Haiti has lurched into fresh political crisis amid allegations of a coup attempt and an escalating dispute over when the presidential term of Jovenel Moïse should end.
Declaring he was “not a dictator” hours after ordering the arrest of 23 people – including one supreme court judge and a senior police official – Moïse has set the stage for further turmoil.
On Tuesday, the United States appeared to begin distancing itself from Moïse, saying that it was “deeply concerned” about Haiti’s fragile institutions –although it stopped short of chastising the president.
Allegations of an attempted coup – which Moïse said included plans to murder him – marked the latest episode in his controversial period in power that has been characterised by fraudulent elections, protests, economic hardship, repression and rampant corruption.
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The Caribbean country – the world’s first black republic after its revolution against French rule – has a history marked by poverty, authoritarian rule, political instability and external interference including a long US occupation. It has struggled to rebuild since the devastating earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
Under Moïse’s time in power, however, the country has slipped back into chaotic violence as Moïse has tried to push for a referendum on a new constitution he says will make the country easier to govern – a claim opposed by critics.
At the centre of the current crisis has been the question of when Moïse’s presidential term is due to end – and whether he is governing unconstitutionally.
Haiti’s opposition claims Moïse should have stepped down on 7 February to coincide with the fifth anniversary of 2015 elections which were cancelled and then rerun a year later because of allegations of fraud.
They further allege that because Moïse failed to hold legislative elections in 2019 –and has since ruled by decree after parliament was left without lawmakers – he has violated the country’s 1987 constitution.
Moïse and his supporters reject that argument, saying he only took power in 2017 after winning the rerun elections.
The opposition had approached the three supreme court judges to appoint an interim president until elections could be held. All three were forcibly retired by decree on Sunday as Moïse announced that police had foiled an attempted coup.
“There was an attempt on my life,” he said, during a live national address on Facebook hours later. “I thank my head of security at the palace. The goal of these people was to make an attempt on my life. That plan was aborted.”
Details of the alleged coup plot were provided to Haitian media – including the alleged involvement of a former US state department official – and in a video purporting to include recorded mobile phone conversations between the claimed plotters.
Critics of Moïse, including several US Congress members, accused him of making the allegations as cover for his own undemocratic actions.
A letter sent to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, by Democratic Congress members Gregory Meeks and Yvette Clarke, called on the Biden administration to condemn “Moise’s undemocratic actions in Haiti, urging for a Haitian-led democratic transition of power”.
Last week Washington appeared to back Moïse’s argument that he should stay in office until February 2022, but the US embassy in Haiti later clarified that “all political actors should focus on restoring to the Haiti people the right to choose their lawmakers by organizing overdue legislative elections as soon as technically feasible and presidential elections soon after”.
“We are deeply concerned about any actions that risk damaging Haiti’s democratic institutions. The executive order is now being scrutinized to determine whether it conforms to Haiti’s constitutions and laws,” the embassy said.
Moïse’s time in office has seen Haiti convulsed by successive crises.
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A combination of Moïse’s decision to end fuel subsidies – and allegations over the misuse of some $2bn that had been earmarked for social schemes – triggered large street protests against him which in turn fuelled a rise in political violence, with allegations that both police and criminal gangs had been deployed.
Brocchit Edmond, Haitian ambassador to US told the Guardian: “Most of the attention is on the current situation after February 7, but at the same time we just don’t want the international community to lose focus on the big project while we are pushing, for a new constitution.
“It is a project that has been around for 15 years, but President Moïse wants to have it done by the time he leaves office on February 7, 2022. He wants to leave to have that as a legacy.”
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