Former Haiti senator had his U.S. visa canceled. Here is why | Miami Herald 1/28/22, 10:03 AM
An ex-Haiti senator had his U.S. visa
canceled while transiting through
Miami. Here is why
By Antonio Maria Delgado and January 28, 2022 9:37 AM
Former Haitian senator and presumed current presidential candidate Jean- Charles Moïse prides himself on being an opposition leader and leftist ideologue, one who has no problem flaunting his relationships with some of Latin America’s most controversial leaders in the face of the United States.
Now his questionable contacts may have cost him his U.S. visa.
Multiple sources have cited a visit with the reputed head of a Venezuelan drug cartel, and others as the basis for a decision by U.S. authorities Monday to revoke the firebrand Haitian politician’s U.S. visa and ban him from the United States for five years.
Moïse, who did not respond to several phone calls and requests from the Miami Herald for comment, confirmed the sanctions during several press conferences this week as he accused the United States of attacking his dignity and dared authorities to come clean about what led to the harsh decision.
Although he shares the same last name as assassinated Haitian President Jovanel Moïse, it remains a bit of a mystery whether the two are related.
The saga of Jean-Charles Moïse, who is more popularly known as Moïse Jean-Charles, began Monday when he arrived in Miami with members of a Haitian delegation that had accompanied him over the weekend to Nigeria.
As they were transiting through Miami International Airport, the ex-lawmaker was approached by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and taken into what he described as a frigidly cold room for questioning. There, he was interrogated about the visit to Nigeria, and about a visit with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, he said.
Sources familiar with the incident told the Herald that while he was being detained Moïse’s smart phone was checked by agents after he attempted to keep it from them. During the check, they found “questionable contacts” and photos of him with key members of the Venezuelan regime.
Other sources familiar with Moïse’s visits to Venezuela said during at least one of those trips, he met with the regime’s No. 2 man, Diosdado Cabello, the reputed head of a Venezuelan drug cartel. Cabello and Maduro both face drug trafficking charges in the United States, and have bounties on their heads of $10 million and $15 million, respectively.
Moïse, 54, was returned to Haiti Tuesday morning on an American Airlines flight. A photo of him boarding the flight, wearing a mask a gray suit and red shirt and looking visibly shaken, went viral almost immediately. A CPB officer is in the background of the image.
Upon arriving at Toussaint Louverture International Airport, Moïse told waiting reporters that he had been detained by U.S immigration agents and had his mouth swabbed for DNA before being deported from the United States and having his U.S. visa canceled along with the issuance of a five- year ban. He received the sanctions, he said, because he had refused to discuss the Nigeria visit and a November 2021 visit with Maduro.
Speaking about the matter further at a Wednesday press conference, he accused U.S. immigration agents of violating his human rights, humiliating him and threatening him with prison because of his refusal to cooperate during the eight hours and 15 minutes he was detained inside a freezing room.
A presumed presidential candidate in Haiti’s yet-to-be-scheduled general elections, he is now using his treatment to rally support and win favor among anti-American elements in Haiti.
“Why is it that other leaders have spoken to Maduro and they have never approached them demanding to know what they discussed?” Moïse said.
A CBP spokesperson, citing privacy rules, declined to tell the Herald why the Haitian politician was deported and provided a list of more than 60 reasons on why someone holding a U.S. visa may be denied entry into the U.S.
Any traveling visitor, U.S. citizen or permanent resident can be subjected to a secondary inspection upon entering the United States. It can be random or the result of prior information by CBP agents.
In the case of Moïse, he was flagged. Asked for his telephone, he initially presented a non-smart, analog phone. Agents later tracked down his traveling companions and retrieved his smart phone. As they went through it, his photos and contacts did not help his cause.
Among them was a photo with Carolys Helena Pérez González, a former Venezuelan minister for Women and Gender Equality in Maduro’s government who often functions as a troubleshooter and link between the Venezuelan regime and its contacts in Haiti. According to a source, Pérez arranged a June meeting in Caracas between Moïse and Cabello.
Moïse, who often promotes his trips on social media, had not publicly disclosed the meeting but a photo shared with the Herald shows the two men smiling and grabbing each others firsts. Another photo shows the two men with Pérez standing in front of a Venezuelan flag.
According to his Twitter timeline, Jean-Charles Moïse was in Venezuela the week of June 21, about two weeks before the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, whom he publicly regarded as a political nemesis, to attend a
celebration of “200 Years of the Carabobo Battle,” which sealed Venezuela’s independence.
The United States believes that both Cabello and Maduro run the so-called Suns Cartel, an organization that involves high-ranking regime officials and that controls drug trafficking in Venezuela. In March of 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Maduro, Cabello and 13 other government officials of drug trafficking and placed large bounties on their heads.
Venezuela, long a diplomatic foe of the United States, has increasingly become seen as a pit stop for U.S.-bound drug shipments coming out of Colombia, oftentimes winding their way through Haiti or the Dominican Republic.
