Danny Glover: Upcoming Haitian Election an Opportunity for Self-Determination, Endorses Women Doctor and Social Justice Activist Maryse Narcisse

Obama Vetoed 9/11 Bill to Preserve U.S. Impunity

Clinton E-Mails Point to U.S. Intervention in 2010 Haiti Elections

by Jake Johnston (CEPR)

 

“The situation cannot afford Washington to sit on sidelines. They elected him and they need [sic] pressure him. He can't go unchecked,” Laura Graham, then the Chief Operating Officer of the Clinton Foundation, wrote to Bill Clinton in early 2012.

            Graham was referring to the increasingly erratic, and potentially dangerous, behavior of Haitian president Michel Martelly. When she said “They elected him,” she was referring to the U.S. government, which intervened through the OAS to change Haiti's first round election results, putting Martelly into the second round. The e-mail –  one of many Graham sent to Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff on Feb. 26, 2012 –  was sent eventually to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her top aide, Cheryl Mills. The note is perhaps the clearest evidence to date that key officials, even within the Clinton camp, viewed the U.S. intervention in the 2010 Haitian election as decisive.

            The 2010 Haitian election was a mess. Held less than a year after a devastating earthquake, millions of people were displaced or otherwise disenfranchised and then-president René Préval was accused of fraud on behalf of his preferred candidate, Jude Célestin. A majority of candidates held an afternoon press conference on election day denouncing the process and calling for new elections. But Washington and its allies, who had funded the election, pushed forward, telling the press that everything was okay. Mirlande Manigat, a constitutional law professor and former first lady, and Célestin came in first and second respectively, according to preliminary results, putting them into a scheduled run-off. Martelly was in third, a few thousand votes behind.

            Protests engulfed the capital and other major cities, threatening the political stability that donors have long desired, but have failed to nurture. With billions in foreign aid on the table and Bill Clinton overseeing an international effort at “building back better,” there was a lot on the line: both money and credibility.

            With Martelly’s supporters leading large, and at times violent, protests, the U.S. turned up the heat by publicly questioning the results just hours after they were announced. Within 24 hours, top State Department officials were already discussing with Haitian private sector groups plans to force Célestin out of the race. “[P]rivate sector have told RP [René Préval] that Célestin should withdraw … This is big,” then U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Ken Merten wrote the next day. Merten wrote that he had personally contacted Martelly’s “camp” and told them that he needed to “get on radio telling people to not pillage. Peaceful demo OK: pillage is not.” Unfortunately, much of Merten’s message, and those in response, have been redacted.

            Under Washington’s pressure, the Haitian government eventually requested that a mission from the Organization of American States (OAS) come to Haiti to analyze the results. The mission, despite not conducting a recount or any statistical test, recommended replacing Célestin in the runoff with Martelly. With the lowest turnout for a presidential election in the hemisphere’s recent history, and at least 12% of the votes simply missing, any decision on who should be in a second round would be based on faulty assumptions. (CEPR analyzed all the voter tally sheets at the time, conducting a statistical analysis of the vote, and later showed how the OAS recommendation could not be supported by any statistical evidence.)

            Nevertheless, pressure began to mount on the Haitian government to accept the OAS recommendations. Officials had their U.S. visas revoked and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice even went so far as to threaten to cut aid, even though the country was still recovering from the devastating earthquake earlier in the year.

            In late January 2011, two months after the elections, but before any decision had been made, Laura Graham wrote to top Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, warning that her boss, Bill Clinton [wjc] would be very upset if certain visas were pulled: "There are rumors abt ur second visa list and jmb [Prime Minister and co-chair of the Clinton-led reconstruction commission, Jean Max Bellerive] being on it. He's a conflicted guy and is being pressured on both sides and we believe trying to help. Wjc will be v unhappy if that's the case. Nor do I think u need remove his visa. Not sure what it gets u. Remove elizabeth's [Préval’s wife] and prevals people. I'm also staying at his house fyi so exposure in general and this weekend in particular for wjc on this."

            In response, Mills questioned the “message it sends” for Graham to stay at Bellerive’s house, but Graham replied, indicating a certain coordination between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department in influencing Haitian politics: “For the record, I discussed staying at his house w both u and wjc long ago and was told good strategic value and I’ve [sic] stayed there every time.”

            But being at Bellerive’s house, with a decision on the election coming any day, would send an inappropriate signal, Mills pointed out. “Think of all the rumors you have heard?” Mills asked, “that we want to pressure Célestin out when that is Brazilian and UN position,” she added as an example. There is no doubt that high-level Brazilian and UN officials were involved in the decision and efforts to exclude Célestin. Edmond Mulet, the head of the UN military mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), even privately suggested flying Préval out of the country on election day. But it was the U.S. that funded the OAS mission and that had been applying the most pressure on the Haitian government, and another e-mail from Graham to Mills a few days later confirms this. “I think you need to consider a message and outreach strategy to ensure that different elements of haitian society (church leaders, business, etc) buy into the mms solution and are out their [sic] on radio messaging why its [sic] good.”

            The “mms solution” here surely refers to Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly being placed in the second round over Célestin, the scenario State Department officials and Haitian private sector groups had been discussing since the day after results were announced. “Seems to me IC [international community] needs a complimentary [sic] message-outreach strategy to support this solution,” Graham added, noting that the U.S. government was being made out as a “villain.”

            A week earlier, a separate e-mail reveals, the Haitian government had proposed cancelling the elections, as many had been calling for, and running new ones, but the plan was rejected by the EU and U.S.. The international actors opted instead for the arbitrary removal of Célestin and moving forward with the “MMs,” two rightist political candidates who would support the “Haiti is open for business” slogan that emerged after the quake.

