Parliament Dissolved, Continued Peace

There is an update from this past Monday when Parliament was supposed to be dissolved.  The update is:  Parliament has been dissolved as of Tuesday at 12:01 am and the President now rules by decree. His first “decree” was that he would use the $10 million that would normally go to Parliament salaries to build 10 new schools across Haiti. On Tuesday morning, when Senators and Deputies attempted to enter their offices, they were stopped by police and removed from the facility. 

As of now, and this is very tenuous, there is still peace in Haiti. There have been no additional manifestations or riots. It is also important to note that none of the issues that have caused the unrest have been resolved. In fact, as President Moise now rules by decree, many of the people who believe him to be corrupt will now say that he has bided his time to become essentially a “dictator” for Haiti. For all intents and purposes, this is true. President Moise rules without any accountability and without having to seek approval from anyone.

The truth is, there is precedent for Presidents to rule by decree in Haiti. In fact, the previous Haitian President, former pop start Michel Martelly (aka “Sweet Mickey”), ruled by decree for the final 2 years of his Presidency because Parliament did not schedule elections and was dissolved. Prior to that, President Preval ruled by decree in the late 1990s when Parliament was dissolved. With Moise now reaching that point in his Presidency, 3 of the last 5 Presidents have ruled by decree at some point during their Presidency.

For his part, President Moise continues to proclaim that he had nothing to do with the corruption that has brought Haiti to its knees. He continues to state that he is only there for the benefit of the country, and we have to continue to hope that this is true.

We will keep you updated here as to what happens in Haiti from a social and political perspective and we ask you to continue to pray. While the political issues in Haiti seem almost comical at times, it is really hurting the general population. In fact, a recent study suggests that almost twice as many people in 2020 compared to 2019 and over half of Haiti’s population will experience a food crisis. People are much worse off today in Haiti than they have been at any other time this century, and it is hard to see a solution.

Also, our vision casting blogs will start again this week, but any time political news comes up we will interrupt the vision casting to let you know about it. We do this because it is important and interesting, but our main goal is to ask you to pray for Haiti.