Ariel Henry, Haiti’s New Prime Minister Is the Brother of Inter-American Division President Élie Henry
9 July 2021 | The Miami Herald reported that Ariel Henry, Haiti’s new Prime Minister, is the brother of Pastor Élie Henry, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America.
Élie Henry “made international headlines in December when he and his daughter, Irma, became the latest victims of Haiti’s kidnapping scourge after going missing on Dec. 24, 2020. They were released unharmed four days later,” stated the Miami Herald.
The paper also reported that Ariel Henry’s father, “Pastor Elie S. Henry, was an elder in the Seventh-day Adventist Church before his death in 2015 at age 89.”
The Herald does not state whether Ariel Henry himself is an Adventist.
On July 5, 2021, Henry was selected as the next prime minister of Haiti, a mere two days before President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated.
“One of Haiti’s leading neurosurgeons, Henry worked in France for 19 years before returning to Haiti. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party, Haitian Revolutionary Progressive Nationalist Party founded by his longtime friend and mentor Serge Gilles, and later joined the leftist Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats political party before leaving the party to join INITE, formed by former ministers and supporters of (former Haiatian president) Préval,” reported the Miami Herald.
Henry served as Haiti’s minister of interior and territorial communities since 2016. He is credited with leading Haiti’s response to the deadly cholera epidemic that devastated the country after the 2010 earthquake that left much of Haiti in ruins.