            The e-mail from Graham came just days before Hillary Clinton would fly to Haiti, in the middle of the crisis in Egypt, to force the government’s hand. Mills forwarded Graham’s message to Hillary Clinton, with a note, “Let’s discuss this on the plane,” to which Hillary responded simply: “Bill talked to me about this and is quite worried about what I do and say tomorrow.”

            “As we all are,” Mills responded, passing along talking points for the following day’s Haiti trip. “Ask him if he has any thoughts,” Mills wrote, in reference to Bill Clinton.

            The next day Hillary Clinton traveled to Haiti and met with Préval. “We tried to resist and did, until the visit of Hillary Clinton. That was when Préval understood he had no way out and accepted” it, Bellerive told me in an interview last year. Martelly won in the second round, in which just over 20% of the electorate voted.

            But the hoped-for political stability wouldn’t come so easy. After Martelly’s first two choices for prime minister failed to pass parliament, Garry Conille, who had previously served as Bill Clinton’s chief of staff when Clinton was UN Special Envoy to Haiti, became prime minister in September 2011. E-mails reveal that Graham had been vetting potential prime minister picks as early as June 2011 and had suggested Conille. E-mails show State Department staff helped to sway parliamentarians on Conille, who was expected to be the partner that the international community needed in the Haitian government to help oversee the massive reconstruction underway. But it didn’t work out that way.

            After just five months on the job, Conille resigned on Feb. 24, 2012. Two days later, Laura Graham wrote to Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, Jon Davidson. In the e-mail, written while she said she was with Conille, Graham expressed extreme frustration with Martelly and pointed the finger clearly at him for the resignation of Conille, who had begun investigating a number of high-profile reconstruction contracts involving Dominican firms. Graham also warned that the U.S. must step up and act to rein in Martelly, or risk the consequences, urging Bill Clinton to “convince” the U.S. government: "GC [Conille] believes that his resignation offers the IC [International Community] an opportunity to join in the chorus (media, business, civil society, parliament) of pressure on MM [Martelly]. He can no longer use GC as his obstacle. He has to act and show he's for democracy or there needs to be consequences. Waiting for this truck w[ith]o[ut] brakes to hit the bottom of the hill will be too late. You can be helpful in convincing USG and the IC."

            Graham continued, suggesting Bill Clinton go forward with his investor trip to Haiti, but also use the time to pressure Martelly. Graham was also concerned that the State Department was going too easy on their new friend Martelly, whom they had helped elect: "The U.S. has to push here and I believe some at state, definitely Merten [US Ambassador], are advising a wait and see attitude. The situation cannot afford Washington to sit on sidelines. They elected him and they need [sic] pressure him. He can't go unchecked. Same thing with UN. Mariano Fernandez [top UN military official at the time] needs to act more like ‘mulet’ [UN official who helped oust Célestin] than the quiet peaceful guy he is."

            Graham, having been in close communication with Mills and other high-level State Department staff, as well as Bill Clinton, who, as the e-mails clearly indicate, was kept well informed, was certainly in a position to know just how influential the U.S. intervention in the 2010 election was. “They elected him,” is as clear as it gets, though given previous e-mails, perhaps it would have been more accurate to say “We elected him.” But it’s clear that forcing her colleague Conille to resign had pushed Graham.

            “MM [Martelly] wants GC [Conille] to leave the country,” she began another email later that same evening. Conille’s “life has and continues to be threatened by people associated with” Martelly, Graham added, and that Martelly “said himself he will do all it takes to take” Conille down. Once again, Graham questioned Merten’s stance regarding Martelly: "The U.S. – Cheryl [Mills] - promised him American backed security immediately but when he met with Merten yesterday Merten was not only in the mind frame of 'well MM is not such a bad guy and he's better than previous presidents' but he didn't discuss or offer any security. Every day, GC life and reputation are at risk. The U.S. and or the IC must go to MM and tell him that nothing is to happen to GC, not even a tree accidentally falling on him, or MM will face consequences."

            A few minutes later Graham writes again, warning of Martelly’s efforts to form armed militias throughout the country: "I now have seen the actual intel from MINUSTAH [UN military force] and the evidence of the armed militia training throughout the country including evidence that the palace is funding and supporting it. I'm meeting with Mariano Fernandez tomorrow but GC shared with me this intel last night and its obvious from the documents and the pictures what is going on here."

            “The evidence is clear as day and they have already begun parading in the streets with guns and chanting in carrefour (less than 1 hour from PaP [Port-au-Prince]) and other areas of the country,” Graham adds.

            Finally, an hour later, Graham sends the last e-mail after viewing Conille’s preliminary audit, which “details the amount of corruption and the arrogance in they [sic] way they did it.” Graham continues: "It is the contracts that MM is saying he will come after GC with everything he's got to prevent the real details (presumably including his take) from coming out."

            The next day, Oscar Flores, a long-time Clinton aide, forwards all of the messages to Mills and Hillary Clinton. “Pls print,” Clinton responds.

            But despite Graham’s concerns and the apparent evidence of corruption and armed militias, the U.S. continued to stand by the Martelly administration. His term ended in February 2016, and Graham’s e-mail on Martelly’s lack of democratic credentials now reads especially prescient. After no elections were held during his first four years in office, Martelly began ruling by decree in January 2015. Presidential elections, held last fall, were so marred by fraud and irregularities that they were entirely scrapped (unlike the controversial elections in 2010), leaving Haiti without a democratically elected president. Once again, the U.S. argued for accepting the flawed elections and moving forward with a second round, this time between Martelly’s hand-picked successor and an old friend from 2010, Jude Célestin. But this time, the U.S. didn’t get their way ― entirely new elections are scheduled for this October.

