A dangerous power vacuum in Haiti
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2024
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Haiti is in a pivotal moment. The prime minister announced his resignation this week to make way for a transitional presidential council that will attempt to bring stability to the Caribbean nation.
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This week, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry agreed to resign amid a period of increased violence and chaos for the Caribbean nation. As the United States and a coalition of Caribbean countries try to organize a transitional presidential council, violent armed gangs control more than 80 percent of the capital.
Widlore Mérancourt, a Haitian journalist, explains what is happening on the ground in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, what a transitional government could look like and how Haitians are living through an unprecedented time.
Today’s show was produced by Ariel Plotnick, with help from Rennie Svirnovskiy. It was mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Lucy Perkins. Thank you to Matt Brown.
This episode has been updated for clarity.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Right now Haiti has no elected leaders in power. The country's last president, Jovenal |
| 0:09.2 | Moise, was assassinated will be stepping down. In this will be the pay. |
| 0:24.0 | I will be stability. |
| 0:26.0 | It will be our development of Europe. |
| 0:29.0 | It will be a rebaty institution democratically. In his speech on |
| 0:33.7 | speech on Monday, Henri said, Haiti wants peace. |
| 0:38.2 | Haiti needs stability. |
| 0:40.0 | Haiti needs sustainable development. |
| 0:42.2 | Haiti needs to rebuild democratic institutions. |
| 0:45.4 | His departure comes at a particularly dire time in Haiti. |
| 0:50.1 | The country has been facing horrific gang violence, a cholera outbreak, and record levels of hunger. |
| 0:56.6 | We're going to talk in more detail about the circumstances there, and just a warning, |
| 1:00.8 | some of that will be difficult to hear, including descriptions of sexual |
| 1:04.9 | violence and human remains. |
| 1:07.0 | Last week, after violence escalated again, the United States and other Caribbean |
| 1:17.6 | countries known as Karakam pushed for an expedited transfer of power in Haiti. The proposal that they announced would create a transitional |
| 1:26.0 | presidential council to address Haiti's immediate security issues and to create a pathway to |
| 1:32.2 | fair and free elections. |
| 1:34.0 | Haitian people do think that the Haitian problem today is not a aerial and re problem. |
| 1:42.0 | He is part, according to is not a aerial and re problem. |
| 1:43.0 | He is part according to, you know, experts of the problem, |
| 1:49.0 | but what people are waiting for is you know concrete steps to address the gang issue |
... |
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