Collapse of public administration

The bodies of 12 more people were found in the streets of Port-au-Prince on Friday, after another night of bloody clashes between National Police units and gangs.
On Thursday evening, the names of the seven members and two observers who will form part of Haiti’s Presidential Council were made public, at the end of nearly two weeks of internal discussions within the various groups and political sectors involved in their appointment.
Once implemented, exiled Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is still in Puerto Rico, will resign and the council will have to reach an agreement to appoint the new prime minister and pave the way for the holding of presidential elections.
Meanwhile, 12 members of the Delmas 95 gang, whose leader Ernst Julme, or Ti Grèg, was shot dead by police on Thursday, were found in the streets of the neighborhood that gave their group its name. They appear to have been killed in confrontations with police and later set on fire by civilians tired of the gangs’ dominance in the area.
The burning follows a pattern of anti-gang vigilantism called “Bwa Kale” – Haitian Creole for “erection,” but also a metaphor for an act of swift justice – which has seen mobs of locals attack and lynch gang members for the past year.
In less than a week, more than 30 bodies have been found in upscale neighborhoods in the hills above Port-au-Prince that had previously escaped the violence.
Violence in the Haitian capital escalated most recently on Feb. 29, when Henry, who was not elected but appointed after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, revealed plans to postpone elections until August 2025, even though his term was supposed to end on Feb. 7.
On the day of Henry’s announcement, powerful gang leader and former police officer Jimmy Cherisier, also known as Barbecue, declared that he was launching a “revolution” to oust Henry from power and led gangs that are part of the Vivre Ensemble gang coalition against government buildings, prisons and the international airport. EFE