Prince port.-The Presidential Council for Transition of Haiti (CPT) and the Government declared the state of emergency for three months in the West, Artibonite and Centro regions, departments that have been suffering the violence of the bands for several months.
According to the CPT, this decision is intended to grant the competent authorities the time and the necessary means to restore security and peace.
This decision is registered within the framework of a series of decisions taken in the last hours by the country’s authorities, in order to deal with the security crisis a few months after the elections planned by the end of this year.
Last Thursday, when assuming the rotary presidency of the CPT, Laurent Saint-Cyr declared war on the armed bands that terrify the population and asked the international community to send more soldiers to the country.
He also asked Haiti’s international partners to increase their support to the country, send more soldiers and provide much more training.
In the country operates the multinational mission of support for security in Haiti (MSS) that, led by Kenya, is made up of police from several nations – and soldiers in less quantity – but that in practice has not been able to stop the progress of the bands that control 90 % of port port and have moved to other areas.
Hours before his swear, the most powerful band leader of Haiti, Jimmy Cherisier, aka Barbecue, said he would overthrow the Presidential Transition Council.
From a window
Pope Leo XIV showed his concern for the situation in Haiti on Sunday and requested the immediate liberation of the hostages and concrete help of the international community so that Haitians can live in peace, in a call at the end of the Sunday prayer of the Angelus in the Plaza de San Pedro.
“The situation of the Haitian people is increasingly desperate. There are news of murders, violence of all kinds, human trafficking, homicides of all kinds and kidnappings,” said the American pontiff peeked into the window of the Pontifical Palace before hundreds of people gathered in the square.
Leo XIV then made a strong call “to all those responsible to immediately release the hostages” and also requested “the concrete support of the international community to create the social and institutional conditions that allow Haitians to live in peace.”
A few days ago, the Archdiocese of Puerto Príncipe condemned “with vehemence” the kidnapping of eight people, including a child and an Irish missionary, which occurred last Sunday in the Sainte-Helene orphanage of Kenscoff, in the upper part of Puerto Príncipe, qualifying it as a “new act of barbarism” and “ignominious”.
Three departments
A crisis can always get worse and in this case the displacement of band operations towards the most productive areas of Haiti open that perspective.
The western departments, Artibonito and Centro, suddenly arise in the interest of the bands, a fact that aggravates the Haitian situation.
Latent threat
– Barbecue
One of the most recognized band leaders, Jimmy Cherisier, aka Barbecue, threatened last week with the overthrow of the Haitian provisional government, which has not achieved in a year and four months to give the Haitian crisis a favorable turn.
