which has been closed for more than a month now, due to the closure of the port of Port-au-Prince. The closure resulted in the textile factories unable to renew their stocks of raw materials necessary for the manufacture of parts for export. According to George Sassine, former president of the association of industries of Haiti, textile factories working in the Metropolitan Industrial Park will be forced to reduce their workforce or even close their doors from next week since they will be deprived of raw materials. He went on to say that the worsening security crisis that has prevailed in the country for some time has caused the closure of around fifteen factories, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs. In December 2021, there were 62,000 jobs in the textile sector, but today, there are close to 29,000. Starting next week, this figure could be reduced further. Across some of the industrial parks and free trade zones, the story has been the same. The Caracol Industrial Park which had 14,000 employees now has less than 3,000. The CODEVI free zone (Industrial Development Company) which is doing more or less well during the crisis has also experienced significant job losses, passing from 20,000 to 17,000 people. In Port-au-Prince, the factories have seen their production reduced because the workers come in late and leave very early to avoid the gang warfare, and furthermore, the factories cannot keep their contracts intact because even if they can, they’re unable to deliver the goods produced.

Meanwhile, the sad news of suffering violence and total insecurity continues to circulate on social media as the capital in the grips of a wave of violence orchestrated by the armed bandits, who are reckless and relentless in their quest to kill, rape, kidnap and set fires, and no one or establishment is spared. At such a rate, one wonders if the future of the country is anywhere near conceivable. Early this Tuesday, the premises of the L’École Mixe les Frères Nau school located on Centre Street in the heart of Port-au-Prince was set ablaze by the gangs. In video circulating on social media, one can see the school on fire. Though no official statement has been made by the authorities, initial assessments have concluded that the damage is considerable. Armed gangs have also ransacked and destroyed property at the premises of the arts school, l’École nationale des arts (ENARTS). This scourge forces many educational institutions to keep their doors closed, and what is even more disastrous is that the great majority of Haitian intellectuals flee the country for fear of being victims, causing a brain drain that will be difficult to stem in the current situation. According to one observer, schoolchildren and university students stayed at home because of acts linked to banditry, and as it stands, education is disappearing, and the future of the country is uncertain. Haiti is ruined. Even schools, universities and hospitals are not spared from malicious acts orchestrated by armed gangs. No fewer than 18 hospitals were looted and then vandalized by criminal associations. Several police stations (police stations and sub-police stations among others) and several facilities of the State University of Haiti were looted and vandalized.