This story was originally published March 6, 2024, 6:56 AM.
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Exclusive: Rushing home on a rerouted jet, Haiti’s prime minister is pressured by U.S. to resign
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND MICHAEL WILNER UPDATED MARCH 06, 2024 9:48 AM
Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry, left, speaks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, September 22, 2023 ahead of a meeting on Haiti’s security.
HAITI’S PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was attempting to fly home on Tuesday to a country in crisis, returning from a critical diplomatic mission overseas, when he received a message midair from the U.S. State Department.
- The Biden administration had been proposing for months that Henry, in power since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse nearly three years ago, lead a political transition toward democratic elections. With gangs now overrunning Port-au-Prince, time had run out. Henry was midflight when the administration asked him to agree to a new transitional government — and resign.
- It was a dramatic capstone to a day of urgent meetings in Washington, where administration officials who had quietly referred to the prospect of Haiti’s collapse as their nightmare scenario were now forced to address their worst fears. And it was an about-face that few in Haiti were expecting from a White House that had long pushed back against calls for Henry’s resignation, only now to press for his hasty departure in a moment of peril. Secretly, Henry had been in the United States after arriving from Nairobi, Kenya over the weekend, negotiating a stealth return home with diplomats from the neighboring Dominican Republic. Dominican officials initially discussed having Henry, 74, fly to Santo Domingo before taking a helicopter across the border, a plan that had been briefed to U.S. and United Nations officials, perhaps using a rotorcraft with night vision for the mission.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article286303630.html
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Uploaded: Mar 6, 2024
US officials urge Ariel Henry to set up ‘inclusive governance structure’ that will stem violence and lead to elections.
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