VOA News | Friday, April 26, 2024 
Gang-ravaged Haiti welcomes new governing council

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti opened a new political chapter Thursday with the installation of a transitional council tasked to pick a new prime minister and prepare for eventual presidential elections, in hopes of quelling spiraling gang violence that has killed thousands in the Caribbean country. Ariel Henry, the prime minister who had been locked out of the country for the past couple of months due to the violence, cleared the way for the transition by presenting his resignation in a letter signed in Los Angeles. The document was released Thursday in Haiti on the same day as the new transitional council was sworn in to choose a new prime minister and Cabinet. Henry’s outgoing Cabinet chose Economy and Finance Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert as interim prime minister. It was not immediately clear when the transitional council would name its own choice for interim prime minister. The council was officially sworn in at the National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince early Thursday as the pop of sporadic gunfire erupted nearby. Addressing a crowded and sweaty room in the prime minister’s office hours later in Petion-Ville, Boisvert said that Haiti’s crisis had gone on too long and that the country now finds itself at a crossroads. “After long months of debate … a solution has been found,” Boisvert said. “Today…Read more