Interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s effort to set up the provisional electoral council is not
going well with segments of the population, including the officials who signed the December
21st accord. It appears the prime minister has his eyes on forming this council, especially after he
was able to file the cour de cassassion. Invitation letters were sent to organizations and members
of the various sectors to nominate candidates from which the CEP would be formed. The plan
was to have a list of 20 potential candidates from which 9 will be chosen to constitute the CEP,
but there appears to be growing opposition to this idea. In an interview with Le Nouvelliste,
Emmanuel Ménard, president of the reformist Force Louverturienne party, who is equally a
signatory to the December 21 accord, denounced the prime minister’s decision to go ahead with
plans to form the CEP when the preconditions have yet to be met. Citing article 16 of the
agreement, Mr. Ménard stated that the prerequisite of a control body and cabinet reshuffle have
not been completed and the PM is going ahead with plans to form the oversight council for
future elections. Mr. Menard warned those who have been contacted by the PM to not fall for
such tricks, recalling that a year ago, these same sectors were complaining about the
deteriorating condition in the country but today, these conditions have worsened.
Liné Balthazar, president of the ruling party, PHTK Tet kale, also weighed in on the issue,
arguing that he only heard about such plans through in the media, specifically on social media.
Accordingly, this shows the approach to governance by Mr. Henry’s administration which made
decisions without consulting others. “They think they can make decisions unilaterally for the
people without the people’s consent”, adding that this is the first time a government is planning
on conducting elections without involving political parties. According to Balthazar, political
parties’ participation is essential to any potential electoral process, and it is still too early to say
whether the party, PHTK will participate in this round. Mr. Balthazar added that when Michel
Martelly was elected, he created a CEP, and had to negotiate with other political parties.
Pascal Adrien, of the Mouvement national pour la transparence-toutouni (MNT), had a
nuanced approach to the formation of the CEP. Accordingly, since the mission of a transitional
government is to hold elections, then it is a good idea that the government is trying to form a
CEP. Mr. Adrien further added that in the letter sent out to the various organizations and sectors,
the government expressed the desire to respect the procedures laid down in the agreement.
However, Pascal Adrien believes that other prescriptions of the December 21 agreement must
also be respected, because the agreement must be respected and executed in whole and not in
part.
In other news, a spokesman for the Presidency of the Dominican Republic, Homero Figueroa,
has stated that the migratory alert by the US last November has resulted in significant decrease in
the number of tourists visiting the island nation. It has been reported late last year that the DR
has been systematically discriminating against US tourists of African descent. U.S. citizens have
reported encounters of delays, detainment, and heightened questioning by immigration officials
in the Dominican Republic based on their skin color. This led the US government to issue the
travel warning resulting in the decline in the number of tourists visiting the DR. At least 35,000
fewer tourists are reported to have visited in recent months. The DR authorities are reported to
have been conducting widespread operations to detain individuals believed to be undocumented
migrants, particularly those of Haitian descent, and in most cases, the authorities disregarded the
individuals’ legal status in the DR or nationality. These actions resulted in increased interaction

with Dominican authorities, particularly for darker-skinned U.S. citizens and U.S. citizens of
African descent. There are reports that detainees are being held in overcrowded detention centers
under dire conditions, and they have no way to challenge their detention or access to food and
restroom facilities. Detainees are held, in some cases, for days at a time before being released or
deported to Haiti. At a meeting with the Dominican president Luis Abinader and Minister of
Foreign Affairs Roberto Álvarez at the National Palace, US Undersecretary Wendy Sherman
promised to reinstate the immigration status of the DR.
Elsewhere, a federal judge Jose Martinez, who is overseeing the case against a dozen defendants
in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, took prosecutors to task for delaying the trial by
forcing the defendants to spend more than a year in jail before they are able to go to trial. As a
fairly conservative judge, Judge Martinez said he’s troubled by the fact that the case is sitting
around while people are in jail. Currently, there are 11 defendants in federal detention in Miami
in the plot that led to Moïse’s, assassination on July 7, 2021. Most of the defendants are charged
with supporting a conspiracy to kidnap and kill the Haitian president, while two others are
charged with export violations involving bulletproof vests smuggled to former Colombian
soldiers in Haiti who allegedly carried out the fatal shooting of Moïse and seriously wounding
his wife.
Meanwhile, traveling to Haiti from the US has just gotten a bit more expensive as a result of the
constant threat of violent criminal gangs and kidnappings. American Airlines, which has been
flying to the country for years, has planned to cutback its daily flights to six days instead of the
seven days it currently flies. The reduction comes as travelers flying out of Port-au-Prince on
American see one-way tickets priced at more than $3,000 for a flexible business class seat,
which sometimes is the only seat available. The high fare has Haitians in sticker shock as they
admit to being “confused by the phenomenon” and accuse the airline of price gouging. But a
traveler traveling from Boston to Port-au-Prince on Jet blue for US$292 argued that the fares
being charged make no sense and that the airline is stealing money from people fleeing a war
zone. Earlier this month, American began flying a much smaller Airbus 319 with 158 seats,
instead of a Boeing 737-800 with 198 seats, on its Miami-Port-au-Prince route. The loss of the
40 additional seats was felt almost immediately as one-way flights out of the Haitian capital shot
up to anywhere between $1,091 with a week’s planning to $3,404 for a last-minute airfare.
Meanwhile, tickets from Miami to Port-au-Prince are as low as $124.
Finally, the FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy got a whirlwind visit on Saturday, but instead of
being feted with a parade like in other countries it was only displayed during a small ceremony
because of the unrelenting violence. While the women’s national team are determined to
continue to surprise us.