UN Security Council members agreed that Haiti's elections will be postponed until the second half of 2022, despite the nation's continuing political deadlock, resurgent kidnappings, and looming humanitarian catastrophe, shattering the aspirations of those hoping for a protracted transition to calm the country before voting.
"Haiti needs a government with a clear mandate from its people," Mexico's permanent representative, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, said Monday, echoing the concerns of his other ambassadors.
It was the council's first public gathering since Haitian President Jovenel Mose was assassinated in his private house in the hills above Port-au-Prince on July 7. It was also the first since an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit the country's southern peninsula a month later, killing 800,000 people.
Haiti appeals to UN for assistance
The earthquake killed nearly 2,200 people and left tens of thousands homeless, adding to the country's already long list of problems, Miami Herald reported. In Port-au-Prince, a nationwide strike was taking place as UN members demanded elections and the involvement of women and young people in the vote.
Several transportation unions halted all operations Monday, citing gasoline shortages, the recent return of thousands of Haitian migrants from the US-Mexico border, and the continuous kidnappings by armed gangs who control vast sections of the capital.
On Monday, Haiti's top diplomat appealed to the United Nations Security Council for assistance in combating gang violence and crime, saying that the existing UN political mission in the nation should be refocused on bolstering security and law enforcement agencies.
In July, President Jovenel Mose was assassinated. In August, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck, killing nearly 2,200 people and damaging or destroying tens of thousands of houses. Per Times Union, the treatment of Haitian migrants massed at the southern US border by US border patrol officials caused outcry last month.
Meanwhile, gang-related deaths, kidnappings, and turf conflicts have become increasingly common in Haiti. According to the United Nations, gang violence has displaced 19,000 Haitians in recent months, with many of them living in temporary shelters in filthy circumstances.
Haiti's continuing political deadlock, humanitarian catastrophe
The UN's Haiti ambassador, Helen La Lime, informed the council that Haiti's National Police had been trying to implement suggestions given by UN police specialists this summer. She did say, though, that the police is "overworked and under-resourced."
Rockfeller Vincent was the ultimate insider in the investigation of the killing of Haiti's former president Jovenel Moise, who was brutally gunned down in his bedroom in July, until only a few weeks ago.
He handled the vast presidential assassination inquiry as Haiti's justice minister, which has implicated a Haitian-American pastor, hundreds of Colombian hired soldiers, and elements of Haiti's own police force. The investigators then went out to Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was in office at the time.
According to evidence of phone contacts between Henry and one of the alleged masterminds on the night of the assassination, the country's top prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, announced he will seek charges against the Prime Minister in connection with the murder. He also demanded Henry's presence in his office for interrogation.
Vincent, who claims to have gone into hiding since his termination, told CNN on Friday from an unidentified location that he believed it should have been the other way around. Vincent accuses the Prime Minister of using the firings to "cover his tracks."
Related Article: Haiti Crisis Deepens as Prime Minister Fires Top Prosecutor For Seeking Charges in President's Killing
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