By Anthony Faiola for the Washington Post
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Claude Joseph, who has nominally led Haiti as acting prime minister since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post on Monday that he had agreed to step down, handing over power to his challenger who has been backed by the international community.
The agreement ends a power struggle between two men who had been courting support internationally and domestically for their rival claims as Haiti’s interim leader, and is aimed at defusing a roiling political crisis that has left the troubled Caribbean nation rudderless since the July 7 assassination.
Joseph had previously claimed that Ariel Henry, the 71-year old neurosurgeon who was appointed prime minister by Moïse two days before the killing, had not yet been sworn into the job and had no right to act as interim leader. Joseph, who was Moïse’s foreign minister, had served as acting prime minister before Moïse named Henry, which he had said made him Haiti’s rightful interim leader following the slaying.
But on Monday, he said he and Henry had been privately meeting over the past week in a bid to resolve the leadership dispute, and that he had finally agreed on Sunday to step down “for the good of the nation.”Continue reading