Stephen Junior Cherenfant, the Acting Head of Mission at the Haitian Consulate General in Santiago, Dominican Republic, has been dismissed from his post. This dismissal comes after he had only been in office since September 26, 2025.

Reasons cited in this matter :

Cherenfant reportedly refused to authorize the use of the consulate's budget to finance strictly private expenses for the family of Emmanuel Vertilaire (representative of the radical party "Pitit Desalin") during his visit to the Dominican Republic.

To justify his refusal, Cherenfant reportedly invoked the rules of public accounting and the principles of good governance, arguing that consular funds should not be used for the personal purposes of the relatives of government officials.

Consul Cherenfant claims he was pressured to cover the expenses (including hotel and personal needs) of Councilor Vertilaire's wife and children during his stay.

His sudden dismissal sparked strong reactions in public opinion and within the Haitian community in the Dominican Republic, with many seeing it as political retaliation against a civil servant who chose to protect state resources.

State Administrative Silence :

To date, there has been no official explanation from the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the reasons for this dismissal.

The official strategy appears to be one of administrative silence. The government has chosen to appoint a replacement without engaging in public debate on the serious accusations of attempted embezzlement of public funds raised by the outgoing Consul. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is simply dodging the real reason for this dismissal, merely stating that it generally makes changes "for operational reasons" or as part of a "restructuring of Haitian diplomacy."

It should be noted that Counselor Vertilaire, directly implicated by Consul Cherenfant, has not issued a denial.

In the absence of official explanations, several anti-corruption organizations in Haiti and diaspora associations have denounced this silence as an admission of guilt or, at the very least, as a lack of transparency. For many observers, this extremely rapid dismissal reinforces the theory of political retaliation rather than a performance evaluation (given the short time in office).

SL/ HaitiLibre