Two top Haiti leaders signal PM could be removed, after US threats

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Two of Haiti’s top leaders said on Friday they planned to proceed with a plan to remove Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, though the timeline remained unclear, despite U.S. warnings against doing so in the last days of their mandate.

“We are the ones who appointed Didier Fils-Aime in November 2024. We are the ones who worked with him for a year, and it is up to us to issue a new decree naming a new prime minister, a new government and a new presidency,” Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) member Leslie Voltaire told a press conference.

The CPT, which sacked its first prime minister six months into the job, was appointed to oversee a move towards Haiti’s first election in a decade, but this was repeatedly pushed back due to worsening insecurity amid conflict with powerful gangs.

It acts as the country’s top executive body.

Five of nine CPT members have signed a resolution to remove Fils-Aime, several of those members have said. However, it has yet to be published in the country’s official gazette, a necessary step before the decision becomes legally valid.

Voltaire spoke alongside fellow CPT member Edgard Leblanc Fils, who said the plan was to replace Fils-Aime within a maximum of thirty days. Voltaire said there would be a “pause” to allow political groups to find an acceptable solution for the political succession.

Washington has issued several strong warnings against Fils-Aime’s removal, saying it would take firm action against politicians it deems corrupt and that the CPT must be dissolved when their mandate ends on February 7.

No official plan has been put forward for the succession, but Haiti’s U.N. envoy on Thursday signaled that a prime minister could continue to head the country after the CPT’s term is up.

Speaking to Radio Kiskeya on Thursday, CPT member Louis Gerard-Gilles, who also supported the ouster, said he could be replaced by Finance Minister Alfred Metellus, a public sector veteran and former IDB consultant.

(Reporting by Harold Isaac and Sarah Morland, Editing by Natalia Siniawski)