 

The original version of this article was published on the Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Watch blog of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).

7th International Day in Solidarity with Haiti

25^th anniversary of the US-backed military coup that overthrew the Lavalas government of President Aristide on Sept. 30, 1991

In response to the Jan. 2016 Call for Solidarity from Haiti’s Popular Movement (“We will not obey”), friends of Haiti are organizing Sept. 30^th public events in many cities. For example, in Oakland we’re having a street demonstration with music/drums on Fri. 9/30, 4:30 PM at 14^th & Broadway, and a public event on Sun. 10/2, 3:00 PM at Eastside Arts, 2277 Internat’l Blvd, with the theme: “US Hands Off Haiti!” Other cities are taking up the call.

Join us in raising these just demands of the Haitian people:

1) Free and fair elections! [Scheduled for October 9, 2016.]

2) No US, UN or OAS interference in the elections! [They were involved in the fraud last time!] Respect Haiti’s sovereignty! 

3) Stop the terror campaign against the poor majority and the Lavalas popular movement! End the brutal US/UN foreign military occupation!

4) Rebuilding Haiti the way the Haitian 99% want it built – Paying a living wage in the factories instead of sweatshop wages … Restoring farming self-sufficiency so Haiti can feed itself again … Real Haitian control of mineral resources and aid funds … Jobs, schools, housing, clean water and health care for the people! … In short, the program of Aristide’s Lavalas movement and its Presidential candidate, Dr. Maryse Narcisse. 

As Appeals Court Upholds “Immunity” Plea:

New Internal Report Slams UN Cholera Cover-Up

by Kim Ives (Haiti Liberte)

UN officials are frantically fending off questions about their organization being to blame for importing cholera into Haiti following the leak last week of an internal Special Rapporteur draft report which slams their “existing approach of simply abdicating responsibility [as] morally unconscionable, legally indefensible, and politically self-defeating.”

            On Aug. 18, the day after freelance reporter Jonathan Katz (the AP’s former Haiti correspondent) leaked excerpts of New York University law professor Philip Alston’s draft report in the New York Times, a New York State Appeals court upheld a lower court decision granting the UN “immunity” from a class-action suit being brought on behalf of Haitian cholera victims. (Alston’s full report was published in the New York Times Magazine on Aug. 20).

            UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq stated that the UN “needs to do much more regarding own involvement in the initial outbreak," stopping short of admitting responsibility or specifying what exactly “much more” is.

            On Aug. 19, Mr. Ban issued a statement saying he “deeply regrets the terrible suffering” the cholera epidemic has caused Haitians and assumed “a moral responsibility to the victims” by “building sound water, sanitation and health systems.”

UN Admits Role in Haiti's Cholera Outbreak After Years of Denial

KIM BROWN, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News.

As Haiti was struggling to rebuild after the devastating earthquake that crumbled the country in 2010, they were struck again by another disaster, a cholera outbreak that ended up killing about 10,000 people and sickened hundreds of thousands. Many Haitians immediately pointed the finger at United Nations troops for causing the outbreak, claims that the UN long denied until now. A spokesperson for UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon said in a statement to the New York Times that “The UN has become convinced that it needs to do much more regarding its involvement in the initial outbreak and the suffering of those affected by cholera.

We’re joined today with Brian Concannon. He’s the executive director at the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He’s also an attorney representing some of the families of the victims of the cholera outbreak. Brian thank you so much for joining us.

Finding Only 9% of Votes Valid: Haiti Verification Commission Says Presidential Election Should be Scrapped

by Kim Ives (Haiti Liberte)

The moment of truth had arrived. At least, some of the truth.

            On the evening of May 30, Haiti’s Independent Commission of Electoral Evaluation and Verification (CIEVE) released its long-awaited report on the controversial Washington-supported elections of Aug. 9 and Oct. 25, 2015.

            The bombshell report found that “the electoral process was marred by serious irregularities, grave inconsistencies, and massive fraud.” Only 9% of the votes in its sampling were found to be valid.

            The five-member CIEVE, which reviewed 3,235 voter tallies (procès verbal) or 25% of the 12,939 total, recommended that October’s presidential first-round “restart from zero.”

            “The number of untraceable votes [also called zombie votes] exceeded the legitimate votes acquired by politicians,” said CIEVE president François Benoit. As another CIEVE employee summed it up: “More dead people voted than living.”

Polyarchy in the Dominican Republic: The Elite versus the Elite

The two leading candidates in the upcoming Dominican Republic presidential elections differ little when it comes to economic policy and the targeting of migrant and migrant-descendant communities.

By: Jeb Sprague-Silgado - NACLA 

In the Dominican Republic, as in many other countries around the Caribbean, the political strategy of leading dominant groups in recent decades has been one of polyarchy – that is to say, the options in democratic elections have been limited to voters selecting between different factions of elites. Since the 1970s, U.S. foreign policymakers, along with an increasingly wide array of UN, EU and other international agency officials have come to promote this approach. If ideological differences can be minimized, with parties differing little on core issues like economic development, then electoral competition is not only unthreatening to dominant interests, but also legitimating to notions of democracy.

This scenario is on clear display in the Dominican Republic, where the country’s mainstream political establishment, while squabbling amongst themselves, has sought to further facilitate and benefit from this “new normal.” The upcoming May 15th general election pits the country’s two mainstream parties, the Dominican Liberation Party (Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, PLD) and the Modern Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Moderno or PRM), amidst a variety of other parties. 

