Embattled Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign under U.S. pressure over crisis

Haiti’s embattled prime minister, Ariel Henry, announced Monday he will step down, ending days of uncertainty over his political future amid a crisis embroiling the Caribbean nation that had undermined his authority and physically blocked him from returning home from overseas.

For days, Henry, 74, had been resisting calls by the United States and Caribbean governments to resign, looking for a way back into the country as officials warned he could not return to Haiti. Gangs threatened civil war if he did not quit.

In a pre-recorded video, Henry announced his intention to resign. He and the government, he said, will step down once a new presidential transitional council is sworn in.

At an emergency meeting in Jamaica on Monday, Haitian leaders agreed to form a new transition government led by a seven-member presidential council that will choose a new interim prime minister to replace Henry. The agreement came about after top diplomats from the United States and across the Caribbean spent nearly eight hours in negotiations to expedite the creation of the new government, spurred on by the rapid collapse of order in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Among the proposals were elements of concessions Henry had already made but could not secure in a broad political agreement.

“For more than a week, our country has experienced an increase in acts of violence of all kinds perpetrated against the population: assassinations, attacks against law enforcement, looting, systematic destruction of public and private buildings,” Henry said in the video. “We deplore the numerous losses of human life. The government that I lead cannot remain indifferent to this situation. As I have always said, no sacrifice is too great for our common homeland Haiti.”

Haiti, he said, needs peace and stability to rebuild its democratic institutions.

“The government will resign immediately after the installation of this Council and will remain in office to handle current affairs until the appointment of a Prime Minister and a new government,” Henry said. “I thank the Haitian people for the opportunity given to me to serve our country with integrity, wisdom and honor.”

Henry’s announcement comes amid an unprecedented outbreak in violence that threatens to topple the Haitian government and cede complete control to gangs. On Friday, as rumors persisted of Henry’s possible return, the presidential palace, interior ministry and Haitian police all came under attack.

A drone video posted by a gang leader, Izo 5 Segonn, showed the presidential palace as he threatened to overtake it, before featuring images of cars going up in smoke in the yard of the nearby interior ministry. Inside his gang-controlled Village de Dieu slum, people could be seen partying in a carnival-type atmosphere.

TUMULTUOUS TENURE

Until recently, Henry enjoyed the backing of the United States and others in the international community after emerging victorious from a three-way power grab after the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

But over the last few months, as gang-related killings and kidnappings surged and his relationship with Caribbean leaders grew more acrimonious, Henry failed to heed signs that his alliance with Washington was fraying.

A pivotal moment came on Feb. 25, Caribbean diplomats say, when State Department officials, attending a four-day summit in Guyana of the 15-member regional bloc known as CARICOM, realized Henry did not have the support of the community. Leaders privately and openly called for his ouster on the first day.

After managing to hold on, Henry flew to Kenya to secure a critical agreement for the deployment to Haiti of police officers from the East African nation’s police — the lead contingent of a multinational force, organized by the U.S. and in the making for over a year and a half.

READ MORE: White House warns Haiti force can’t deploy until Republicans release funds

In Henry’s absence, Caribbean leaders announced they had reached an agreement in which the prime minister committed to holding elections by the end of August 2025. That announcement may have given a false impression that the U.S. and others supported Henry remaining in power until then, a senior administration official said. Armed gangs responded in Port-au-Prince by launching a series of coordinated attacks against police substations.

Meanwhile, in Nairobi, Kenyan President William Ruto confirmed on social media that he and Henry had signed a security-sharing agreement. Ruto declared: “We are ready for this deployment.”

The chaos in Haiti grew worse within hours.

Gangs, using drones, orchestrated a prison break of the country’s two largest prisons, releasing thousands of inmates and several high-profile gang leaders. Henry was stuck half-way around the world, unable to return home.

The ongoing violence threatens what U.S. officials fear will be a total collapse of governance in Haiti.

Gangs continue to target key government institutions, and an overstretched and outgunned Haiti National Police force struggles to push back. It is the bookend of a power vacuum created by the assassination of Moïse that gangs stepped into and flourished, and Henry was unable to control.

