Thousands march in Haiti to say ‘No to dictatorship’ as peaceful protest turned violent
MIAMI HERALD, February 14, 2021 08:12 PM
Demonstrators march in Port-au-Prince on February 14, 2021, to protest against the government of President Jovenel Moise. - Several thousand people demonstrated on February 14, 2021 to denounce a new dictatorship in Haiti and the international community’s support for President Jovenel Moise. The protesters were accusing Moise of illegally extending his term. He says it lasts until February 2022 -- but the opposition argues it should have ended last weekend, in a standoff over disputed elections.
A peaceful march to protest against the reinstatement of a dictatorship in Haiti and demand the ouster of President Jovenel Moïse ended in violence Sunday with at least one dead, several journalists injured and police firing tear gas and rubber bullets onto crowds in the country’s capital.
Billows of black smoke from burning vehicle and tires, used to barricade streets, were observed in the hills above Port-au-Prince, in the latest clashes marking Haiti’s political crisis over the disputed term of Moïse. Protesters have accused the leader of illegally remaining in office because his term, according to the constitution, ended Feb. 7. Moïse disagrees and said he still has until February 2022. The U.S., United Nations and the Organization of American States’ secretary general support his claim.
In Port-au-Prince, the demonstration began shortly after 11 a.m. at Constitutional Place near the National Palace, and initially moved peacefully through the capital. But three hours later, protesters were forced to seek cover in nearby businesses and street corridors to avoid the toxic fumes of police tear gas and rubber bullets as they tried to deliver their message in front of the office of the U.N. and OAS.
Local radio journalists on the scene reported in some instances, police were unprovoked when they opened fire, and in other instances, they were responding to rock-throwing militants. At least two journalists were injured after being hit with rubber bullets, Radio Zenith said.
The radio’s hosts also reported the death of an unidentified individual in the Delmas 95 neighborhood after his corpse was set on fire with a motorcycle on top by unidentified individuals.
“None of it was necessary,” said Gédéon Jean, a human rights activist who was among the organizers of the protest. “There were a lot, a lot of people who took to the streets.”
The protest is part of an ongoing standoff between Moïse and his detractors who say his use of executive powers is igniting fears that he wants to return Haiti to a dictatorship. Moïse has been ruling by decree for more than a year after dismissing most of Parliament in January of last year and all of the country’s elected mayors. He has also issued a slew of decrees strengthening the power of his presidency.
Last weekend, after the opposition failed to get him to step down, Moïse announced the arrest of 23 people including a Supreme Court judge in an alleged coup and assassination plot. The arrests, followed by several other worrying moves that experts say are unconstitutional, led to thousands of Haitians taking to the streets Sunday in Port-au-Prince and other cities.
Jean, who put the crowd in the tens of thousands, said everyone could see that people came out “ to the streets to say they do not agree with the dictatorship that Jovenel has put in place in the country; to say the country’s constitution needs to be respected and to tell the international community, they do not agree with them supporting Jovenel Moïse.”
This is why, he said, the protest’s route included stops in front of the OAS’s office in Pétion-Ville and the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti in nearby Juvenat.
Jean, who traveled by motorcycle to meet protesters at the head of the march, to show them where to turn, said trouble started brewing early. Three Nissan Patrol vehicles with heavily armed police officers were planted inside the crowd and followed protesters as they moved throughout the capital, he said.
“No matter what they did, the population refused to be provoked, they didn’t throw rocks at them,” said Jean, 41.
Once marchers arrived in Pétion-Ville, however, events turned. After meeting an initial group in front of the building where the OAS’ office is located, Jean said he headed back down Canape Vert to go greet protesters as they turn the demonstration around to come meet him in front of the the offices of the U.N. mission, which is known by its French acronym BINUH.
“There were a lot of police cars there, and a water truck,” Jean said. Soon, he was joined by the Nissan Patrols, which, he said, began firing tear gas and shots. “I had two people with me who grabbed me and ran with me,” he said.
“It was a march where you had tens of thousands of people who responded to the call to say, ‘We are not interested in a dictatorship,’ to denounce BINUH and the OAS, which are supporting Jovenel Moise,” Jean said. “They put a Nissan Patrol and [another vehicle] in the crowd.”