The incumbent candidate and leader in the polls is Danilo Medina, of the PLD, and his main opponent is Luis Abinader of the PRM. Medina’s tenure in office has been marked by a deepening of the country’s integration with the global economy and a controversial “denationalization” program targeting Haitian migrant families and laborers and the descendants of Haitian migrants.

As Demonstrators Demand Audits: Haiti Sees Sixth CEP in Four Years

by Yves Pierre-Louis and Kim Ives (Haiti Liberte)

After installing a new government led by Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles, Haiti’s interim president Jocelerme Privert has now passed a second hurdle: setting up another Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) on Mar. 30, 2016. This is the sixth CEP formed in the past four years.

            The new CEP has as its president Léopold Berlanger, formally the representative of the National Association of Haitian Media (ANMH) and the Association of Haiti’s Independent Media (AMIH). Berlanger is also the informal representative of Haiti’s bourgeoisie and the so-called “Core Group,” the ambassadors who follow U.S. leadership in Haiti.

            The CEP’s vice-president is lawyer Carlos Hercule, who represents the Catholic Church of Cardinal Chibly Langlois and Bishop Patrice Aris.

Women Farmers and Land Grabs in Haiti: An interview with Iderle Brénus

From an interview by Beverly Bell

PAPDA, a coalition of nine Haitian organizations, supports rice cooperatives like this one in Northern Haiti as part of its commitment to women's leadership in local agricultural production against the backdrop of increasing land and resource grabs throughout the Caribbean nation. Image courtesy of Salena Tramel, for Grassroots International.

In Haiti, the majority of the people working the land are women. Not only are they there during planting, weeding and harvesting, but they also play a role in transforming and marketing food products. They’re involved in the entire agricultural production process. This is why we call women the poto mitan, central pillar, of the country.

When a family is dispossessed of its land, women are victims. Rural women are the first to feel the pain. Ways that land theft and expulsions are affecting them need to be put on the table so the impacted women can be made a priority. There needs to be social, educational, technical, and economic support, and a lot of community organizing. The world needs to see what women suffer under land grabs and the neoliberal policies behind them.

No Land Rights for Women

Our constitution very clearly says that those who work the land have the rights to the land, but this has never been the reality. Haiti’s poor continue to be victims of land expropriation for the profit of others, which give a tiny minority rights over the riches of this country.  

Today multinational corporations and other interests are taking cultivable land that used to produce food, and giving it to industries to make textile factories or other businesses that have nothing to do with food production - and in a country that is experiencing so much hunger. Those who are running the country profit, too. Elite landowners, who don’t even live in the country, own many thousands of hectares of land. The [Catholic] church, too is one of the institutions that owns a lot of land historically, and [rarely] does anything with it.

The problems around land ownership, occupation, and expropriation of land for the profit of multinational corporations - with the complicity of the government of Haiti - are especially grave for women. This isn’t anything new. These issues have always existed for peasant families, but it is taking on new dimensions. We see women – who already lacked access to and control of land, and who didn’t have control over production in economic terms – suffering even more.

Consequences of Land Grabs on Women

Even though a woman doesn’t hold the title to property - it’s rare to find one who has a title - she will work the land that her husband owns. She lives with, supports, and collaborates with the [husband or father’s] family to make sure that she and her children can eat, that her children can go to school, that she can pay for their health needs, for everything. All this is because in Haiti the population is mainly on its own; the state doesn’t provide any basic social services. The social services that had been there, even though they were minimal, have disappeared for the profit of neoliberal politics that have been applied in the country over the last 20 to 25 years.

Haiti Rises: A Time for Solidarity

by Nia Imara and Robert Roth*

“Reflecting on struggles everywhere, we came to the conclusion that a people can’t be sovereign if they don’t have the right to vote. No people can retain their dignity if their vote does not count.” 

From a Statement Issued by 68 Haitian Grassroots Organizations on January 22, 2016

The voice of Haiti’s popular movement at this critical period in the country’s history has never been clearer.  For the past several months, since the discredited legislative and presidential elections of last August and October, mass, vibrant protests for the right to a free and fair vote and against foreign intervention have been a relentless force, in the face of heavily-armed and well-financed adversaries and mounting repression.  The influx of articles and editorials in recent weeks by leading U.S. media outlets depicts the situation in Haiti as a confused, incomprehensible, morass of violence and dysfunction, with all sides being equally unreasonable in their demands.  This misleading portrayal of Haitian politics and culture—indeed, of Haitian people—by American mainstream media is not new. Rather, it is a continuation of a historical pattern of obfuscating the underlying reasons for the grievances of Haiti’s mass movement, which has consistently denounced foreign intervention and the suppression of Haiti’s sovereignty.  

The popular revolt in Haiti has forced the postponement of the January 24 presidential run-off election, to the dismay of the U.S. State Department and the current Haitian government of Michel Martelly, whose handpicked candidate had been declared the frontrunner.  And now, on February 7, it has forced the end of the rule of Martelly himself, who has had to step down rather than oversee the next stage of the electoral process.

These are major victories for the people’s movement in Haiti. But already there are signs that the next round will be just as difficult as the fight has been already.  The popular movement has made it clear that they have no interest in a top-down solution that excludes the participation and voices of the tens of thousands of Haitians who have risked their lives nearly every day in the fight for democracy.  They have raised the fundamental question: How can elections proceed to a second round if the first round was hopelessly illegitimate? How can elections move forward without a thorough investigation and repair of the fraud that already took place?  These are the critical issues being fought over today as Haitians celebrate the end of the Martelly dictatorship.

