Haiti's President Moise Dismisses Three Judges

Amid mass protests demanding his resignation, Haiti's President Jovenel Moise on Tuesday issued a decree to remove three Appeals Court judges who could have replaced him in power.

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"Yvickel Dieujuste Dabrezil, Wendelle Coq Thelot, and Joseph Mecene Jean-Louis... are retired," France 24 reported.

According to the Haitian constitution and laws, however, Appeals Court judges can only be removed from office when their physical or mental incapacity to perform their duties is duly proven. They may also be removed if serious accusations are proven against them. 

These legal provisions seem not to have been respected by Moise, who carried out a political maneuver that allows him to stay in power in the short term. 

Previously, on the weekend, opposition political organizations and social movements had proposed that Judge Jean-Louis be the president of an interim government that was expected to replace Moise after February 7, i.e. after the date on which Haitians argue that Moise's term was due to end. 

On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, which had been Moise's main diplomatic supporter until then, issued a communiqué putting further pressure on his administration.

In its message, Washington referred to its "deep concern" over any action that could "undermine" Haiti's democratic institutions, tacitly alluding to the forced retirement of the three Appeals Court judges.