‘We Have the Moral High Ground’: A Civil Society-Led Vision for Haiti’s Future

‘We Have the Moral High Ground’: A Civil Society-Led Vision for Haiti’s Future
Students wearing Haitian national flags wait for the start of a parade marking Flag Day, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 18, 2019 (AP photo by ).

Haiti was already mired in a deep political crisis and humanitarian emergency before a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck earlier this month, killing at least 2,200 people and injuring and displacing thousands more. The country’s acting president and prime minister, Ariel Henry, had been in office for less than a month when the disaster occurred, having assumed power in the wake of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7. Moise had been facing mass protests and widespread demands for his resignation due to rampant corruption and mismanagement of the economy under his administration.

Amid the turmoil, a coalition of Haitian civil society groups formed a 13-member commission earlier this year, dubbed the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis, aimed at devising a political transition to stabilize the country and pave the way to free and fair elections. One of the commission’s members, Monique Clesca, joined WPR’s Elliot Waldman on the Trend Lines podcast this week to discuss the effort.

Listen to the full conversation here:

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