Accused by judges, Haitian president denies corruption allegations
(HAITIAN TIMES)
Haitian President Jovenel Moise last week denied allegations that he was at the center of an embezzlement scheme spanning the last decade.
"I'm looking you in the eye today to say: your president, whom you voted for, is not guilty of corruption," Moise said at a press conference.
“The people who mishandled and misused state funds will be brought to justice in a fair, equitable trial without political persecution,” he added.
The judges of Haiti's High Court of Auditors said in a voluminous report at the end of May that Moise was at the center of an embezzlement scheme that siphoned off Venezuelan aid money intended for road repairs, laying out what they said was a litany of examples of corruption and mismanagement.
The magistrates said they discovered, for example, that in 2014 Haitian authorities signed contracts with two different companies -- Agritrans and Betexs -- for the same road-repair project. The two turned out to have the same tax registration number and the same personnel.
Before he came to power in 2017, Moise headed Agritrans, which received more than 33 million gourdes ($700,000 at the time) to do the road work, though the company in principle did nothing but grow bananas.
Agritrans received an advance two months before the road-repair contract was signed, leading the magistrates to believe "there was collusion, favoritism and embezzlement."
"To those who think it's alright to criticize the company I led before being president, before being a candidate, I say that justice is doing its work. The business is there and all the paperwork exists," Moise responded Wednesday.
As tensions continue to escalate in Haiti over president, journalists come under attack
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
JUNE 11, 2019 06:52 PM
The day before a journalist was gunned down near downtown Port-au-Prince and anti-government protesters attacked a Haitian broadcast station, someone plastered the station’s exterior yellow walls with images of President Donald Trump and Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
“It said ‘Down with Donald Trump’ and ‘Long Live Maduro,’” said Jean Lucien Borges, 60, the owner of Radio Télé Ginen, recalling the threats against his Port-au-Prince TV and radio station after it began showing images of demonstrators turning violent Sunday. The protesters were demanding the ouster of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in a new round of anti-government and anti-corruption protests.
On Monday, as the first day of a two-day strike paralyzed Port-au-Prince, the threats went beyond just posters of Trump and Maduro that were also plastered around the capital. A crowd of protesters had barricaded both ends of Delmas 31, where Radio Télé Ginen is located, with burning tires, Borges said, and proceeded to burn and loot a van, while setting fire to several other vehicles. Vehicles that weren’t burned were vandalized with rocks before police arrived.
“All of our journalists were inside,” Borges said.
In Haiti’s escalating tensions over corruption allegations against Moïse and fresh demands for his resignation, journalists are increasingly becoming targets of aggression as both sides accuse them of working for or against the government. Their Twitter handles are being photo-shopped with fake tweets. Their images are being distributed in videos. Their cars are being burned. And they are being physically attacked.
The deadliest of the aggressions came Monday night when radio journalist Rospide Pétion, 45, was gunned down in Portal Léogâne in Port-au-Prince while on his way home. He had just finished his broadcast for Radio Sans Fin, and was driving home when people approached his car and opened fire, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement condemning the killing.
“The Haitian authorities must shed light on this sordid execution and bring to justice those responsible for the death,“ said Emmanuel Colombié, director of the Latin America office for Reporters Without Borders. “It is also the responsibility of the government to guarantee the safety of the journalists covering the demonstrations, whose role during this turbulent period is fundamental. “
Pétion’s final broadcast was about the allegations against Moïse, who has been implicated in two government audits on the misuse of billions of dollars from Venezuela’s PetroCaribe oil program. He also denounced the attacks against Radio Télé Ginen by demonstrators.
“This is outrageous and unacceptable,” the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, a Boston-based human rights group said. It added that it had once represented Pétion who had survived being a political prisoner in 2004-05.
On Tuesday, Moïse, who has yet to speak publicly since auditors sent a second audit on May 31 to the president of the Senate, condemned the attacks against Radio Télé Ginen and Pétion in two separate tweets..
“The assassination of RSF’s journalist Rospide Pétion is a heinous act. I vehemently condemn this despicable crime,” he said. “Once again, the Haitian press is in mourning.”
Several media organizations have also spoken out about the attacks and demand that police protect journalists.
Several media organizations have also spoken out about the attacks and demand that police protect journalists.
“Let the journalists and media do their job,” the Association of National Haitian Media and the Association of Independent Media of Haiti said in a joint statement. “Do not attack their vehicles. Do not attack their buildings. Do not prevent them from moving freely.”
“Attacks against journalists, attacks against media.... are contrary to democracy, they are contrary to freedom of the press, they are contrary to the freedom of expression,” Jacques Desrosiers, the secretary general of the Association of Haitian Journalists, told Magik 9 radio station last week.
Carnival Cruise ship rescues fishermen who were stuck at sea for two days
Michael Hollan3 days ago
Carnival Cruise Line ships keep coming to the rescue.
One of the cruise line’s ships heading towards Miami made a detour to come to the aid of a small fishing boat. Seven passengers were successfully rescued after reportedly spending two days stuck at sea.
Carnival Horizon was returning to Miami from Aruba on Friday when they were alerted to the smaller boat’s calls for help, Local 10 reports. Passengers took pictures as the boat rescued the seven Haitian fishermen. Horizon is still expected to return to Port Miami on Sunday as scheduled with the fishermen on board.
A spokesperson for Carnival provided the following statement to Local 10: ”Continuing its longstanding tradition of assisting mariners in distress, Carnival Horizon was alerted to a small craft in need of assistance. Following the direction of the U.S. Coast Guard, Carnival Horizon diverted its course and participated in a search and rescue mission, bringing several passengers from the craft on board. The passengers were given food, water and medical treatment. There is no expected impact to the ship’s arrival on Sunday.”
He got off the plane from Haiti. He was immediately taken into custody.
When Pascal Joly landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport from his native Haiti last Wednesday, U.S. Marshals were waiting for him, poised to charge him with one count of child abuse and one count of soliciting sexual battery of a child by a custodial adult.
Joly, 63, sits in Palm Beach County Jail with $25,000 bond. Tuesday, the child abuse charge was dropped and the latter charge was downgraded to misdemeanor domestic battery.
According to a domestic violence probable cause affidavit, a girl told Boynton Beach police that on Feb. 6, Joly began talking about “her private areas and trying to get her to lay in his bed with him.” She also said he foot massaged her vaginal area and squeezed her breast. To back up her claim, the affidavit says, she played a recording she made of the interaction.
In his interview with police, Joly denied saying “anything to (the girl) in a sexual manner and claimed that he was probably just joking around. Pascal said “if he touched (her) thigh area with his foot, it was probably him kicking at her to get her away from him.”
By the time Boynton cops talked to Joly again, the affidavit said, a detective fluent in Creole had listened to the recording and determined it supported the girl’s accusation. The affidavit claims Joly admitted both claims the girl made were true.
This was at least the second time this year that a man wanted by the Boynton Beach police for sexual battery got taken into custody by U.S. Marshals at a Florida airport.
Also in Palm Beach County Jail, but granted no bond, is Pascal Estime. Estime was facing two counts of sexual battery and had a hearing scheduled for Feb. 19. But Homeland Security heard on Feb. 17 that Estime had bought a one-way ticket to Haiti. The U.S. Marshals picked up Estime at Orlando International Airport on Feb. 18.