Businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr took over as head of Haiti’s transitional government on Thursday, a few hours after infamous gang boss Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier told residents of Port-au-Prince to stay out of the way while his forces overthrow the government.
Saint-Cyr, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Haiti, assumed the rotating leadership of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) from Fritz Alphonse Jean, a U.S.-trained economist and former prime minister.
The CPT is essentially a nine-member council that collectively shares the duties of the Haitian presidency, under the guidance of a rotating chairperson. Each member of the council represents an influential faction or interest group in Haiti.
Saint-Cyr has been the business community’s chosen representative since the inception of the CPT in April 2024, following the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry and his cabinet. If the transitional government completes its work on schedule, Saint-Cyr will be its final chairman. National elections for a new president and parliament are scheduled for February 2026.
Saint-Cyr was sworn in at the CPT’s fortress-like headquarters in Port-au-Prince, a city that is almost entirely controlled by ultra-violent criminal gangs. His inaugural speech was brisk and businesslike.
“I invite all international partners to increase their support, send more soldiers, provide more training. I am asking the security forces to intensify their operations,” he said.
“We must restore state authority. The challenges we face are certainly linked to insecurity, but they also are the result of our lack of courage, a lack of vision and our irresponsibility,” he declared.
“Our country is going through one of the greatest crises in all its history. It’s not the time for beautiful speeches. It’s time to act,” he said.
Unfortunately, “Barbecue” Cherizier was thinking along the same lines on Thursday. The former Haitian police officer turned gang warlord leads an underworld alliance known as Viv Ansanm. He has frequently threatened, and executed, terrorist attacks against the government when his interests were threatened, while posing as a “freedom fighter” who aspires to “liberate” Haiti from its corrupt government.
“We have decided to march on the Premier’s office and the Villa d’Accueil to end it all,” Cherizier announced in a social media video posted shortly after Saint-Cyr was sworn in. The Villa d’Accueil is a mansion that serves as the current headquarters of the government.
Cherizier warned civilians to give his soldiers free passage through their neighborhoods when they launch “the battle to free the country.”
“People of Haiti, take care of yourselves and help us,” he said, clad in body armor and brandishing a rifle.
Saint-Cyr’s first day on the job passed without undue violence, although reporters heard sporadic gunfire across Port-au-Prince throughout the day. The U.N.-backed “stabilization mission” in Haiti, which largely consists of Kenyan police officers at the moment, said it was able to thwart numerous potential attacks by increasing patrols around vulnerable locations and trouble-prone neighborhoods.
“Armed gangs had plotted to disrupt national stability and render the country ungovernable,” the U.N. mission said.
Saint-Cyr has other problems on his plate besides trigger-happy gangsters. Jean rotated out of office in the middle of a huge political dispute over a port services contract that is rife with allegations of corruption.
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti and the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said last week they were “aware of reported bribery attempts to undermine Haiti’s stability.”
The embassy and bureau went out of their way to thank members of the transitional council for “rejecting corruption.”
Neither American nor Haitian officials were eager to discuss the exact nature of the bribery allegations with the press, but there have long been rumors that some Haitian officials and business interests are funding and supporting gangsters like Cherizier to secure their own interests.
The Miami Herald on Thursday pointed out that “color and class tensions” have built around the transitional government, with some Haitians resenting Saint-Cyr as a member of the “small, lighter-skinned economic elite.”
The bribery threat mentioned by the U.S. Embassy may have been an effort to block Saint-Cyr from taking office and remove the current prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aime, to put a new “balance of power” in place before the February election.
Fils-Aime is also a member of the lighter-skinned Haitian business elite. The public has not been very satisfied with the work of the transitional government, since the country remains overrun with murderous gangsters, and very little of its infrastructure functions. Some Haitians feel the elites are primarily interested in protecting their own lives, property, and money.
The State Department refused to confirm or deny the Miami Herald’s theory, saying only that it was “aware of credible reports that malign actors are actively seeking to destabilize the transition government.”
Jean, on the other hand, was happy to share his theory that the bribery allegations were themselves manufactured to sow chaos and weaken the transitional government.
“This question of bribery is a pure narrative manipulation of political entrepreneurs fighting to keep the status quo. It is a desperate and trivial effort to attract the sympathy of American congressmen and women, and the U.S. administration,” he said.
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