Fritz Belizaire is deployed as authorities battle gangs for control of the crisis-torn country.
Haiti’s Transitional Council has nominated Fritz Belizaire as the new Prime Minister of the crisis-ridden Caribbean country.
The council on Tuesday selected the former sports minister to replace interim prime minister Michel Patrick Boisvert. The previously inconspicuous new prime minister faces the daunting task of stabilizing the island nation, which is descending into chaos as he battles violent armed gangs that have seized control of many areas.
The council had previously appointed Edgard Leblanc Fils, a former Senate president, as chairman of the body. The appointments come after weeks of political deadlock and infighting at the council, which was convened last month following the resignation of former prime minister Ariel Henry.
Belizaire’s nomination was supported by four of the seven voting members of the nine-member panel. Other members noted that they didn’t know him.
The council is also tasked with appointing a cabinet and an electoral council to pave the way for Haiti’s first parliamentary elections since 2016.
However, internal disputes within the committee have delayed the process. It is reported that tensions over Tuesday’s selection could result in the dissolution of the council.
“This is a very good choice for prime minister,” Fils said of Belizaire, according to the AP. “The most important thing for us is this will, this determination to overcome divisions, overcome conflicts and reach consensus.”
The violence continues
Gunshots were heard throughout the capital Port-au-Prince during the council meeting, underscoring the challenge the new prime minister faces in ending chaotic violence in Haiti.
About 4,000 inmates were released in raids on Haiti’s two largest prisons in February. Amid an orgy of violence, the gangs have since wrested control from authorities and attacked infrastructure in many areas.
More than 2,500 people were killed or injured across Haiti from January to March, according to the United Nations. Almost 95,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince. With Haiti’s ports and airports closed, people are struggling to find food and access medical care.
“The Haitian people cannot wait any longer,” Louis Gerald Gilles, a member of the interim council that supported Belizaire’s appointment, told the AP. “The security problem is of crucial importance for social peace.”
Midnight conspiracy
However, the urgently needed political stability still seems to be a long way off.
The Caribbean country has not held elections in eight years and has been without a president since the assassination of Jovenel Moise in 2021.
Henry, who was not elected, was ousted after armed gangs launched a coordinated attack in February demanding his resignation.
Because he was in Kenya looking for international help to curb the violence at the time, he was barred from entering Haiti. He submitted his resignation last week.
The interim council will serve as the country’s president until it can arrange an election, which must take place by February 2026.
The announcement of Belizaire as the new prime minister might not help.
Although he was sports minister between 2006 and 2011, he is not well known in the country and the appointment, which appeared to have been agreed in the backroom, shocked some members of the transitional council.
The Montana Accord, a civil society group opposing the selection, said in a statement that the announcement was a “conspiracy” hatched by four council members “in the middle of the night” against the Haitian people .
The next challenge for the transitional council will be to decide whether to support a UN-backed deployment of a Kenyan police force to combat the gangs. However, it is unclear when this might happen.