Transitional council in Haiti embraces new changes following turmoil as gang violence grips country

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A transitional council tasked with choosing new leaders for Haiti is changing the way it operates in a move that surprised many as gang violence consumes the country.

Instead of having a single council president, four veteran politicians will take turns leading the council every five months, according to two members who were not authorized to publicly share the changes because they had not yet been announced.

The members told The Associated Press late Wednesday that the nine-member council also will now consider five members a majority, instead of four. Seven of the council's members have voting powers.

“That’s a real switch,” Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said of the changes. “I think it’s a good thing that they’re really going to share power now. … It is something that is very rare in Haitian politics.”

The four members who will share power are original council president Edgard Leblanc Fils, ex-senator Louis Gérald Gilles, former presidential candidate Leslie Voltaire and ex-ambassador for the Dominican Republic Smith Augustin.

The changes follow inner turmoil that threatened to derail the council after it was sworn in on April 25. The bickering began five days later, when four council members announced not only a council president but also a prime minister to the shock of many.

However, it remains to be seen if former sports minister Fritz Bélizaire will remain as the chosen prime minister. One council member told AP that they expect to make an announcement next week.

After a prime minister is announced, the council expects to choose a new Cabinet, a process many expect will involve long and heavy negotiations with powerful politicians.

“That’s going to be the other major issue,” Fatton warned.

The changes come as Haiti prepares for the U.N.-backed deployment of a Kenyan police force to help fight gangs that have decimated swaths of the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Gangs launched coordinated attacks in February, burning police stations, opening fire on the main international airport that has remained closed since March 4 and stormeing Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The country’s largest seaport also remains paralyzed as food, medication and other critical items dwindle.

At least 1.4 million Haitians are on the verge of famine, according to the U.N.’s World Food Program.

On Thursday, Haiti’s Office of Citizen Protection called on the council to prioritize human rights and provide victims of gang violence free legal assistance and timely justice.

“The country’s situation…has never been so alarming,” it said.

The office also demanded that the council establish a truth and justice commission to investigate human rights violations and major crimes. It urged authorities to probe the two prison attacks and provide a detailed report on all those who escaped.

“There is no peace without justice,” it said.

U.S. military planes have landed in recent days with supplies including medicine and hydration fluids as well as civilian contractors to prepare for the arrival of foreign forces, although it’s not clear exactly when the Kenyan police would deploy.

A team of top Kenyan security officials are in Washington D.C. this week to finalize deployment plans, including the number of police that will be sent.

Gang violence has surged in recent days, with several communities attacked near downtown Port-au-Prince, forcing more than 3,700 people to flee their homes.

On Tuesday, at least four people died and several others were injured when someone opened fire on a bus driving through Martissant, a gang-controlled area in southwestern Port-au-Prince.

Kidnappings also have increased, with a female police officer killed Wednesday morning while trying to fight off gangs who tried to abduct her, said police union leader Lionel Lazarre.

More than 2,500 people have been killed or injured in the first three months of the year, a 50% increase compared with the same period last year, according to the U.N.

Associated Press reporter Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi contributed.

IDENTIFIES TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL MEMBERS - Transitional Council members, from left to right; Fritz Alphonse Jean, Laurent Saint-Cyr, Frinel Joseph, Edgard Leblanc Fils, Regine Abraham, Emmanuel Vertilaire, Smith Augustin, Leslie Voltaire and Louis Gerald Gilles, pose for a group photo after a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Fils was chosen as the president of the panel. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Edgard Leblanc Fils speaks to others after the transitional council named him president in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

The body of a man shot dead lies in a pool of blood in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, May 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A woman sits next to her baby inside a classroom at a school converted into a makeshift shelter for people displaced by gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People run for cover as shots ring near the National Palace, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Women and malnourished children wait their turn to be weighed by health personnel at La Paix University Hospital, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A child rests her head on the lap of her mother as she gets her hair done, at a school turned into a makeshift shelter for people displaced by gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Residents walk past a burnt car blocking the street as they evacuate the Delmas 22 neighborhood the morning after an attack amid gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Forensic workers remove the body of a man shot dead in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, May 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Transitional council in Haiti embraces new changes following turmoil as gang violence grips country

