The April 11 editorial “Haiti’s spiral of dysfunction” was correct in diagnosing the problem but mistaken in its review of potential solutions.
The editorial labeled the Montana Accord’s plan “unwieldy, to say the least.” But democratic transitions are necessarily complex work, and the two-year power-sharing interim government the accord proposes is exactly what garnered it such “broad-based” support and legitimacy among the Haitian people. Moreover, the accord’s coalition has outlined steps to rebuild institutional capacity and trust, key factors for organizing free and fair elections that Haitians can believe in. De facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s proposal, on the other hand, is to rush toward elections to cement power for himself and cronies representative of the past two presidencies, which were marked by a disastrous rise in corruption, gangsterization and human rights abuses.
Original source can be found here.
