Claude Joseph, the interim Haitian prime minister who assumed office after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7, has agreed to step down in the face of international pressure.
In addressing an agreement that seeks to end their power struggle, Joseph said on Monday he planned to cede his position to his challenger, 71 year-old neurosurgeon Ariel Henry.
LESSONS OF THE PAST SHOULD DRIVE MILITARY DECISIONS ABOUT HAITI
“Everyone who knows me knows that I am not interested in this battle, or in any kind of power grab. The president was a friend to me. I am just interested in seeing justice for him” Joseph told the Washington Post in an interview.
Power would be transferred in a ceremony on Tuesday, and Joseph said he expected to be the foreign minister in the new government.
The Caribbean nation has been engulfed in what is widely viewed as a power struggle between three contenders for the Haitian presidency: Joseph, who has served as the interim prime minister; internationally-backed Ariel Henry, who was appointed prime minister just two days before Moise was killed but had not yet been sworn in; and the candidate put forth by the Haitian Senate, Joseph Lambert.
The Core Group, an influential international body made up of ambassadors from Germany, Brazil, Canada, Spain, the United States, France, the European Union, the Organization of American States, and the United Nations, released a statement on Saturday “strongly encouraging” the acting prime minister to designate Henry as the country’s next president to ensure the “formation of a consensual and inclusive government.”
The pressure by foreign powers was heavily criticized by several pro-democracy nongovernmental organizations, who cast the move as meddling in Haitian affairs without the consent of Haitians.
“While many see this as a snub of [Joseph], it should be seen more so as a snub of Haitian civil society organizations, who are meeting today to come up with a Haitian-led solution to the current impasse,” said Jake Johnston, a Haitian analyst for the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, according to the Washington Post.
Lambert and the Senate rejected the deal between Joseph and Henry.
“These maneuvers are carried out outside the Haitian people and far from their interests. The conditions for Ariel Henry’s accession to the prime minister’s office are in total disharmony with the imperatives of our structural flaws and the dangerousness of the economy,” said Sen. Patrice Dumont.
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“Haiti has become a baseball being thrown between foreign diplomats,” Lambert lamented to the New York Times.
The island nation was shocked when Moise was gunned down by what a government official dubbed a group of foreign “mercenaries” on the night of July 7, two of whom were Haitian Americans.
Fifteen of the other suspects in custody are all Colombian military veterans. The president’s wife, Martine Moise, was injured in the attack, which is under investigation. No clear motive has yet been established.
