FORMER AMBASSADOR ON HAITIAN PRESIDENT IN MARCH: “PUT HIM ASIDE” AND EMBRACE “PRIME MINISTER OPTION”
AT A LITTLE-NOTICED House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in March 2021, headlined “Policy Recommendations on Haiti for the Biden Administration,” a former ambassador to Haiti recommended that the way to deal with troublesome President Jovenel Moïse was to “put him aside” and embrace something she called “the prime minister option.” The U.S. was unsatisfied with Moïse and, as new elections approached amid a deteriorating on-the-ground situation, wanted a faster transition. Local artists paint murals in tribute to slain President Jovenel Moïse in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, on July 22, 2021 “It would be nice if he would step down, but I do not think that is going to happen,” said former Ambassador Pamela White at the hearing, under questioning from Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla. White was a foreign service officer in Haiti from 1985 to 1990, and served as ambassador from 2012 to 2015. “So I think if we sort of put him aside, you know, in the best of all worlds, and we have a prime minister appointe...