The crime lord behind a six-day gang mutiny against Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has claimed the Caribbean country could be plunged into civil war unless its temporarily exiled leader steps down.
Wearing an olive green tactical vest and flanked by armed foot soldiers in balaclavas, the gang boss Jimmy Chérizier told reporters his country was staring into the abyss.
“If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide,” added Chérizier.
Over the last six days gang fighters have released thousands of inmates from prisons stormed and laid siege to strategic locations in the capital, Port-au-Prince, including two airports, police stations and a port.
And what is worse is that you don’t hear a word from the government,” said Monique Clesca, a Port-au-Prince-based writer and political activist, blaming the unrest on the inaction and incompetence of Henry’s administration.
A report in the Miami Herald claimed that members of the Biden administration – which until now has backed Henry – called Haiti’s prime minister as he attempted to fly home to urge him to agree to the creation of a transitional government and to resign.
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