By Sarah Marsh @ Reuters.com, Jan. 16

HAVANA - Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise, who began ruling by decree this week, wants to use his new power to overhaul the constitution in an attempt to break a “decades-long cycle of political crises,” a planned presidential statement seen by Reuters shows.

“We will work with all political actors and our international partners to draft constitutional reforms to ensure a widely acceptable, workable, democratic balance of power which will then be put to the Haitian people in a referendum,” reads the statement, due to be released early on Friday according to a source close to Moise.

The statement does not specify the precise changes sought but Moise is likely aiming to strengthen the presidency which was weakened in Haiti’s 1987 Magna Carta due to a mistrust of strong figureheads in the wake of the Duvalier family dictatorship. Critics say the changes went too far, delivering too much power to parliament and have made it hard to govern. Haiti has had 15 presidents in the past 33 years [....]