RAPID U.S. POLICY SHIFT

The Biden administration had already grown frustrated over Henry’s failure to craft a power-sharing agreement that would pave the way for democratic elections —Washington’s goal ever since Moïse’s slaying. But the coordinated assault on the country’s core institutions accelerated the policy shift.

“Two years of unfulfilled promises by Henry’s government failed to change U.S. policy and opened a window for the growing power of the gangs. Today the windows are wide open and a total collapse of whatever is left of Haiti’s institutions may be imminent,” said Robert Fatton, a Haiti-born political scientist at the University of Virginia who believed the timing on the push for Henry to step down “is perilously late.”

“The international community seems to be impotent while Haiti’s political factions continue to agree that they cannot agree. Time is simply running out,” he said.

Armed gangs have been sowing chaos in Haiti for years. Kidnappings and gang violence were rampant under Moïse, and a report last year from a U.N. panel of experts accused former President Michel Martelly — who handpicked Moïse as his successor — of creating and using gangs to remain in power.

But Haiti’s government has grown weaker than ever, with the country facing a constitutional crisis under Henry and with no elected officials in office. Gangs have become even more powerful, now controlling over 80 percent of the capital and expanding to rural communities.

READ MORE: Biden rejects U.S. troop deployment to Haiti as crisis spirals

In a country where prime ministers don’t stick around long, Henry, a prominent neurosurgeon, was one of Haiti’s longest-serving heads of government. He faced a difficult task from the onset. Politicians questioned his legitimacy because he was never ratified by parliament or sworn in by Moïse before his death. Many also accused Henry of being picked by Martelly, which led several technocrats and respected figures to refuse to enter his government.

Henry’s ending of fuel subsidies, his crackdown on tax dodgers in customs and his endorsement of U.S. and Canadian sanctions against prominent Haitians believed to be financing gangs or engaging in corruption and human-rights violations all made him enemies.

So too did his support for an outside security mission to come help the beleaguered national police force.

But his refusal to fire anyone, make timely decisions or stem the growing tide of gang violence led Haitians to take to the streets against him, creating a public perception of Henry as a widely unpopular and ineffectual leader.

Nevertheless, he survived two major blockades of his country’s ports, a wave of anti-government protests demanding his ouster, and campaigns in both the U.S. and Canada to seek his removal.

Ultimately, he could not politically survive a hard policy shift by the Biden administration.

After nearly three years of supporting and defending Henry, senior administration officials asked him to step aside on March 6, sending him a memo outlining the new U.S. proposal for a transition plan as he was midair on his way back to Haiti. The memo was titled “Four Asks of PM Henry.”

Henry had been in Kenya securing reinforcements when the violence reached a critical point. Gang leaders had already taken over police substations, looting the capital’s major port, and attacking the Toussaint Louverture International Airport, leading to a suspension of all international flights.

After holding crisis meetings in the New York area, Henry attempted to return to Haiti through the neighboring Dominican Republic, only to be denied landing rights by Santo Domingo.

The prime minister rerouted to Puerto Rico, where he has remained ever since. Unable to return to Haiti, it’s unclear what his next steps are. A senior Biden administration official would only say that if he chooses to remain in the United States, there are a number of “legal pathways” available to him.

READ MORE: Rushing home on a rerouted jet, Haiti’s prime minister is pressured by U.S. to resign

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Jamaica for an emergency meeting on the crisis with leaders of CARICOM, holding talks with various Haitian civic and political leaders and publicly endorsing the creation of a broad presidential panel to govern and move toward elections.

Hours after that meeting, as Blinken was returning home, Henry finally gave in, reluctantly paving the way for both a transition government and his own replacement.

But it had become clear Henry’s time in office was at its end days before.

In a series of phone calls characterized as “tense” by State Department officials on Thursday, Henry offered Blinken a counter proposal that would keep him in a position of power. Blinken refused to negotiate. Washington’s position was firm.