Background to the Revolt: 

Twelve Years Since the Coup, Twelve Years of Occupation

The revolt in Haiti has not emerged overnight. It is now almost twelve years since the U.S.-orchestrated coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and removed over 8,000 elected officials, and exiled, jailed, raped and murdered thousands of supporters of the Fanmi Lavalas Party.  The coup was enforced by a United Nations military occupation that still exists today.  It has been five years since Michel Martelly, a supporter of the brutal Duvalier dictatorships and their death squads, was selected as president; only 17% of eligible Haitian voters turned out in an election that excluded the most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas. Hillary Clinton, then the U.S. Secretary of State, flew to Haiti to dictate to Haitian officials that Martelly be placed in the election runoff after initial results had left him only in third place. His U.S.-backed reign has featured one corruption scandal after another, intimidation of the judicial system, the return of death squads, torture of political prisoners, selling off of oil and mineral rights to foreign corporations, and rule by decree.  

Haitians have had enough of this.  As they watched this latest election being stolen and a Martelly minion emerge as the leading vote getter, they took to the streets by the tens of thousands. As they saw ballot boxes burned and “observers” with 900,000 government-issued credentials vote over and over again, they declared the election an “electoral coup.” As they were turned away from one polling place after another, and told that they were not eligible to vote, they declared fraud.  

As Martelly Steps Down: Parliament, With OAS Coaches, Forms Provisional Government Denounced by Demonstrators and Opposition

by the Haiti Elections Blog

This Sun., Feb. 7 marked the 30th anniversary of Jean-Claude Duvalier’s departure and the end of President’s Michel Martelly’s term. A last-minute negotiated deal secured Martelly’s departure, but it may not succeed in producing a long-term solution. Tensions leading up to Feb. 7 provoked violent confrontations between pro-government paramilitaries and opposition protestors in Port-au-Prince, resulting in one dead, as well as the cancellation of the first day of Carnaval. And while foreign diplomats welcomed the accord, a number of opposition parties raised objections to the agreement.

            On Feb. 6, Martelly publicly signed a political accord with Chancy Cholzer and Jocelerme Privert, the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, respectively. The agreement confirmed that Martelly would leave office and laid out a process for establishing a transitional government to take over. As de facto Prime Minister Evans Paul stays on, the Parliament will supposedly select a new provisional president within five days following the end of Martelly’s term. The new president will then engage in consultations to appoint a consensus prime minister and “redynamize” the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP). Once a new government is in place, the accord stipulates, it is responsible for implementing the “technical recommendations” of the Evaluation Commission and “restarting” the electoral process begun in 2015. The interrupted elections are to resume on Apr. 24, definitive results to be announced on May 6, and a new President sworn in on May 14. [However, all of these dates would have to be established by the new CEP, the independent institution which governs all electoral matters. - HL]

Statement from Haiti's popular movement

In this statement, written right before the postponement of the January 24th presidential “run-off” election, 68 grassroots organizations in Haiti issue an urgent call for solidarity with their struggle for free and fair elections, dignity and justice.

The statement was written as tens of thousands of Haitians have taken to the streets—braving assassination, tear gas, beatings, and police torture—demanding the annulment of the fraudulent elections that gave the lead positions in the legislative and presidential races to the hand-picked candidates of President Michel Martelly.
The postponement of the presidential election was a dramatic and hard-won victory for the people’s movement, which had insisted that no election take place until it could be free and fair and democratic.
The struggle for the right to vote and for all Haitians to participate in the political process continues.
WE ArE hONOrEd TO cIrcULATE ThIs POWErfUL mEssAgE

Haiti Action Committee

A Call for Solidarity from Haiti’s Popular Movement

Reflecting on the voting rights struggle led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many other courageous fighters for justice fifty years ago in the US; on the one person one vote struggle led by Mandela’s comrades in South Africa; reflecting on struggles everywhere, we came to the conclusion that a people can’t be sovereign if they don’t have the right to vote. No people can retain their dignity if their vote does not count. As clearly stated by President Aristide: “If we don’t protect our dignity, our dignity will escape us!” That is why we struggle and ask that people the world over with a history of struggle stand in solidarity with us.

Six years after the earthquake that jolted the country, causing the death of hundreds of thousands of Haitians, we, Haitian organizations, in the context of reflection, take our hats off and humbly say to the people all over the planet who opened their hearts to us, “We have not forgotten your acts of solidarity”. The sharing impulse manifested by people the world over, should have helped the Haitian people to rebuild their environment, rebuild their lives. Pity! To this day, the people’s lot has not changed. Adding insult to injury, shameless characters, local slave owners, empowered by various international organizations, hijacked the reconstruction funds.

Right after the earthquake, the internationals took advantage of our momentary state of helplessness to occupy the political space. Today, the Haitian people are engaged in an all out struggle to reclaim that space and to exercise their right to vote. The very ones who hijacked the reconstruction money want to prevent the people from choosing their government, in a wide scale conspiracy to continue the looting of the country’s resources. Subsequent to many schemes designed to remove the people from the political equation, local colonialists joined forces with international colonialists to force the people to accept choices against their best interests. Illegitimate officials implemented urban removal plans and land grabs, assaulting both the middle-class, as well as the poorer classes, putting the country on the brink of collapse. The people’s resistance slowed down the “terror apparatus,” prevent- ing it from completing this program. Now they want to put more false officials at the helm of the government to continue their assault.

