Haiti has lost its last few democratically elected officials
Published January 16, 2023 at 5:10 AM EST
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Haiti is a country in crisis, and now it has lost its last few democratically elected government officials. The country's 10 remaining senators left office last week after their terms expired. What remains of the government is struggling to maintain security as gangs overrun the country. Haiti's de facto leader, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, has yet to make good on repeated pledges to hold general elections. Now, to understand how the nation got to this point, we spoke with Cecile Accilien. She's the president of the Haitian Studies Association, a professor of Haitian studies who's based in Atlanta. She says since President Jovenel Moise's assassination in 2021, Haiti has been without legitimate leadership.
CECILE ACCILIEN: The country is being run illegally. You have a de facto prime minister, and you don't have any elected officials - do you? (ph) - in a country that is lawless. Like, the lawlessness, that is happening at all levels, both in terms of the gang and in terms of the government itself. I mean, the gang situation doesn't help, but how can you have elections when after the president was killed, to this day, there's nothing tangible. We don't have any real investigation that say this is how it happened. This is how we are going to move forward.
MARTÍNEZ: Cecile, I know that you were born in Haiti. You came to the United States when you were about 11 years old. I mean, what you described sounds - I mean, it just sounds like there's so much uncertainty that it would just shake me, if I was in your situation knowing that my country, the country I was born in, is in such a unstable spot. I mean, how does that feel to know that Haiti is in this predicament?
ACCILIEN: I mean, the country is essentially in a civil war. And that breaks my heart because this is not the Haiti I grew up in. And make no mistakes, I grew up under dictatorship, so I'm not idealizing the Haiti I grew up under. But this is the first time I think we have seen this level of lawlessness, this level of gang violence where people's lives do not matter. And the outside world is just looking at it as if it's on television, as if it's a bad movie.
More:
https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/national-world-news/2023-01-16/haiti-has-lost-its-last-few-democratically-elected-officials
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