“Appearing in a photo with Diosdado Cabello is the Venezuelan equivalent of being photographed with “El Chapo” Guzmán,” said a U.S. intelligence source monitoring activities in Venezuela, referencing the violent Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán now serving life in a U.S. federal prison.
In his Wednesday press conference, the ex-lawmaker, who has adopted the red and Black Haitian flag of the Duvalier dictatorship regime and is known for waving a Russian flag during protests, accused the United States of menacing him.
While his traveling companions were allowed to go on to Haiti, he was held back and taken to a room where he was “trembling” in the cold. He said officers offered him to make a deal, he said.
“They told me that If I collaborate there are sanctions they were going to take against me that they will no longer take,” he said. “They said if I were to tell them what I was discussing with Maduro in the month of November 2021,
I won’t have any problems. If I tell them what I was discussing with the Africans, I won’t have any problems. But if I don’t say, there are four sanctions they will take against me.”
He then listed the four sanctions, which included the cancellation of his visa, a five-year ban from the United States, deportation and prison.
“I made the choice of prison; I made the choice of cutting my visa; I made the choice for them to deport us; I made the choice for them to humiliate us,” he told journalists, adding that he had retained a battery of lawyers to sue the United States to defend his dignity
Then he demanded that U.S. authorities “tell us what is hiding behind this.”
“It’s not Moïse Jean-Charles who they have done this to. They have done this to the Haitian people,” he said.
Michael Wilner, Washington Bureau senior national security correspondent, contributed to this report.
Haitians stranded at Chilean airport for weeks, waiting for refugee hearings
BY THE HAITIAN TIMES JAN. 24, 2022
View of Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, where a group of Haitians have been stranded for weeks. Photo Christer T Johansson/Wikipedia
A group of Haitian asylum seekers have been stranded for weeks at the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago de Chile, waiting for Chilean authorities to allow them into the country, according to the Spanish-language news outlet Ambito.
The group of 23 Haitians intend to request refugee status. However, Chilean authorities consider them to be tourists and have asked for their visas. Haiti’s consulate in Santiago does not appear to be handling this type of request, according to Rodolfo Noriega, president of the Committee of Peruvian Refugees in Chile.
It is unclear if the Haitian group was coming from Haiti directly or other countries nor for how many weeks the asylum seekers have been at the airport.
Through a video posted on Twitter Jan. 23, one of the Haitian asylum seekers at the airport asks the Chilean government to allow them. Holding a handwritten sign that says “Seeking Refuge,” the man made his plea in Spanish to the authorities.
“Our country is going through difficult times,” said the speaker, who is not identified in the video. “That’s why we come here, to ask for refuge.”
CHINEESE POTION LIKE A NATURAL VACCIN AGAINST ANY VIRUS
To boost your immune system in order to protect yourself and yours from any retrovirus with the use of the following vegetables providing your body with a lot of Sulfur, Nitric Occide Magnesium, Potassium, Phosphorus etc ( which disappeared from pharmaceutical products for the last 65 years ) is recommended by the Chinese pharmacopeia. --- Use 1 glass+ of mineral or alkaline water for each of the following vegetables – Blend them separately and boil for 15 minutes.
When cold, absorb 3 tr4 table spoonful daily for 4 to 5 weeks as IMMUNATARY protection against any bad germs or retroviruses ( the potion is enough for 2 people )
WATERCRESS …………………………………………………………………… 1 PACK
ONION 2 MEDIUM
BEET ( to peel and slice ) 2 MEDIUM
GARLIC 6 oz. of peeled garlic
CABBAGE a small one to cut into pieces and blend 1 SMALL ONCE
TURNIP to peel and slice 2 MEDIUM ONE
Cut each of the above nutrients into pieces and blend separately with 1 glass each of Alkaline or mineral water and blend them separately.
Then pour the contents into a large container and boil for 15 minutes. When cold, absorb the potion every day as recommended., which will be acting and killing retroviruses like insecticide against teaches.
Gerard Jeanty
Media Advisory
Haiti’s human rights record to be examined by Universal Periodic Review
GENEVA (26 January 2022) – Haiti’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Monday, 31 January 2022 in a meeting that will be webcast live.
Haiti is one of the States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its 40th session taking place from 24 January to 3 February *, which marks the end of the UPR third cycle. Haiti’s first and second UPR reviews took place in October 2011 and November 2016, respectively.
The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.
The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Haiti on 31 January can be found here.
Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva [NB: Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting will be held using a combination of in-person and remote participation, and media representatives are encouraged to follow the proceedings on webcast.
Time and date: 14.30 – 18.00, Monday, 31 January 2022 (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)
The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles. During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.
The delegation of Haiti will be led by Mr. Berto Dorcé, Minister of Justice and Public Security.
The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Haiti are: Qatar, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Netherlands.
The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org
The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Haiti will be posted on the UPR Extranet.
The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Haiti at 16.30 on 3 February. The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.
* The UPR 40th session was originally scheduled to be held in November 2021, although was postponed due to COVID-19 measures.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez, HRC Media Officer, at
To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: www.ohchr.org/hrc/upr
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