Further up the hill in Pétion-Ville, police also were firing tear gas, this time at the crowds near the OAS office.
Sunday’s protest was billed as a peaceful demonstration for democracy by civil society and opposition groups, and everyday Haitians as well as notable personalities in the field of human rights and journalism.
They decided to come out, they said, to denounce what they consider to be worrying signs that Moïse wants to reinstate a dictatorship in Haiti 35 years after the country ousted its last dictator, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier and ended he and his father’s nearly 30 year reign of terror that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, and caused many more to flee.
Moïse, who came into office in 2017 after a process marked by fraud and violent unrest, has said he is not a dictator. While his detractors protested his autocratic tendencies Sunday and demanded his ouster, he was attending the country’s National Carnival in Port-de-Paix, a city in the northwest.
Nenel Cassy, a former senator whose detention by police at an opposition protest last month triggered street protests, said Haitians have to take their destiny in their hands.
“This battle demands determination, it demands engagement,” he said soon after the march began.
Draped in the Haitian flag, and waving miniature versions of it as they protested, the mostly mask-less crowd began in a festive mood. As they walked through the capital, they sang “Send Jovenel away” and beat drums. To make their point, some wore red T-shirts with the phrase, “Esklav Revolte” in Creole or “Revolting Slave.” Others, had on white T-shirts saying “Respect 134-2,” the article in the constitution that they say dictates that Moise’s constitutional term legally ended on Feb. 7.
“I grew up in the Duvalier dictatorship and with a lot of other young people, I was a victim,” Liliane Pierre-Paul, a renown journalist said, moments before mayhem broke out in Pétion-Ville. “We don’t want for a dictatorship to come back again.”
Minutes later, as the crowd was forcibly dispersed, she was forced to seek cover inside a barber shop after police began firing tear gas and bullets near Rebecca Street, not far from the OAS.
Haitian President Moïse’s time is up. U.S., other democracies must make that clear | Opinion
By Marleine Bastien and Ira Kurzban
February 05, 2021 04:21 PM
The Biden administration understandably is focused on its domestic challenges, but it cannot ignore the looming crisis in Haiti any longer. President Jovenel Moïse’s term, fed by spectacular corruption, mismanagement and repression is scheduled to come to a legal end on Sunday. Few believe he will leave as, in Trumpian fashion, he seeks to remain in power, notwithstanding the Haitian Constitution, the electoral law or the will of the Haitian people.
Moïse became president in 2017 through elections that were so deeply flawed and violent that almost 80 percent of Haitian voters did not, or could not, vote. He has avoided having any more elections, so Parliament became inoperative in January 2020, when most legislators’ terms expired. When mayors’ terms expired in July, Moïse personally appointed their replacements.
In the meantime, life in Haiti has become increasingly bleak. Almost every day brings kidnappings or killings. The most notorious are the brutal kidnapping and murder of high school student Evelyne Sincere in October and the assassination of Bar Association president Monferrier Dorval in August.
The Moïse administration’s signature initiative is corruption. Early in his term, Moïse passed a budget law that diverted much of the state budget away from ministries to special administration and parliamentary accounts that lacked any accountability mechanisms. Government services — already crushingly limited — predictably have decreased as the money was siphoned off.
Government’s corruption has driven the economy into the ground: Inflation has been well into double digits for most of Moïse’s administration, the currency is devalued and jobs are scarcer than ever. More than one-third of the country needs emergency food assistance, even though there has not been a major natural disaster.
When Haitians complain about this state of events, they are brutalized. Police attacked adults and schoolchildren peacefully protesting kidnappings with tear gas and beatings on Jan. 17, 19 and 21. Sometimes, they are shot in the head with very limited chance of survival just for exercising their constitutional right of free speech. The government and allied gangs have organized a series of massacres in poor neighborhoods known to host anti-government organizing, killing dozens at a time.
