[News] 2016 opens with new surge in mass resistance to US/UN interference - Haiti Still Marching to Overturn Stolen Election

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*_2016 opens with new surge in mass resistance to US/UN interference_*

*Haiti Still Marching to Overturn Stolen Election*

**

By Dave Welsh

Jan. 7, 2016 – The seemingly irresistible momentum of Haiti’s mass 
movement – combined with convincing evidence of widespread election 
fraud – have forced a surprise delay in the slow-motion theft of the 
2015 national elections.

Faced with December’s incredible outpouring of non-stop demonstrations 
throughout Haiti – and daily revelations of vote rigging and voter 
suppression in the Aug. 9 and Oct. 25 elections – the authorities were 
constrained to postpone the run-off that had been set for Dec. 27. But 
there’s no end to the maneuvering by Haiti’s ruling elite, outgoing 
President Martelly and their foreign backers, determined as they are to 
thwart the popular will in this election.

*New U.S. Ambassador gives his “OK” to the faked election results*

Ambassador Peter Mulrean said he sees /“no evidence of massive electoral 
fraud.” /But his “see no evil” pose is contradicted by Martelly’s own 
new election commission. This body disclosed Jan. 4 that they studied 
1,771 vote tally sheets and found 92% had “serious irregularities” 
amounting to “massive fraud.” Then on Jan. 6 thousands marched to 
denounce Mulrean and Martelly: “Don’t steal our votes!” Ominously, while 
the people marched, a plane carrying top State Department operatives 
Thomas Shannon and Kenneth Merten touched down in Haiti.

The 2015 elections were plagued by endless incidents of ballot stuffing, 
vote buying, armed coercion, naked vote rigging all the way from polling 
place to final tabulation. Fanmi Lavalas, long the most popular 
political party in Haiti, described the Oct. 25 election as *“… a 
pre-planned fraudulent enterprise that stripped the elections of all 
credibility…”*in its petition to the InterAmerican Commission on Human 
Rights. “These rigged elections of 2015 constitute … an attack on the 
national sovereignty … and a violation of the political rights of the 
Haitian people...”

*Key facts about the 2015 stolen election *

  *

    *_78 out of 78 tally sheets_**_tainted_* – Dr. Maryse Narcisse,
    Lavalas candidate for President, called a meeting at the Vote
    Tabulation Center as part of her party’s legal challenge. In
    attendance were election officials, observers, representatives of
    the ruling PHTK party and another contesting smaller party Meksepa.
    They examined 78 randomly selected vote tally sheets (proces
    verbaux).All present agreed that every one of the 78 tally sheets
    was fraudulent, without exception. The US-backed election commission
    (CEP) then abruptly ended the legally-mandated verification process
    – invalidating those 78 particular tally sheets, but failing to
    check the over 13,000 tally sheets still to be verified.**_With
    that, the CEP inexplicably accepted the fraudulent election
    “results” as legitimate._

  *

    *_U.N. implicated_*– Deputy Antoine Rodon Bien-Aime and two other
    PHTK candidates made a startling revelation about UNOPS, a UN agency
    assigned to transport ballot boxes to the Tabulation Center. They
    charged that _while in U.N. custody, the ballot boxes were_
    _switched en route with boxes of pre-filled-out ballots._
    Separately, a National Palace official was involved in a vehicle
    accident in which pre-filled-out ballots, marked for the
    Presidential candidate of Martelly’s PHTK party, Jovenel Moise,
    spilled on the road.

  *

    *_Open Letter to the U.N._*– 15 prominent Haitian intellectuals,
    outraged by “_clear involvement of U.N. agencies in the fraud_ that
    marred the elections,” wrote an Open Letter to the U.N. Mission
    stating, “the whole world is discovering, under pressure from the
    street…the truth of the biggest electoral fraud operation…for the
    last 30 years in Haiti.”

  *

    *_Experts at election rigging_*– Kenneth Merten was appointed US
    Special Haiti Coordinator in August to deal with the election
    crisis. He was also on the scene as US Ambassador for the 2010-11
    elections. Under orders from then-Secretary of State Hillary
    Clinton, US favorite Martelly was catapulted from 3rd place into the
    run-off and ultimately the Presidency. CEP chair Pierre Opont
    _admitted last July that the US “rigged the 2010 election.”_

  *

    *_2015 election “cannot be decided by the street_**,” *Kenneth
    Merten said recently, pointing out the US had committed $31 million
    to fund the election, plus $2.8 million to the National Police for
    election “security.” [Some 10,000 police and 2,500 U.N. troops were
    deployed on election duty.] It’s clear the U.S. Embassy does not
    want “the street” to decide anything.

  *

    *_For sale: 1 seat in Parliament_*– Speaking on Radio Metropole
    (12/17), Gerald Jean, candidate for Deputy (Congressman) for
    Ferrier, admitted he had paid US$15,000 to CEP member Yolette
    Mengual to ensure his victory in a disputed election. He told the
    radio audience he was angry that despite having made his payment, he
    did not win the seat he’d paid for.

  *

    *_Coup plotters and Occupiers_*– The self-described Core Group
    consists of the US, France & Canada, whose troops invaded Haiti in
    the 2004 coup; Brazil, which heads the U.N. military occupation of
    Haiti; the EU, OAS and Spain. The Core Group accepted CEP’s
    fraudulent election results as “legitimate.”**-2-

    *International Days in Solidarity with the Haitian People*

    Inspired by the Haitians’ strong response to the election debacle,
    the Haiti Action Committee (HAC) issued a call for solidarity
    actions on Dec. 16^– the 25^th anniversary of Haiti’s first free
    election in 1990. That was when Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide swept
    into the Presidency with two-thirds of the vote, on a platform of
    social and economic justice for the poor majority. But after barely
    seven months in office, Aristide was overthrown in a US-backed
    military coup in 1991.

