[News] 10 Steps to Dictatorship in Haiti
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Dec 17 12:45:15 EST 2013
December 17, 2013
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/17/10-steps-to-dictatorship-in-haiti/
*Why The Grassroots Movement Is Taking To the Streets Against President
Michel Martelly*
10 Steps to Dictatorship in Haiti
by CHARLIE HINTON
At great personal risk Haitians demonstrated massively in cities
throughout the country on September 30 and October 17, calling for
President Michel Martelly to step down. Both dates commemorate important
coup d'etats in Haitian history.
By choosing these historically significant dates, the Haitian grassroots
majority is clearly saying they want an end to the 10-year military
occupation that has followed the coup that overthrew elected president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004. Martelly's police force
brutally broke up some demonstrations with tear gas and beatings.
Demonstrators have reported the police used a very "powerful" gas, which
surprised them in its potency and aerial reach.
In late October, students in Cap Haitien, demonstrating to support
teachers demanding an increase in pay, were tear gassed so viciously
that 60 were injured, 4 seriously.
The next day, students in the State University of Port-au-Prince,
demonstrating in support of attorney Andre Michel (see #7 below), were
gassed for hours, even after they had been pushed back to their campus.
It went on so long that some legislators went on the radio to demand
that it be stopped.
On November 6^th , lawyers marched in Port-au-Prince demanding an end to
threats and harassment for those willing to take on cases involving
Martelly's corruption. They also called for the resignation of the chief
prosecutor.
And on November 7^th, thousands marched, chanting "Aba Martelly" (Down
with Martelly). Haitian police attacked the demonstration with tear gas
and beatings. Three people were shot and wounded.
*10 Steps to Dictatorship *
*1. Who Is Michel Martelly? *Martelly grew up during the 27 year
dictatorship of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son, Jean Claude
"Baby Doc."* * He reportedly joined the Duvalierist death squad, the
/Tonton Macoutes/, at the age of 15, and later attended Haiti's military
academy. Under Baby Doc, Martelly, a popular musician, ran the Garage, a
nightclub patronized by army officers and members of Haiti's tiny ruling
class.
After Baby Doc's fall in February 1986, a mass democratic movement, long
repressed by the Duvaliers, burst forth and became known as /Lavalas/
("flood"), from which emerged Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a popular
liberation theology Catholic priest, who was elected president in 1990
with 67% of the vote in the first free and fair election in Haiti's history.
Martelly quickly became a bitter opponent of /Lavalas/, attacking the
popular movement in his songs played widely on Haitian radio.
Martelly "was closely identified with sympathizers of the 1991 military
coup that ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide," the Miami
Herald observed in 1996, and ran with members of the vicious FRAPH death
squad from that period, infamous for gang rapes and killing with impunity.
On the day of Aristide's return to Haiti in 2011, after 8 years of
forced exile in South Africa, and two days before the "run-off"
election, Martelly was caught in a video on YouTube insulting Aristide
and Lavalas: "The Lavalas are so ugly. They smell like s**t. F**k you,
Lavalas. F**k you, Jean-Bertrand Aristide."
*2. The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2010-2011: *In the
presidential election cycle of 2010-2011, Haiti's Electoral Council
banned Aristide's /Fanmi Lavalas/ Party from participation, which
de-legitimized the whole corrupt process. Voter turnout was less than
25% in the primaries and less than 20% in the "run-off." The top two
candidates announced after the sham primaries were the wife of a former
pro-Duvalier president and the son-in-law of Rene Preval, the president
at the time. Martelly was declared third, but his supporters
demonstrated violently. An OAS commission, with the full support of
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who flew to Port-au-Prince at the
height of the Egyptian revolution, ruled that Martelly had finished
second. He received $6 million from an anonymous donor in Florida to
hire a PR firm that had worked on the campaigns of Felipe Calderón in
Mexico and John McCain in the U.S.
*3. Corruption* -- Corruption scandals have followed Martelly since he
refused to divulge who funded his campaign for president.
* *Bribes *- Award-winning Dominican Republic journalist Nuria Piera
broke the story in April 2012 (later reported in /Time/) that
Martelly was alleged to have accepted $2.6 million in bribes
during and after the 2010 election to ensure that a Dominican
construction company would receive contracts under his Presidency.
In addition, the vote to make Laurent Lamothe the Prime Minister is
known in Haiti as the "/tout moun jwenn/ vote" ("everyone got their cut"
vote).
* *Surcharge on international calls and money transfers for
"education" -- *Questionable new taxes have also fed controversy.
A $1.50 tax on money transfers and a 5 cent per minute tax on
phone calls to Haiti are alleged by Martelly to support education,
but the poor majority continue to face unaffordable school fees,
and critics say no money from this tax has gone to schools.
Moreover, Haitian teachers have been marching to demand back pay.
Martelly's new taxes were not ratified by or presented to Haiti's
Parliament, making them illegal.
