Wednesday witnessed a great setback to a proposed plan to install new leadership in Haiti as some political parties rejected the plan to create a transitional presidential council that would be responsible for selecting an interim prime minister as well as a council of ministers.
The ministers would be charged with mapping out a new direction for the Caribbean nation that is currently besieged by armed gangs in open rebellion.
The violence has caused businesses to board up and schools to close and destroyed much of the already crumbling infrastructure.
Former senator and presidential candidate Jean Charles Moïse teamed up with one-time rebel leader Guy Phillippe to hold a press conference announcing their disapproval of the proposed council, which is backed by the international community.
In a clear attempt at centering himself amid the calamity, Moïse asserted that the three-person council he created with Phillipe and a Haitian judge should be installed.
"We are not going to negotiate it," he said in a loud voice as he wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. "We have to make them understand."
Phillippe was a key figure in the revolt of 2004 that ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He also was recently released from prison in the United States after pleading guilty to money laundering.
He believes no Haitian should accept any proposal being floated by the international community. Phillippe accused the international community of complicity with Haiti's corrupt elite and urged Haitians to take to the streets in protest.
"The decision of Caricom is not our decision," he said, referring to the regional trade bloc whose leaders presented the plan to create a transitional council. "Haitians will decide who will govern Haiti."
Himmler Rébu, a former colonel of Haiti's army and president of the Grand Rally for the Evolution of Haiti, a party that was awarded a spot on the transitional council, declined to participate in the council.
He believes a judge from Haiti's Supreme Court should be put in power. Rébu expressed that his party is "ashamed and angry" upon seeing "the search for positions of power that do not take into account the responsibilities attached to them."
Backers of Prime Minister Ariel Henry are former senator Sorel Jacinthe and politician Jorchemy Jean Baptiste each argued why their candidate was the best.
The plan came into being following an urgent meeting of Caribbean leaders at which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was present.
Hours after the meeting, Henry announced Tuesday that he would resign once the council was in place, saying that his government "cannot remain insensitive to this situation."
Henry remains locked out of Haiti and is currently in Puerto Rico due to an open rebellion by armed gangs that began while Henry was in Kenya urging the United Nations-sponsored deployment of Kenya troops in Haiti to stem the tide of violence.