Throughout Moïse’s term, he has been able to count on the Trump administration to send financial support, downplay the malfeasance and even pressure the opposition into compliance. But in December, the Trump administration seemed to signal that it had had enough, when the Treasury Department issued sanctions against two former Moïse officials and a former police officer for their involvement in the November 2018 La Saline massacre.
Most legal and electoral experts in Haiti — including the national federation of bar associations—have confidently concluded that Moïse’s term ends Sunday, Feb. 7, based on the language of the Constitution, electoral law and Moïse’s own precedence when he proclaimed that legislators’ and mayors’ terms ended last year. The legal experts are joined by a broad range of Haitian civil society, from the Catholic bishops to Protestant churches to unions and tens of thousands of people taking to the streets to protest. If President Moïse is still in office on Monday, larger and more inclusive protests will multiply, and the Biden administration will soon have a full-blown political crisis on its hands.
There is a large consensus that the Moïse administration can no longer govern the country credibly. His time has legally expired, and he must be removed. It is important that decision-makers in the United States, at the executive, legislative and local levels, send a strong signal and take appropriate action to support constitutional government in Haiti.
The Haitian people who are fighting in the streets, amid a brutal repression reminiscent of the Duvalier era, need our support. There needs to be a credible transition in Haiti to end the violent turn toward a dictatorship, and the Haitian people, with the assistance of the OAS and the United States, should play a forceful role in maintaining constitutional government.
Any democratic solution must recognize that all socioeconomic groups in Haiti and, particularly, local democratic organizations must have a seat at the table to ensure a peaceful transition of power.
Marleine Bastien is executive director the Family Action Network Movement (FANM). Ira Kurzban is a Miami-based immigration attorney.
US EMBASSY NOTE
We have seen an Executive Order issued late February 8 removing three Supreme Court judges. We are deeply concerned about any actions that risk damaging Haiti’s democratic institutions. The Executive Order is now being widely scrutinized to determine whether it conforms to Haiti’s Constitution and laws. In the meantime, all political actors should focus on restoring to the Haitian people the right to choose their lawmakers by organizing overdue legislative elections as soon as technically feasible and presidential elections soon after.
By | 9 February, 2021 | Topics: Press Releases
From Initiative Committee of Community Organizations of Florida
To President Joseph Biden
President of the United States of America
White House, Washington, D.C.
Subject RESTORATION OF DEMOCRACY IN HAITI
Date February 10, 2021
Dear President Biden:
We, Committee of Initiative Organizations of Florida, congratulate you on your oath in office on January 20, 2021. Your oath marks a new era for democracy not only for the United States of America, but also for the world. Your presence in the White House brings hope, happiness, and confidence for citizens all over the globe especially for people in Haiti because of your interest to promote ethical and moral values in the world arena.
As a lawyer, a 36-year lawmaker, 8-year Vice President, and actual President of the United States of America, no one can be a best asset than you to defend the respect of principles and moral values. The Haitian community has worked very hard to propel your dream and Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House. More than 93 percent of Haitian electors voted for your ticket because of our hard work and the hard work of our children. During your visit in Miami, Florida, we had a meeting where we promised to help each other. We got it done not only because we believed you could restore democracy in the United States, but also because we knew you will help us do the same in our country, Haiti.
Our brothers and sisters in Haiti are trapped in a politico-economic dilemma for a very long time. Their situation in general has worsened in the last decade with the arrival of the actual team in power. Corruption, abuse of power of all kinds, injustice, economic hardship, the proliferation of armed gangs sponsored by the current president etc... have become the norms in Haiti. The government and its allies have imposed a regime of terror and corruption to keep people in poverty and fear. When Haitians take to the streets to express their anger peacefully, armed gangs and the Haitian National Police disperse them with tear gas. Human right organizations in Haiti like NCHR, JEKLERE among others, United Nations, State Department of the former Administration are aware of the brutality of the gang members under the supervision of homeland security department officials of president Jovenel Moise.
On February 7, 2021, the Moise administration’s term ended according to Article 134-2 of the Haitian constitution. Religious institutions, civic groups, human rights groups have concurred including the Supreme Court of Haiti which held that the Moise administration term ended on February 7, 2021. President Moise reacted by:
1- Arresting dozens of citizens among them a judge of the supreme court, Ivickel Dabrezil, a general inspector of the Haitian Police on the baseless claim that they were plotting to overthrow him from power.