* *
* *Travel Expenses -- *When traveling, which he does often,
Martelly's entourage receives an outrageous per diem from the
Haitian government. According to Senator Moise Jean-Charles,
Martelly gets $20,000 a day, his wife $10,000 a day, his children
$7,500, and others in his inner circle get $4,000 daily.
* *A plan to establish an illegal parallel customs system to
circumvent legislative control -- *This allegedly involved the
selling of a membership card and gun to anyone who wanted to be
part of the Martelly gang. The membership privileges included
tax-exempt status at customs. The program had to be scratched when
US DEA complained about members facilitating drug transport on the
strength of their membership.
* *
*4. Rewriting and Undermining Haiti's Constitution: *The overthrow of
Baby Doc in 1986 led to the creation of a new democratic Constitution in
1987, ratified in a referendum by an overwhelming majority of Haitians.
It recognized Haitian /Kreyol/ as an official language, along with
French, and legalized /Vodun/, the spiritual practice of the majority of
Haitians. It provided for grassroots participation in national
decision-making, decentralized the nation's finances and political
structure, and provided for protection of human rights.
On June 12, 2012 Martelly announced new amendments, which concentrate
executive power and herald the return of Duvalier-style dictatorship.
The new illegally amended Constitution, written by non-legislators, and
never seen nor voted by the Parliament prior to its publication creates
a top down method of choosing a Permanent Electoral Council to run
elections, undermining grassroots participation and centralizing control
from above.
It allows the president to appoint the prime minister after merely
"consulting" the heads of the two chambers of Parliament instead of
requiring Parliamentary ratification. In cases of "presidential
vacancy," the new amendments make the prime minister the provisional
president, so presidents can resign, appoint the prime minister to
succeed them, and thereby maintain perpetual control.
New amendments provide that a "general budget" and a "general
expenditures report" can replace line item annual budgets, thus limiting
parliamentary oversight of the budget.
New amendments return Duvalier era and other retrograde laws, including:
*
* A 1935 law on "superstitious beliefs," which would ban
/Vodun/ once again
* * A 1977 law establishing the Court of State Security to
increase state surveillance and repression.
*
* A 1969 law that condemns all "imported doctrines", thereby
attacking freedom of thought and freedom of association.
Violation of this new law can result in the DEATH PENALTY.
The 1987 Haitian Constitution had eliminated the death penalty.
*5. Restoring The Army: *In one of the most popular moves of his
administration, President Aristide disbanded the hated Haitian army in
1995. Since the coup that overthrew Aristide for the second time in
2004, UN troops and police, currently numbering 8,754 uniformed
personnel, have occupied Haiti. One of Martelly's campaign promises was
to restore the Haitian Army, and now new Haitian troops are being
trained by Ecuador and Brazil. In addition, well-armed former military
and paramilitary personnel have occupied militia camps since early 2012,
supported by Martelly.
*6. Return of the Death Squads: *Martelly has issued pink identity cards
with a photo for $30 to selected supporters, promising many benefits to
those who hold them, like jobs and impunity from prosecution. During the
Duvalier period, every /Tonton Macoute/ received a card that provided
many privileges, like free merchandise from any store entered,
entitlement to coerced sex, and fear and respect from people in general.
Senator John Joel Joseph has identified Senators that he claims are
marked for assassination. He identified the people who have been paying
the "hit squads" on behalf of Martelly. He denounced one of the men as
an escaped criminal who had been caught red handed with a "near death"
victim behind his vehicle. Said victim sent the police to a house where
two more victims could be found. Senator Joseph identified the leader of
the death squad and his vehicle, denouncing the group as the one which
recently assassinated a grassroots militant. He accused the president
and his wife of pressuring the chief of police to remove the senators'
security detail, in order to facilitate their assassinations. He
denounced a previous instance when Martelly tried to pressure former
police chief Mario Andresol to integrate a hit-man into the police, to
assassinate Senator Moise Jean Charles.* *
*7. Death of a Judge:* Martelly set up his wife and son as head of
governmental projects, but with no parliamentary oversight. A Haitian
citizen, Enold Florestal, filed suit with attorney Andre Michel before
Judge Jean Serge Joseph, maintaining that the Martellys were siphoning
off large amounts of state monies, which the Haitian Senate has no
jurisdiction over. Judge Joseph moved the case to the next judicial
level, which required depositions from the Martellys and various
governmental ministers. Enraged, Martelly and Prime Minister Lamothe
called two meetings with the judge (which they deny took place) to
demand he kill the case, the second on July 11. The judge drank a
beverage offered him at that meeting.
On July 12 Judge Joseph became violently ill and died on July 13.
Haitian police arrested Florestal on August 16 after viciously beating
him, and Haitian authorities have issued a warrant for the arrest of
Attorney Michel, who has gone into hiding. A commission of the Haitian
Parliament is now calling for the impeachment of Martelly based on
illegal meetings with the judge, interference in legal matters, and
threats to those involved in the case.
