[CORBETTLIST] 43691: Haiti Liberte's This Week in Haiti 8:22 12/10/2014 MARTELLY GOV'T TOTTERS ON EVE OF KERRY VISIT
- From: "John Rigdon" <jrigdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: corbettlist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 16:58:37 -0600
Subject: Haiti Liberte's This Week in Haiti 8:22 12/10/2014 MARTELLY
GOV'T TOTTERS ON EVE OF KERRY VISIT
From: "Kim Ives" <kives@xxxxxxxxx>
"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI LIBERTE newsweekly. For
the complete edition with other news in French and Creole, please contact
the paper at (tel) 718-421-0162, (fax) 718-421-3471 or e-mail at
editor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Also visit our website at
<http://www.haitiliberte.com>.
HAITI LIBERTE
"Justice. Verite. Independance."
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
December 10-16, 2014
Vol. 8, No. 22
AS PM'S REMOVAL IS PROPOSED:
MARTELLY'S GOVERNMENT TOTTERS ON EVE OF KERRY VISIT
by Kim Ives
Haiti's political crisis deepened on Tue., Dec. 9 as an 11-member
presidential "advisory commission" proposed that Prime Minister
Laurent Lamothe step down, a recommendation which will swell the ranks
of thousands of demonstrators nationwide calling for President Michel
Martelly's resignation. The capital's next major demonstration,
planned for Dec. 12 when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits
Haiti, is expected to be massive.
The advisory commission's 10-page report also recommended the sacking
of Martelly-pawn Anel Alexis Joseph, who heads the Supreme Court and
the Superior Council of the Judiciary Power (CSPJ), the resignation of
the Electoral Council, and the release of all political prisoners.
"The country is facing an economic and structural crisis," says the
report, according to the Miami Herald. "To avoid a worsening of the
current situation, 'the most credible solution to the crisis' should
allow a return, in a reasonable time, to constitutional normalcy and
well-functioning institutions."
"This is a rescue operation by the international community aimed at
saving the mandate of President Martelly while Martelly is primarily
responsible for the crisis," said outspoken lawyer Andre Michel, a
leader of the Patriotic Movement of the Democratic Opposition (MOPOD),
the Miami Herald reported.
In its eight days of existence, the advisory commission had some
clashes. On Sun., Dec. 7, former Sen. Gabriel Fortun?, who was
expelled from the anti-Martelly Dessalines Children platform for
taking part in the commission, made headlines when he said that
commission coordinator Reginald Boulos refused to allow investigation
into the unaccounted funds of the National Education Fund (opaquely
filled with and emptied of millions of dollars in illegal taxes of
$1.50 on every international money transfer and 5 cents on every
minute of Haiti's overseas phone calls over the past three years) and
the PetroCaribe account (which receives about 40% of the revenues from
Haiti's Venezuelan oil sales). Fortun? also said he would not sign the
report unless all 10 prominent political prisoners were immediately
released.
To the surprise of many, all the commissioners signed the report on
the evening of Mon., Dec. 8 at the Ritz Kinam Hotel in P?tionville
following a meeting with Senate President Simon Desras Dieuseul and
President Martelly. The commission then handed the report to Martelly
in an official ceremony at the National Palace on Dec. 9.
In the run-up to Kerry's much-anticipated visit, U.S. Ambassador to
Haiti Pamela White reiterated Washington's support for Martelly. "We
believe he was elected for a certain period of time," she told Le
Nouvelliste in an interview. "He must stay until his mandate ends" on
May 14, 2016.
But the tens of thousands expected to march on Dec. 12 disagree and
are calling for Martelly's immediate resignation, as they have in many
demonstrations, each larger than the last, over the past two months.
Asked by Le Nouvelliste about Lamothe, White responded that "it is not
at all the decision of the United States if the Prime Minister stays
or goes." But she added that she felt he "has done many good things
for the country."
Lamothe is expected to run for President of Haiti at the end of 2015.
On Dec. 5 and 6, Port-au-Prince saw giant marches calling for both
Martelly and Lamothe to step down. Demonstrators hurled epithets in
front of the French and Canadian embassies, as they had on Nov. 29 in
front of the U.S.'s, and held up pictures of Russian President
Vladimir Putin as a way to express their rejection of U.S. and French
imperialist meddling in Haiti.
On Dec. 6, thousands also marched for Martelly's resignation in Cap
Ha?tien, Haiti's second largest city, and in the southern city of Aux
Cayes, where protestors were also marking the 85th anniversary of the
1929 massacre by U.S. Marines of a dozen demonstrating Haitian
peasants in Marche-?-Terre during the first U.S. military occupation
of Haiti (1915-1924).
From Dec. 3-5, 11 of Haiti's remaining 20 senators, most of them
pro-Martelly, held a desperate conclave at the fancy Club Indigo
resort in Montrouis near St. Marc to "find a way to save state
institutions" and to "avoid disruption, dislocation, and chaos." Their
final pathetic resolution called on President Martelly to "urgently
convoke all the major powers of the State to take all necessary
measures to safeguard the Nation-State of Haiti," and all that before
Christmas. Needless to say, the six senators who have opposed
Martelly's efforts to ram through a rigged electoral law and electoral
council did not sign the final document.
Martelly plans to begin ruling by decree on Jan. 12, 2015 if no
agreement is reached and Parliament is allowed to expire. But
demonstrators want Martelly to step down and to have a provisional
government set up a new electoral council that will hold elections now
delayed for over three years. It is a high-stakes game of chicken into
the middle of which Kerry will be stepping.
"We are definitely witnessing the final days of the regime," said Sen.
Mo?se Jean-Charles, who has been at the forefront of the anti-Martelly
protests. "We do not expect to celebrate Haiti's independence on New
Years 2015 with Martelly still in power. We are not going to negotiate
now with Martelly. We simply want Martelly and Lamothe to go."
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