PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Two of Haiti's leaders said on Friday they aimed to proceed with a plan to remove Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, despite U.S. warnings that such a move would face consequences.
"We are the ones who appointed Didier Fils-Aime in November 2024. We are the ones who worked with him for a year, and it is up to us to issue a new decree naming a new prime minister, a new government and a new presidency," Transitional Presidential Council member Leslie Voltaire told a press conference.
The council, which sacked its first prime minister six months into the job, acts as the country's top executive. It was appointed in 2024 to oversee a move towards Haiti's first election in a decade, but this has been repeatedly pushed back due to a collapse in security amid a bloody conflict with powerful, heavily armed gangs.
Fils-Aime, speaking at a police event later on Friday said of the move to oust him that neither "criminals wearing ties or criminals wearing flip flops" would dictate the law and warned that anyone who stood against the police or the state would face a firm response "without weakness, without compromise."
At the event, U.S. Charge d'Affaires Henry Wooster said it was "essential" that Fils-Aime stay on to safeguard the fight against gangs.
The council's mandate is due to end on February 7, but as yet there is no official succession plan in place.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a call with Fils-Aime early on Friday, a U.S. government spokesperson said, during which he emphasized the importance of the prime minister remaining in his post to ensure stability. He also insisted on the council's dissolution by the end of its mandate, threatening "a steep cost" for politicians deemed to be corrupt.
Five of the nine council members have signed a resolution to remove Fils-Aime, four of those members told local outlets. But it has yet to be published in the country's official gazette, a necessary step before the decision becomes legally valid.
COUNCIL DISAGREEMENTS
Voltaire spoke alongside fellow council member Edgard Leblanc Fils, who said the plan was to replace Fils-Aime following established procedures within 30 days.
Voltaire said there would be a "pause" to allow Haiti's political groups to come up with an acceptable solution for the succession, and that the council would decide on a governance structure if no consensus was reached.
Both Voltaire and Fils blasted the U.S. comments as disrespectful to the country's sovereignty.
Appointed in April 2024, the council's term has been marked by infighting, corruption allegations and worsening insecurity.
Last year, a Haitian court threw out a summons against three council members accused of corruption, saying they were protected by their governing status. Those three members, two of whom said they signed the resolutionto oust Fils-Aime, kept their posts but were excluded from a rotating roster of council presidents.
Speaking to Radio Kiskeya on Thursday, Louis Gerard-Gilles, one of the members supporting the ouster, said the prime minister could be replaced by Finance Minister Alfred Metellus, a public-sector veteran and former consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank.
(Reporting by Harold Isaac and Sarah Morland; Editing by Natalia Siniawski, Rosalba O'Brien and Tom Hogue)