Since then Enold Florestal and his brother, who's completely uninvolved
with the case, have been arrested and remain in jail. On October 22,
police stopped Attorney Andre Michel and demanded to search his car. He
refused without a judge present to prevent tampering or planting of
evidence. The action quickly turned into a standoff between police
forces and a large crowd that was gathered to defend Michel. Michel was
eventually summoned to appear in court the next day.
In court the prosecutor told the judge he did not have charges to file,
but for Michel to not leave the courtroom. Several Deputies and
Senators who were present whisked Michel out of the courtroom and took
him to an unknown location, where he remains at the time of this report.
*8. Corrupting the Judiciary and Parliament: *The Martelly regime is
working to establish executive control over the judicial system through
the use of "controlled" prosecutors and judges. In violation of the
constitution, he appointed as Supreme Court chief justice, Anel Alexis
Joseph, who is 72. Haitian law says a judge must be 65 or under to be
named to this position. The chief justice also leads the commission that
regulates the entire judicial system, so Judge Anel Alexis Joseph is
using his power to block an investigation into the death of Judge Jean
Serge Joseph and to protect Martelly and his henchmen from all legal
challenges, thereby granting impunity.
Martelly has also corrupted the legislative branch that could bring
charges against members of the executive. He ordered the arrest of
Deputy Arnel Belizaire in spite of parliamentary immunity and his legal
council's advice. He has so far failed to call elections for 10 Senate
seats in January, and is trying to force the 10 Senators whose terms he
says are up (they say in 2015, not 2014) to leave office. Since
elections have still not been held for 10 additional seats, if these new
10 seats are vacated, it would leave the 30 member Senate without a
quorum, allowing Martelly to dissolve the Parliament and rule by decree.
*9. Reactionary Economic Policy: *Martelly enforces the Clinton Bush
plan for economic "development" of Haiti through sweatshops, tourism,
and the selling of oil and mining rights to transnational corporations.
Under this plan, money donated for earthquake relief has been used to
build a duty free export manufacturing zone in the north of Haiti, which
was not affected by the earthquake, and several luxury hotels in
Port-au-Prince. The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund made a $2 million equity
investment in a hotel called the Royal Oasis, to give foreign tourists
and investors an "oasis" to escape the miserable conditions under which
the majority of Haitians live.
At the same time, the Martelly regime viciously represses the economic
activities of the poor super majority. The phone and money transfer
taxes cut into their incomes. Taxes have been arbitrarily increased on
imports, affecting small merchants. Thugs wearing masks have burnt
markets in different cities, causing merchants to lose capital they had
been accumulating for years, forcing them to raise new capital through
usury loans. Street vendors are harassed and removed forcefully, then
after hours, their stands are looted.
*10. Duvalierism Returns to Haiti: *Martelly warmly welcomed the
January, 2011 return to Haiti of Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, one of
the most brutal dictators of the 20^th century, after his decades of
luxurious exile in France. Duvalier still has many supporters in Haiti,
some of whom are armed and have a history of killing political opponents.
Martelly's government is filled with Duvalierists: hardline former
Haitian army officer David Bazile is now Interior Minister. Magalie
Racine, daughter of notorious former /Tonton Macoute/ militia chief
Madame Max Adolphe, is Martelly's Youth and Sports Minister. Public
Works Secretary of State Philippe Cinéas is the son of longtime
Duvalierist figure Alix Cinéas, who was a member of the original
neo-Duvalierist National Council of Government (CNG) which succeeded
Duvalier after his fall in 1986. In addition, Duvalier's son, Francois
Nicolas Jean Claude Duvalier, is a close advisor to Martelly.
*Conclusion: *A major objective of the Duvalier dynasty was to
institutionalize dictatorship through death squad brutality, supported
by the United States and other powers. Martelly is an example of their
policies having come to fruition. He's restoring a government of
impunity per the Duvalier era, building an administration of right wing
ideologues who believe in dictatorship, and who collaborate to sidestep
all legislative and judicial controls.
His goal is to implement extreme neo-liberal economic policies on behalf
of Haiti's less than 1% with control over all natural resources. The
people will be at their mercy for factory work and other "subservient"
positions, under the boot of a UN occupation force of 8,754 army and
police personnel, the beginnings of a restored army, paramilitary
training camps, death squads, gangs and mafias that use the cover of the
corrupted executive and judicial systems to operate.
The Haitian majority does not accept this return to the bad old days,
however, and has been actively and massively protesting this repression
for the past year. They deserve the support and solidarity of freedom
loving people everywhere.
/*Charlie Hinton* is a member of the Haiti Action Committee and works at
Inkworks Press, a worker-owned and collectively managed printing company
in Berkeley, Calif. He is the author of "From Jackboots to Wingtips: The
evolution of Nazi Economics from World War II to the Present," available
upon request. You may reach him at ch_lifewish at yahoo.com
<mailto:ch_lifewish at yahoo.com>./
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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