2- Closing of the Supreme Court office of Haiti
3- Closing of the Judicial Academy of Haiti
4- Retired/fired 3 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices
5- Interdiction of meeting with more than 2 people on the street
6- Coerced Supreme court justices and other political opponents to hide under warren arrest etc…
All those decisions are illegal and made in violation of the Haitian constitution of March 29, 1987 amended which guarantees freedom of assembly and association (art 31).
Mr. Moise has established a regime of terror in the country where corruption and armed gangsters impose their rules. A $4.2 billion long-term loan from Venezuela earmarked for development, economic growth, job creations were stolen by officials of his PHTK regime. An audit conducted by the Supreme Administrative Court of Haiti revealed that the $ 4.2 billion were spent mostly without justifications. Among those cited, president Moise’s name appeared 69 times in the report for using public resources for personal gains.
Haitian electors voted for the ticket Biden/Harris in the presidential elections to restore democracy in the United States. Now we need your help to restore democracy in Haiti by demanding Mr. Moise to respect the Haitian constitution and relinquish the presidency immediately.
Thank you so much, President Biden, for the prompt attention that you will be given to our urgent concern. We look forward to having your administration restore democracy in Haiti.
Sincerely,
Maxi FRANCOIS Theobale PIERRE-PAUL
516-967-1559 786-285-5483
Roger BIAMBY Jean Robert PIERRE LOUIS
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Phone: 305-335-0433 Phone: 786-487-6175
Opinion: Haitians are fleeing their country. Their president is the source of the problem
Opinion by Editorial Board
Feb. 10, 2021
HAITI’S CHRONIC hardship and hunger have long been entwined with a long line of corrupt, autocratic and brutal leaders who have exacerbated the country’s instability. Among the worst in recent memory is the current Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse.
Having taken office four years ago, Mr. Moïse’s term has been marked by a degradation of democratic institutions and a descent into violence that has transformed the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, into a tableau of fear and insecurity. Armed gangs prey on civilians with impunity, some of them through kidnap-for-ransom rackets.
Neighborhoods known for their opposition to the president have been targeted for bloody attacks by criminals whom the U.S. government has tied to high-ranking officials in Mr. Moïse’s government. Those officials were hit with sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department in December. In Haiti itself, virtually no one responsible for the attacks has been brought to justice.
Mr. Moïse has dissolved most of the country’s elected parliament and stripped mayors throughout the country of their offices. The president denies he is a dictator; his actions suggest otherwise.
His term in office expired last Sunday. Nonetheless, he says he will remain in power another year, owing to the fact that an interim government was in place during what would have been the first year of his four-year term — the result of fraud-marred elections in 2016. The fact is, Mr. Moïse has permitted no fresh elections, and the fractured, feeble opposition is in no position to form a government to replace him. That may help explain why the State Department, while urging a restoration of democracy, has supported the president’s contention that he should remain in office until February 2022. To be credible, that stance must be reinforced with pressure to set a timetable and benchmarks for new elections.
As protests intensified, Mr. Moïse’s government on Sunday arrested more than 20 prominent figures and others, including a Supreme Court judge, alleging they planned to depose and kill the president. Given the chaos, it’s little surprise that Haitians have been leaving the country, hoping to make their way into the United States through Mexico. More than 600 of them have been expelled on a half-dozen flights since the start of February after trying to cross the border without documents, according to Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy group that tracks the flights. None were allowed to apply for asylum under the pandemic public health emergency declared last spring by the Trump administration, which the Biden administration has so far kept in place.
No country holds more sway in Haiti than the United States. By supporting the political status quo there, the Biden administration ensures that more desperate Haitians will flee their country, and many will end up adding to the rising tide of illegal crossing at the Mexican border. As with Central American migrants, the problem of illegal immigrants from Haiti can be mitigated only by a concerted U.S. push to address problems at the source. In Haiti, those problems begin with Mr. Moïse.
