The Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti was formally established on April 12, 2024, replacing the government of Ariel Henry and creating a new governing structure designed to lead Haiti toward elections while managing the security and humanitarian emergencies that defined the country’s crisis. The council, whose creation had been facilitated by CARICOM and the United States, brought together representatives of Haiti’s major political groupings in a power-sharing arrangement.
The council’s composition reflected the difficult balancing act of including broad political representation while excluding figures with documented connections to gang networks or corruption. It included representatives from the main political parties, civil society organizations, and the private sector — an attempt to create a governing body that could claim broader legitimacy than Henry’s sole leadership had possessed.
Ariel Henry formally resigned on April 25, ending his nearly three-year tenure as Haiti’s de facto leader. His departure was unlamented by most Haitians but also raised the question of what accountability, if any, he would face for the governance failures of his tenure and the unresolved questions about his alleged connections to the presidential assassination.
Haitian civil society organizations that had worked toward a transitional arrangement cautiously welcomed the council’s formation while emphasizing that its legitimacy would ultimately depend on its actions, not its composition. They called on the council to prioritize security, humanitarian access, and the organization of credible elections, and to demonstrate through concrete decisions that it represented a genuine break from the patterns of governance failure that had produced the crisis.