Overview:
After protesting for Ariel Henry’s resignation for more than two years, demonstrators could finally be rewarded as the United States reportedly exerted pressure on the prime minister to resign.
CAP-HAITIEN — Ricardo Fleuridor, an activist, went to tens of demonstrations demanding Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign in the past two years or so and was threatened and tear gassed in many of them. His family and friends feared for his life and some of them even thought he was wasting his time.
But the perspective changed when the Miami Herald and The Washington Post reported that the United States urged Henry to resign on March 5. The U.S. quickly denied the report, saying that they are rather urging him to “expedite the transition,” according to CNN. However, many Haitian demonstrators and political activists, such as Fleuridor, believe the American news media report and view it as a long awaited reward for their work.
“I’m happy,” Fleuridor, leader of Nou Pap Konplis activist group, said. “The people are happy too because Ariel won’t be here anymore. But we have to fight so this doesn’t repeat itself. Or else they will give us a second Ariel Henry,” he added.
It is rare for the U.S. to urge a Haitian head of state they support to step down even if demonstrators hold violent protests against him for years. It is often said in Haiti that if the Americans and the international community support you you’re untouchable. To many observers, the U.S. reportedly demanding Henry to resign is a sign that Haiti is starting to crawl out of the U.S. wings to handle its political realm on its own in the long run.
“We’re on our way to auto-domination,” said Weesley Pierre, coordinator of the Pitit Dessalines Platform political party in the North. “It’s a must to have auto-dominance in the 21st century because the world is becoming multipolar,” explained Pierre who views the U.S. reportedly demanding Henry to leave office as a “miracle.”
Demonstrators have been protesting to demand Henry to resign for more than two years because they feel like he is not competent enough to lead the country. They often looted businesses, set tires on fire, engaged in skirmishes with police officers, during those protests, which even put the country on lockdown in September 2022.
Scores of residents criticized the demonstrators for constantly holding violent protests that led to nothing. However, many of them, such as Pierre, kept the faith that their work would eventually dethrone Henry.
“It takes time,” Pierre said about overthrowing Henry in a Feb. 23 interview.
Pitit Dessalines changed their tactic from street protests to a government strike that day, hoping that would have pushed Henry to resign but government employees still showed up to work.
While demonstrators are taking credit for the U.S. reportedly pressuring Henry to step down, they do not believe that it was entirely their work that led to that. Gang members in Port-au-Prince joined forces to prevent Henry, who had traveled to Kenya and is still stuck abroad, to return to Haiti. They fired gunshots near the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, making it impossible for the prime minister to return home.
One gang leader, Izo, head of the 5 Segond, or 5 Seconds gang, had even said that the gangs are powerful enough to make Henry resign during a freestyle rap in February.
“Ariel Henry, you’re not the boss,” Izo rapped. “If all the mafias are with it, you will go. We will just send an announcement to all the mafias to block roads. We control things in this city,” he emphatically added.
Jean-Marckenson Petipape, of the Patriotic Movement for Life (MOPAL) activism group, admitted that his protesting did not lead to the U.S. reportedly urging Henry to step down. He credited the prospect of Henry’s fall to the gang takeover of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.
“It wasn’t my work that directly made Ariel fall,” Petipape said. “The armed men who shot at the airport, threatened businesses, set police stations on fire did that. I’m not really satisfied. As for me, I was fighting a pacific battle. It wasn’t us but we contributed.”
Meanwhile, demonstrators vow to keep fighting against the U.S. overseeing Haiti’s political realm even if Henry does resign. They consider an eventual departure of the Haitian acting PM as only a victory in many battles, but the war would not be won with just that alone.
Activists like Petipape think that their resistance has forced the United States to change its approach in Haiti. “We made them [Americans] uncomfortable,” Petipape said. He continued: “What they used to do, they won’t be able to do it the same way anymore. When we say no, no means no. We exercised power over them to say no.”