PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A wealthy businessman on Thursday became the head of Haiti’s transitional presidential council tasked with restoring order in the troubled country as a top gang leader underscored the challenges facing the nation by vowing to overthrow the government.
Laurent Saint-Cyr’s appointment at the council’s heavily guarded office in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where criminal gangs control 90% of the neighborhoods, marked the first time that members of Haiti’s private sector serve in both the rotating presidency and the post of prime minister, two positions that share the country’s executive duties.
Saint-Cyr had his start at a local insurance company while Haiti’s current prime minister once ran an internet firm. “Our country is going through one of the greatest crises in all its history,” Saint-Cyr said as he was sworn in. “It’s not the time for beautiful speeches. It’s time to act.”
Hours earlier, a powerful gang federation that has long denounced Haiti’s oligarchs threatened to overthrow the government, and gunfire erupted in parts of the capital.
In a video posted on social media, Viv Ansanm gang leader Jimmy Chérizier — better known as “Barbecue” — warns residents to give his armed group free passage through neighborhoods to reach the council’s office.
“People of Haiti, take care of yourselves and help us … in the battle to free the country,” Chérizier says, wearing a bulletproof vest and with an automatic rifle slung around his shoulder.
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