Haiti picks ministers for new-look cabinet

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's transitional council appointed a new cabinet on Tuesday, marking the final step in rebuilding the government that will lead a country under siege by gangs.

Government spokeswoman Kettia Marcellus confirmed the appointment of the new cabinet and its ministers to The Associated Press.

Carlos Hercules, the attorney for Prime Minister Garry Conille, was appointed as minister of justice and public security. Conille himself will also be the interior minister. Jean-Marc Berthier Antoine will be the defense minister.

Haiti is struggling with gangs that control at least 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince. It is preparing for the United Nations-backed deployment of a police force from Kenya expected in the coming weeks.

Weeks of coordinated attacks by gangs forced former prime minister Ariel Henry to resign in April, and his cabinet was dissolved. Gunmen took control of police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remained closed for nearly three months and stormed Haiti's two biggest prisons. More than 2,500 people were killed or injured in the first three months of the year and more than half a million others were displaced.

Conille has pledged to crack down on the violence.

Dominique Dupuy, a UNESCO ambassador who was once a member of the transitional council before resigning, will be foreign affairs minister.

The new cabinet has four women. Critics note that Haiti's government barely has any female representation. The new prime minister has publicly acknowledged that women should have their place in government.

One thing that stands out about many of the ministers appointed to the new cabinet is the relative obscurity of their names, said Michael Deibert, author of Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti and Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.

"There is a smattering of people with international experience …but still, there are not a lot of immediately recognizable high-level names from within Haitian politics," he said. "Some people might think that's a good thing."

The work of the transitional council, however, is not done. It is tasked with appointing a provisional electoral commission, a requirement before general elections can take place.

Agencies - Xinhua