    In 2015, after being excluded for 11 years since a second
    US-sponsored coup in 2004, Aristide’s Lavalas party was finally able
    to run candidates again, headed by Presidential standard-bearer Dr.
    Maryse Narcisse. People in poor neighborhoods all over Haiti
    welcomed the grassroots campaign of Dr. Narcisse with obvious joy.
    And they marched on Dec. 16 against the brazen attempt to steal the
    election – in the cities and also in smaller places like Camp-Perrin
    and Port-Salut in the South.

Meanwhile Haiti’s overseas supporters were organizing. The HAC call for 
Dec. 16^th solidarity actions was widely promoted by the Haiti human 
rights community – activists, bloggers and organizations – on Facebook, 
Twitter and their websites. HAC’s Facebook post alone reached over 4000 
people. Thanks to this significant response, U.S. officials in 
*Washington, D.C.* received a flood of emails, phone calls and tweets on 
Dec. 16 and beyond. The message: 1) Stop supporting dictatorship and 
fraudulent elections in Haiti, and 2) Stop the US-financed terror 
against the poor majority who are fighting for democracy in Haiti.

In *Los Angeles* on Dec. 16, a delegation led by Global Women’s Strike 
visited the Consulates of Brazil, which commands the U.N. military force 
in Haiti, and Ecuador, which supplies troops for the U.N. occupation. 
Ecuador alsotrained the special police unit BOID being used to terrorize 
grassroots Haitian communities. The delegation presented a letter 
protesting these countries’ interference in Haiti.

In *Boston*the Haitian community rallied at the Consulate of Haiti, 
along with members of the Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union, to protest 
the stolen election. Teach-ins about the history and current election in 
Haiti were held in *Miami*, at the meeting hall of the Haitian community 
organization Veye Yo; in *Oakland*; and at a university in *Windsor, 
Canada.* In *Palo Alto* (CA) students, many of whom have visited Haiti 
on solidarity delegations, held a teach-in and press conference.

In *New York*, a coalition of Haitian groups demonstrated at the *United 
Nations*, denouncing the U.N. occupation and role in perpetrating the 
election fraud in Haiti. In *Buenos Aires*, the Haitian Democratic 
Committee in Argentina seized on Martelly’s presence in the country to 
issue a statement about vote fraud in Haiti.

In*London *on Dec. 16, Global Women’s Strike and All African Women’s 
Group held a rally at the U.S. Embassy. Homemade signs said, “Black 
Lives Matter in Haiti, Too.” Luke Daniels from Caribbean Labour 
Solidarity said: “Got to tell the Yankees: Get out of Haiti, get out of 
the Caribbean, let people have their destiny.” Then 19 members of UK’s 
Parliament signed an Early Day Motion questioning “grave irregularities” 
in Haiti’s election. -3-

*Use of systematic terror against the people*

**

Fraud effectively prevented Haiti’s voters from electing candidates of 
their choice. Instead, the ruling party’s handpicked Jovenel Moise, a 
banana exporter and political neophyte, miraculously emerged as the top 
first-round vote-getter for President. But state violence also played a 
role in suppressing the vote.

National police and paramilitaries fired automatic weapons into working 
class areas like Arcahaie and Cite Soleil in the lead-up to the August 9 
and October 25 elections. Scores of people were killed, including two 
pregnant women and a 7-year-old boy. Some were “disappeared,” never to 
be heard from again. Later, hooded paramilitary gangs attacked marchers 
in Port-au-Prince with machetes, pipes, hammers, and guns, killing young 
election protesters as police turned a blind eye.

Now, people are noticing a rise in killings of local neighborhood 
organizers. During the Christmas holidays, the newly created special 
police unit BOID continued their killing spree in Lavalas strongholds of 
Port-au-Prince. But these death squad-type actions – reminiscent of 
those carried out by the Duvalier dictatorship, or under the murderous 
Latortue regime after the 2004 coup – have not deterred the resistance.

*Still fighting for the goals of the 1804 Haitian Revolution*

Many have commented that the Haitian people, in their vast majority, are 
very aware of their history – proud inheritors of the Revolution of 
1791-1804, when Haiti defeated the army of Napoleon, ended plantation 
slavery and declared independence from France. The story of the Haitian 
Revolution has been passed on, in the oral tradition, from generation to 
generation.

How does this connect with their battle in the streets today, to stop 
the ongoing “electoral coup d’etat” – to have their votes counted, their 
choices honored, and their country’s sovereignty respected?

“It’s on every lip,” said one Lavalas activist we spoke with. “People 
are saying that in rejecting this stolen election, we are lighting the 
fires of struggle, continuing the fight for equality and sovereignty 
that our ancestors fought for 200 years ago.”

*/The author, a delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, was a 
member of a Human Rights and/*/*Labor Fact Finding Delegation to Haiti 
in October, which reported on systematic voter suppression, violence, 
fraud and intimidation in the election process.*/

For more information, connect with the Haiti Action Committee:

*www.haitisolidarity.net* <http://www.haitisolidarity.net/>*    
@HaitiAction1 and on Facebook*

*Take action – Tell U.S. officials: *

*1. Stop supporting fraudulent elections in Haiti*

*2. Stop support for police terror in Haiti*

**

*White House202 456 1111 at POTUSMembers of Congress 202 224 3121 
<tel:202%20224%203121>*

*State Dept at JohnKerryKenneth Merten 202 647 9510 
<tel:202%20647%209510>HaitiSpecialCoordinator at state.gov 
<mailto:HaitiSpecialCoordinator at state.gov>*

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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