'Usual suspects' Only a radical reset of political accountability can bring change

Scenes of unrest in Haiti, as Ariel Henry announced his resignation as prime minister last week amid a violent gang uprising, have brought a strong sense of deja vu .

- Peter Beaumont

An international proposal for a transitional council to rule the country appear s to have crumbled . But those jostling for infl uence are familiar fi gures associated with political parties, coalitions and the tiny oligarchic business elite that have been key players in the country’ s long-running crisis of political legitimacy.

Haiti has been here before , repeatedly, in the turbulent decades since the 1986 fall of the Duvalier dictatorship . There have been coups, transitional governments (sometimes military), ineffectual leaders and politicians who have cynically employed criminal gangs to pursue power.

The leftwing president JeanBertrand Aristide, a former parish priest and anti-poverty champion, employed armed gangs known as chimères - ghosts - and established a template for political violence when conflict flared up.