Paris, February 7, 2026.- The director of the geography department of the Université Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Jean-Marie Théodat, affirmed, in an interview granted to France 24, on February 6, 2026, that the failure of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) was foreseeable as soon as it was established. According to him, the mission entrusted to that body was ill-designed and did not take into account the magnitude of insecurity or the gradual rise of gang violence, which had been established for more than forty years.
For the academic, the CPT « put the plow before the oxen » by making the organization of elections a priority in a deeply unstable context. « How can we ask a presidential council to hold elections in a country where more than eight thousand people died in 2025 because of the violence of armed gangs occupying a large part of the territory? « , he asks.
Jean-Marie Théodat points out that approximately 500,000 weapons of war are currently circulating in Haiti, making it impossible to hold credible elections. « How do you want citizens to vote under the constant threat of armed gangs? « , he questions, recalling that « Without civil peace, there can be no elections « .
When asked whether insecurity is the only obstacle to the success of the transition, the director of the Department of Geography of Pantheon-Sorbonne believes that the CPT's failure is structural. He pointed out that insecurity was not the only factor explaining this failure and that, under the same conditions, other actors could not have done much better.
Jean-Marie Théodat finally states that the Haitian crisis is much deeper than it seems. According to him, Haiti has become a « black hole « serving as a transit platform for cocaine trafficking to Florida. « That's where this chaotic situation comes from. The state had to be debunked to facilitate the passage of cocaine « , he concluded.
In addition, several members of the Transitional Presidential Council are the subject of complaints, and some are even charged in serious corruption cases, including in the National Credit Bank (NCB) file.
While the CPT's mandate has just ended today, the presidential college leaves behind it the image of a deeply fractured and divided institution, marked notably by the attempted eviction of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. This approach has considerably weakened the Council, which is completing its weakened and credible mandate.
W.E.
