Development: On 13 October Haiti’s prime minister, Garry Conille, named his cabinet.
Significance: The choices still have to be ratified by the legislature along with Conille’s plan of governance. The list includes some concessions to the opposition Inité, of President Michel Martelly’s predecessor René Préval (2006-2011), which controls the legislature. Yet it also includes individuals with links to the former Duvalier regimes (1957-1986), once again triggering concerns regarding the intentions of Martelly, particularly given that Conille himself is the son of a former health minister under the second regime led by Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier (1971-1986).
Key points:
• Concessions to the Inité include the portfolios of social affairs and labour, which went to François Richel Lafaille; culture and communication (M. Choiseul Henriquez); environment (Joseph Ronald Toussaint). Mario Dupuy, the chief spokesperson during the second term of Préval’s former ally, populist former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991, 1994-1996 and 2001-2004), was also awarded the position of communications adviser.
• Yet key posts have gone to officials with links to ‘Baby Doc’. These include the position of minister of the interior, local authorities and national defence, which went to Thierry Mayard-Paul; Mayard-Paul’s father was a lawyer for Claude Raymond, a feared army lieutenant under ‘Baby Doc’. Daniel Supplice, an ambassador and former minister of social affairs under the same regime, was nominated as minister for Haitians living abroad. Other offspring also assigned posts in the new administration include Raymond’s own son, Claude Jr., as deputy director for immigration and Josefa R. Gauthier, whose father Adrien was a diplomat under ‘Baby Doc’, as director general for the government’s fund for Economic and Social Assistance. Meanwhile, Duvalier’s son, Francois Nicolas (‘Nico’), is a consultant to Martelly.
• While Martelly’s failure to press for the prosecution of Duvalier who, since his surprise return to the country earlier this year, has been charged with corruption, embezzlement of funds, money laundering and assassination has revived suspicions regarding his sympathies with those regimes. Concerns regarding the influence of Duvalier loyalists have been particularly heightened given Martelly’s plans to re-establish the military.
