Fritz Alphonse Jean: The Double Discourse of a Leadership in Freefall

Some leaders falter under pressure. And there are those who, faced with their own contradictions, collapse under the weight of their manipulations. The presidential advisor, Fritz Alphonse Jean, unfortunately belongs to this second category.

Accused, then sanctioned by the United States for allegedly maintaining relations with gangs, the economist responds with selective indignation, crying interference and manipulation. A suddenly nationalist discourse that is surprising, coming from a man whose recent political ascent was only made possible thanks to the active intervention of the very international community he now vilifies.

However, one only needs to go back a few months to see the extent of the paradox. In a public note dated April 28, 2025, the CPT – then under the direction of Fritz Jean – urged judicial authorities to "urgently" take up the cases of sanctioned individuals. The Council president emphasized the need to respect Haiti's international commitments in the fight against corruption, even calling for a detailed report on the implementation of these measures. At the time, sanctions were not a scandal: they were a tool for transparency, a means to restore public integrity, a legitimate lever to combat impunity – and political adversaries. But now, a few months later, when the United States sanctions Fritz Jean himself for his alleged ties to gangs, the defender of sanctions instantly transforms into a victim of an international conspiracy. The same mechanisms he praised suddenly become a weapon of political intimidation. The same bodies he encouraged to act become illegitimate actors. The same diplomatic pressures he used to justify rigor become unbearable interferences.

This spectacular reversal illustrates a deeper ill: the inability to assume the coherence and responsibility necessary for leading an already fragile transition. It exposes a leadership with variable geometry, which praises principles when they serve its interests, then rejects them when they threaten it. And above all, it reveals the hypocrisy of a man who now tries to mask his own political isolation by waving the flag of opportunistic nationalism. For by accusing Washington of partiality, particularly in favor of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, Fritz Jean forgets that he himself owes his entry into the CPT to an institutional architecture entirely shaped, supported, and imposed by the international community. The Transitional Presidential Council is not a product of Haitian sovereignty: it is the direct consequence of diplomatic pressures that followed the institutional collapse of 2023-2024, with the departure of Ariel Henry. How can one denounce today an interference from which one has oneself been one of the most visible beneficiaries?

Whether he likes it or not, Fritz Jean finds himself at the heart of this turmoil, not only because of the accusations against him, but also because he has fueled, sometimes voluntarily, the institutional tensions that have paralyzed the transitional government for some time.