The blatant violence perpetrated in Ile-a-Vache, the hideous massacres perpetrated on the people of Arcahaie, the continuous massacre of the people of Cité Soleil because they manifest a will to vote, various acts of aggression perpetrated throughout the country, in the context of land-grab or voter suppression, convince the Haitian people that they are in a fight for their very existence. We say NO, WE WILL NOT OBEY ILLEGITIMATE OFFICIALS. Self-defense is a legitimate universal law. Civil-Disobedience is an accepted universal right when a people confronts an illegal regime. The right to elect a government is uni- versally accepted as a way for people to protect its existence. Today, confronted by the danger presented by local and international colo- nialists, the Haitian people have started a RESISTANCE FOR EXISTENCE movement. They ask for people to people solidarity from everywhere on the planet. The local and international colonialists plan is not an earthquake, yet it has caused far more damage to the country.

Our experience of the six years since the earthquake is no different than the experience of other small countries with natural and human resourc- es. The internationals loot, have an orgy, while the international media turns a blind eye to lies spread by “their” ambassadors in their country’s name. The Haitian army, now being rebuilt to oppress the people, is a gift to the Haitian people by the Organization of American States (OAS). The Cholera epidemic and the blood thirsty and corrupt Haitian Police, were United Nations (UN) gifts to the Haitian people. The Media is mute, as the country nears total collapse. We say NO, WE WILL NOT OBEY. We will not dig our own graves. We’d rather tell the truth and expose the conspiracy. n

List of Signers

Action Nationale des Chauffeurs (ANC)
Aide Humanitaire
Alternative Syndicale pour le Transport Moderne (ASTM)
APMS: Action des Paysans de Masson Sion
APTN: Association pour le Développement Terre Noire
Association Professionelle des Enseignants Haitiens pour l’Avancement de l’Education (APEAE)
APSAB: Association Planteur Savane Dubois Asosiyasyon Fanm Senlwidisid (AFS) Asosiyasyon Fanm Vanyan Okay (AFVO) Asosiyasyon Machann Aken (AMA) Asosiyasyon Peyizan Gwomaren (APG)
BPN (Baz Popile Nord)
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Aken
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Anike
CEGBD
CHANJE LESON
CURO: Comité Usager Rodaille
COSCOB
CRCSPFL (Cellule de Reflexions des Cadres Socio Professionnels de Fanmi Lavalas)
CUREH (Cercle Universitaire pour le Renouveau d’Haiti)
DEMELE FANM
G.R. (Gwoup Refleksyon)
FAJEP (Fanm an Aksyon pou Jistis ak Pwogre)
FANM LENTO

FANM WOZO
FASA
Groupe Alternative pour Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (GRAPME)
Gwoupman Plante Senlwidisid (GPS) JOFAP
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Kanperen
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Kavayon Kodinasyon Peyizan Sid (KPS)
KPDS (Konbit Planteur pou Devlopman Sanyago) KORE MAP KORE W
Le PHARE
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Maniche
MOFUP
MOJIDMA: Mouvement des Jeunes Intègres pour le Développement de Marigot
Mouvement d’Opposition Citoyenne (MOC) Mouvman Tet Kole Kavayon (MTKK)
OBMP
Oganizasyon Devlopman Solon (ODS) Oganizasyon Fanm Vanyan (OFAV) OGANIZASYON LEVE KANPE
OJFS
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Okay
Organisation 30 Septembre
OPG: Organisation Paysan de Grande Rivière Organisation Sans Bloff (OSB)

OPDPS: Òganizasyon Pou Devlopman Peyizan Sarazin
OPPB: Organisation Paysan Platon Blan
Plateforme Nationale des Syndicats de Transports Fidele (PNSTF)
POGRES (Oganizasyon Planteur pou Devlopman Sanyago)
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Port Salut
Pou Solèy Leve
Regroupement des Enseignants Normalien Haitien (RENOH)
RFDP (Rasanbleman Fanm pou Devlopman Petitans)
Rasanbleman Militan Pwogresis (RMP)
RASSINE (Rasanbleman Sitwayen NORD AK NORD EST)
SDDC (Societe d’Encadrement pour le Developpement Communautaire)
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Senlwidisid Solidarite Jenn Kavayon (SJK) SOPU- FANM pou FANM
S.O.S Transport Federee
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Tibiron
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Torbec
Union du Mouvement Syndical de Transport Public (UMSTP)
UJDSB:Union des Jeunes pour le Developpement Savane du Bois. 

“NOU PAP OBEYI”

Vwa oganizasyon anndan Ayiti 
Nan refleksyon n fè sou lit pou vòt Dr. Martin Luther King te fè ozetazini sa gen 50 lane; nan lit “one man one vote” kanmarad Mandela yo te mennen an Afrikdisid; nan refleksyon sou lit divès lòt pèp, nou wè pa gen pèp ki souvren si yo pa gen dwa vòt yo. Pa gen pèp ki gen diyite si vòt yo pa konte. Jan Prezidan Aristide di: “Sinoupasovediyiten,diyitenapsovekiten!”Sesakfènaplite e nou mande solidarite tout pèp ki konn lite pou dwa vòt yo.

