Haiti’s transitional presidential council has sacked the country’s prime minister, Garry Conille, and replaced him with entrepreneur and former senate candidate Alix Didier Fils-Aimé.
Conille, a development specialist and former UNICEF regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, was only named prime minister at the end of May, but he has failed to improve the country’s chronic law and order situation.
The worsening violence has led the transitional council to replace 58-year-old Conille with Fils-Aimé, who it had previously considered for the job.
Fils-Aimé’s mother was detained for 10 years under the 1971–1986 regime of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who had succeeded his dictator father, François “Papa Doc” Duvalier.
According to Fils-Aimé’s LinkedIn page, he attended Boston University’s School of Management and was CEO of Hainet, a Haitian internet service provider, between 1999 and 2012.
Haiti has been mired in political chaos since 2021, when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by a group of Colombian mercenaries.
In the absence of a president, Ariel Henry—who had been appointed by Moïse a few weeks earlier—stayed on as the country’s leader, but he was unable to stop the deterioration of law and order.
In March 2024, Henry imposed a state of emergency on the city’s Ouest department, which includes the capital Port-au-Prince, after violence paralyzed the city and thousands of prisoners broke out of jail.
But Henry eventually quit after being threatened by Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier, the leader of an alliance of armed gangs, who claimed responsibility for the increase in violence.
About 580,000 people have been internally displaced by gang violence in Haiti, and it is estimated that 5 million people are facing severe hunger as a result of the chaos.
Haiti has not held democratic elections since 2016, when Moïse was elected.
The transitional council has been plagued with infighting, and last month several of its members were accused of corruption.
On Nov. 7, Haitian activists demanded countries in the region halt deportations back to Haiti.
The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, deported nearly 61,000 migrants back to Haiti between Oct. 2 and Nov. 5.
Last month the United States deported 258 Haitians, while 231 were sent back from Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the Turks & Caicos Islands combined.
Sam Guillaume, a spokesman for Haiti’s Support Group for Returnees and Refugees, said, “A lot of them can’t make it back home because their neighborhood is controlled by gangs.”
Trump said Homan “will be in charge of all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.”
