As recently as March 6th, 2024, Haiti has been experiencing some great political distress. The country has had a history of violence do to politics but now, it’s gotten worse. Gang leaders have now threatened Haiti’s Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, to step down from office.

Ariel Henry’s location was unknown until recently as according to Caitlin Stephen Hu, Tara John, Priscilla Alvarez, Richard Roth and Michael Rios on a CNN article, “The whereabouts of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry had been in doubt until he resurfaced in Puerto Rico” (Wed March 6, 2024).  Henry was supposed to be returned to Haiti after signing an agreement with Kenya to restore order in the Caribbean via the U.S and Dominican Republic. However, the Dominican Republic changed their minds and he was diverted to Puerto Rico. According to the same CNN article, “The Dominican Republic rejected informal inquiries from both the US and Haiti’s government this week about a possible “indefinite stopover” for Henry’s plane, the Dominican Republic’s presidential spokesman said Wednesday. “On both occasions the Dominican government communicated the impossibility of said stopover without receiving a defined flight plan,” Homero Figueroa said Wednesday”(Wed March 6, 2024).

The gang leaders of Haiti have spoken and threatened Henry to step down immediately. According to an article by Simon Romero and Maria Abi-Habib on The New York Times, “If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’re heading straight for a civil war,” Jimmy Chérizier, a top gang leader and former police officer known more widely as Barbecue, told reporters in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday” (Wed March 6, 2024). They also say that, “Mr. Chérizier and other gang leaders have gone on a rampage around Port-au-Prince over the past week, clashing with the police and attacking the airport, bank offices, government buildings and prisons, including the country’s largest penitentiary, allowing thousands of inmates to escape” (Wed March 6, 2024).