Sis lane apre goudougoudou ki te sakaje peyi an, kote plizyè santèn milye Ayisyen mouri, noumenm, òganizasyon Ayisien, nan kad refleksyon
nou, n ap mete chapo n byen ba pou n di pèp toupatou sou planèt lan
ki te louvri kè yo ban nou, nou pa bilye zak solidarite yo. Elan pataj pèp tout kote te manifeste, te dwe ide pèp Ayisyen rekonstwi anvironman
yo, rekonstwi lavi yo. Domaj! Jouk jounen jodi a, kondisyon pèp lan pa chanje. Ki di plis, zago loray yo, kolon lokal yo, met tèt ansanm ak divès òganizasyon entènasyonal pou fè dappiyanp sou kòb rekonstriksyon an.
Entènasyonal lan pwofite moman Pèp lan dezanpare an pou l okipe espas politik lan. Jounen jodi a, se gwo batay pou pèp Ayisyen ka ekzèse dwa vòt li. Sila yo ki fè dappiyanp sou èd lan vle anpeche pèp lan chwazi moun li vle pou dirije peyi an, nan kad yon gwo konplo pou yo kontinye koupe rache resous peyi a. Apre divès magouy ki wete pèp lan nan ekwasyon politik lan, kolon lokal mete ak kolon entènasyonal pou foure yon remèd chwal nan gòjèt pèp lan. Fo reprezan ak dirijan, vini ak yon plan deposesyon ki agrese klas mwayèn ak sa k pi pòv
yo, jouk peyi an vanse depafini. Rezistans pèp lan ralanti avansman machin laterè a, anpeche l deposede popilasyon an nèt ale, sa ki fòse yo setoblije rapouswiv ak you lòt fo gouvèlman remèd chwal ankò.
Ekzanp maspinay gouvèlman an fè nan kad deposesyon ilavach, zak maspinay sou moun Akayè, zak maspinay ki pa janm sispan pou pini moun Site Solèy pase yo vle vote, divès zak maspinay ki fèt toupatou nan peyi an nan kad vòlò tè oubyen vòlò vòt, pèp Ayisyen sèten li nan yon lit inevitab pou ekzistans li. Nou di NON, NOU PAP OBEYI FO DIRIJAN. Dwa lejitim defans, se dwa tout moun genyen pou pwoteje tèt yo. Dwa reziste lòd ilegal, se dwa tout pèp genyen pou pwoteje
tèt li. Dwa chazi dirijan l, se dwa tout pèp genyen pou pwoteje tèt li. Jounen jodi a, anfas danje kolon lokal ak kolon entènasyonal yo, pèp Ayisyen antame yon REZISTANS POU EKZISTANS. Yo mande solidar- ite tout pèp sou la tè. Plan malfektè kolon lokal ak kolon blan yo se pa goudougoudou, men l kraze peyi an pi mal pase goudougoudou.
Eksperyans n ap fè depi si zan goudougoudou an pa diferan ak sa pèp ti peyi ki gen resous fè. Entènasyonal ap piye, ap banbile, pandan medya yo fèmen je yo, sou manti anbasadè ap fè sou non pèp. Lame k pare pou kraze zo pèp lan, se òganizasyon eta Ameriken ki bannou l. Kolera ak lapolis sanginè kowonpi an, se loni k bannou l. Medya bèbè, pan- dan peyi a ap depafini. Nou di NON, NOU PAP OBEYI. Nou pap fouye pwòp twou tonb nou. N ap di laverite, met kaka chat lan deyò. 

Oganizasyon ki siyen mesaj sa a

Action Nationale des Chauffeurs (ANC)
Aide Humanitaire
Alternative Syndicale pour le Transport Moderne (ASTM)
APMS: Action des Paysans de Masson Sion
APTN: Association pour le Développement Terre Noire
Association Professionelle des Enseignants Haitiens pour l’Avancement de l’Education (APEAE)
APSAB: Association Planteur Savane Dubois Asosiyasyon Fanm Senlwidisid (AFS) Asosiyasyon Fanm Vanyan Okay (AFVO) Asosiyasyon Machann Aken (AMA) Asosiyasyon Peyizan Gwomaren (APG)
BPN (Baz Popile Nord)
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Aken
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Anike
CEGBD
CHANJE LESON
CURO: Comité Usager Rodaille
COSCOB
CRCSPFL (Cellule de Reflexions des Cadres Socio Professionnels de Fanmi Lavalas)
CUREH (Cercle Universitaire pour le Renouveau d’Haiti)
DEMELE FANM
G.R. (Gwoup Refleksyon)
FAJEP (Fanm an Aksyon pou Jistis ak Pwogre)
FANM LENTO

FANM WOZO
FASA
Groupe Alternative pour Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (GRAPME)
Gwoupman Plante Senlwidisid (GPS) JOFAP
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Kanperen
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Kavayon Kodinasyon Peyizan Sid (KPS)
KPDS (Konbit Planteur pou Devlopman Sanyago) KORE MAP KORE W
Le PHARE
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Maniche
MOFUP
MOJIDMA: Mouvement des Jeunes Intègres pour le Développement de Marigot
Mouvement d’Opposition Citoyenne (MOC) Mouvman Tet Kole Kavayon (MTKK)
OBMP
Oganizasyon Devlopman Solon (ODS) Oganizasyon Fanm Vanyan (OFAV) OGANIZASYON LEVE KANPE
OJFS
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Okay
Organisation 30 Septembre
OPG: Organisation Paysan de Grande Rivière Organisation Sans Bloff (OSB)

OPDPS: Òganizasyon Pou Devlopman Peyizan Sarazin
OPPB: Organisation Paysan Platon Blan
Plateforme Nationale des Syndicats de Transports Fidele (PNSTF)
POGRES (Oganizasyon Planteur pou Devlopman Sanyago)
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Port Salut
Pou Solèy Leve
Regroupement des Enseignants Normalien Haitien (RENOH)
RFDP (Rasanbleman Fanm pou Devlopman Petitans)
Rasanbleman Militan Pwogresis (RMP)
RASSINE (Rasanbleman Sitwayen NORD AK NORD EST)
SDDC (Societe d’Encadrement pour le Developpement Communautaire)
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Senlwidisid Solidarite Jenn Kavayon (SJK) SOPU- FANM pou FANM
S.O.S Transport Federee
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Tibiron
Baz Fanmi Lavalas Torbec
Union du Mouvement Syndical de Transport Public (UMSTP)
UJDSB:Union des Jeunes pour le Developpement Savane du Bois. 