Edgard Leblanc Fils, left, and Smith Augustin prepare to pose for a group photo with the transitional council after it named Fils as its president in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Transitional council in Haiti embraces new changes following turmoil as gang violence grips country

BALTIMORE (AP) — Even without a Triple Crown on the line, the upcoming Belmont Stakes is one of the most anticipated horse races in the sport's history.

That's because it's being run at Saratoga Race Course for the first time, part of a two-year hiatus in upstate New York while the Belmont's longstanding home in New York City is torn down and rebuilt.

“When you’re in sports, you get to do these unique things, and having a Belmont up in Saratoga, that’s pretty unique for us,” New York Racing Association President and CEO David O'Rourke said. “Everyone up there has leaned so far into this event that it’s just really cool. It’s hard to put a word to the level of excitement up there except the fact that everyone’s all in.”

Probably including Preakness champion Seize the Grey, who ended Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan's Triple Crown bid with a wire-to-wire victory Saturday. His 88-year-old Hall of Fame trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, said it was likely Seize the Grey would go.

He would not be alone, considering the historic nature of the Belmont at Saratoga, and also that it's being reduced to 1 1/4 miles from the usual “test of the champion” 1 1/2-mile distance because of the circumference of the track. At that distance, the race would have started on a turn, so the decision was made to shorten it, which could entice more owners and trainers to let their horses run.

“It’s a whole different deal,” Lukas said. "We’ll get new faces. There are some guys sitting in the wings. I’m sure that Todd (Pletcher) and Chad (Brown), with the depth they’ve got in their stables, will be involved. The fact that it’s a mile and a quarter, I think it makes it more enticing.”

Two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert also approves of the move away from a longer distance not typically run by 3-year-olds or even many older horses.

“You really don’t want to send a horse a mile and a half,” Baffert said. “They only do it one time in their life. ... A mile and a quarter, it’ll be fine.”

O'Rourke said the race will revert to 1 1/2 miles when it returns to the new version of Belmont Park in 2026. Given how much Lukas talks about his next crop of horses, he undoubtedly will show interest in yearlings born in 2023 for the Belmont's downstate return.

For now, the question is how much the final leg of the Triple Crown will be a rematch of sorts from the Derby or Preakness. Brown-trained Sierra Leone, who finished second by a nose at Churchill Downs on May 4, could run and so could Mystik Dan.

Trainer Kenny McPeek is shipping the Derby winner and Preakness runner-up to Saratoga but will wait a week to 10 days to make a decision. Baffert on Friday seemed to rule out the Belmont for Muth because the Preakness morning-line favorite got sick upon arriving in Baltimore and probably would not be able to heal in time to train for the June 8 race.

There will not be any shortage of interest in taking part of the Belmont at Saratoga, which has been around since 1863 and is one of the most venerable venues in horse racing. The field won't match the Derby's 20 horses but will almost certainly be bigger than the eight in the Preakness.

“The Belmont field, it’s sort of erratic, and it depends on a lot of other factors,” O'Rourke said. “I think it’s going to be an exceptionally deep field. It will be a big field, but it’ll be exceptionally deep is my projection at this point in time.”

AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing

Seize The Grey's trainer D. Wayne Lukas, left, shakes hands with with Bob Baffert, Imagination's trainer, after Lukas' horse won the Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Jaime Torres, atop Seize The Grey, reacts after crossing the finish line to win the Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Jaime Torres, left, atop Seize The Grey, crosses the finish line with Flavien Prat, atop Catching Freedom, in tow while winning the Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Jaime Torres kisses Seize The Grey after they won the Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)