Haiti Prime Minister Garry Conille hospitalized after medical emergency

Haiti’s new prime minister, Garry Conille, was hospitalized late Saturday after suffering a reported respiratory emergency.

The details on what led to the crisis remained scant. However, Conille was at his mother-in-law’s house in the hills above the capital in Boutillier, multiple sources said, when he fell ill and had to be rushed down the mountain to a private hospital in Pétion-Ville where he was quickly stabilized.

A source later confirmed to the Miami Herald that Conille, 58, was talking, and his blood pressure had improved.

Still, Conille was undergoing a battery of tests in order to find out what led to the episode. He was also being closely monitored to see whether he should be medically evacuated out of Haiti where medication and treatment options have been in short supply following the recent violence launched by armed criminal groups on Feb. 29.

In a communique published more than three hours after the incident, the Office of the Prime Minister confirmed Conille was being treated at a hospital.

“Following a week of intense activities,” the statement said, Conille “had a slight malaise.”

“His situation is stable for the moment,” the office added.

A longtime development expert with the United Nations, Conille was tapped by Haiti’s transitional presidential council late last month to lead the country’s new transitional government. He arrived in Port-au-Prince from Miami a week ago.

Since his arrival, Conille had been trying to put together a government, but has been embroiled in tensions with the seven voting members of the transitional presidential council about how large the new government should be, and who should serve in which ministries.

The council, which wants to retain control over the new transition, also has not formally sworn him in. As a result, Conille’s powers are limited and the country today has both him and finance minister, Michel Patrick Boisvert, the interim, in charge.

This is a developing story that will be updated when details are available.