FANMI LAVALAS STATEMENT ABOUT JANUARY 19 POLICE TORTURE OF YOUNG PROTESTERS

Fanmi Lavalas Statement on Police Atrocities - English translation
Port-au-Prince, 20 January 2016

The word DIGNITY is written in large letters in the everyday vocabulary of the Fanmi LavalasPolitical Organization. Respect for human dignity is one of the guiding lights of Lavalas, and when dignity is under assault we cannot remain silent.

During the day on 19 January, in a national police station in Port-au-Prince, officers whose motto is “Protect and Serve” were allowed to commit odious acts on young people who had been arbitrarily arrested during demonstrations earlier that day demanding that their votes be respected.

Images from a video that has been circulating both in Haiti and overseas, show young men tied up and defenseless, being abused and mistreated by officers of a well-identified police unit. These shocking images show abuse and degrading acts being inflicted by the police on our young compatriots.

The right to humane treatment is an absolute and fundamental right that does not permit any infringement. Neither the law nor the authorities can abridge or limit this right in any way. Moreover, Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is incorporated into the Constitution of 1987, states as follows: No one will be subjected to torture, nor treatment or punishment that is cruel, inhumane or degrading.

Fanmi Lavalas forcefully condemns the repressive and inhuman comportment of these police officers and demands that the guilty ones be identified, brought to justice and punished.

Fanmi Lavalas invites human rights organizations to render assistance to these young people who have been assaulted in their flesh but especially in their dignity.

Fanmi Lavalas, while supporting the demands of these young people and of the population as a whole against this electoral coup d’etat being perpetrated by the “Tet Kale” (Skinhead) authorities, empathize with the suffering of these young people and extend to them our deepest sympathies.

LINK TO VIDEO HERE - GRAPHIC CONTENT

LINK TO FLASHPOINTS REPORT ON INCIDENT WITH DENNIS BERNSTEIN AND KEVIN PINA HERE.

When Bernie Met Titid

Haiti’s Fraudulent Presidential Frontrunner, Jovel Moïse Seizes Land for His Own Banana Republic

By Joshua Steckley and Beverly Bell

This report is based on extensive interviews, on-site and via phone, with more than 20 government officials, economic development professionals, peasant farmers, and community organizers, between July 2015 and January 2016. We reached out to Agritrans for comment, but they did not respond.

The frontrunner in Haiti’s rigged election grabbed land from peasant farmers to grow bananas for export. Photo: Joshua Steckley.

The only man running in Haiti’s fraudulent presidential election run-offs on January 24, 2016, Jovenel Moïse, dispossessed as many as 800 peasants – who were legally farming – and destroyed houses and crops two years ago, say leaders of farmers’ associations in the Trou-du-Nord area. Farmers remain homeless and out of work. The land grabbed by the company Moïse founded, Agritrans, now hosts a private banana plantation.

#ESSAY, Haiti and the UN’s Endless Peacekeeping Mission: Is UN a Curse for Haiti’s Democracy?

BY WADNER PIERRE

Introduction

Three presidential elections have been organized under the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission watch; all of them had been either marred with irregularities or massive frauds. In 2006, Haitian people had to gain the streets for several weeks to abort an electoral coup pre-engineered by United States-backed de facto government Gerard Latorture. In 2010, right after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake ravaged the country’s western part, Haiti’s then President Rene Preval was forced to abide by a U.S.-backed Organization of American States’ electoral commission result asking him to remove his handpicked candidate Jude Celestin to replace him with U.S.-preferred candidate, Michelle Joseph Martelly.

In 2010, Haitians reject CEP’s contentious and tainted preliminary results for the presidential elections. Nearly two months since Haiti’s Conseil Electoral Provisoire (Electoral Provisional Council), know as the CEP, announced the final results for the first round presidential elections, second round legislative and local elections that plagued with massive frauds. The controversial results for the presidential elections placed Haiti’s ruling Party candidate, Jovel Moïse at the first place with over 34 percent of the popular and the former 2010 presidential candidate Jude Celestin in second place. Since then protest against those tainted results have been widened throughout the country. The question one may ask is, is UN a curse for Haiti’s democracy?

“The Struggle for Land Justice Knows No Borders”: Corporate Pillaging in Haiti

An interview with Nixon Boumba, Democratic Popular Movement (MODEP) and American Jewish World Service

Edited by Natalie Miller, Other Worlds

Since the earthquake of January, 2010, Haiti has increasingly become a target of extraction and private business development by Haitian and foreign investors. Income and trade – if the wages are livable and the trade is fair – would, of course, be helpful for the poverty statistics-topping nation. This would be especially important for the majority of the population who survive on agriculture. However, much of the new business is being planned or executed on lands those farmers’ families have lived on since they were enslaved, leaving them landless and without livelihood.

This article debuts a new series, “Land Rights and Food Sovereignty in Haiti,” to run every other week. The series will feature interviews with those directly impacted, investigation by scholars and other experts, and analysis from Haitian activists. The pieces will examine the problems; the role of the US and UN; and solutions, spotlighting food sovereignty.

Members of a peasant organization heading to community meeting to discuss their rights. Photo: Roberto (Bear) Guerra.

The January 2010 earthquake provided a perfect opportunity for many to come and do business in Haiti. Even prior to the earthquake, Bill Clinton led the discussion on developing Haiti through corporate investment. President Martelly turned that approach into a credo: “Haiti is open for business.”