Haiti’s transitional council on Tuesday appointed a new Cabinet, marking the final step in rebuilding the government that is to lead a country under siege by gangs.
Government spokeswoman Kettia Marcellus confirmed the existence of the new Cabinet and its ministers.
Carlos Hercules, the attorney for Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille, was appointed as minister of justice and public security. Conille himself is to be interior minister. Jean Marc Berthier Antoine is to be defense minister.
Photo: AFP
Haiti struggles with gangs that control at least 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. It is preparing for the UN-backed deployment of a police force from Kenya expected in the next few weeks.
Weeks of coordinated attacks by gangs forced former Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry to resign in April and his Cabinet was dissolved.
Gunmen took control of police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remained closed for nearly three months and stormed prisons.
More than 2,500 people were killed or injured in the first three months of the year and more than half a million others displaced.
Conille has pledged to crack down on the violence.
Dominique Dupuy, a UNESCO ambassador who was once a member of the transitional council before resigning, is to be foreign affairs minister.
She resigned in part because of political attacks and death threats.
Others in the new Cabinet include Ketleen Florestal, who is to be minister of economy and finance.
One thing that stands out about many of the ministers appointed to the new Cabinet is the relative obscurity of their names, said Michael Deibert, author of Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti and Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.
“There is a smattering of people with international experience ... but still, there are not a lot of immediately recognizable high-level names from within Haitian politics,” he said. “Some people might think that’s a good thing.”
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