Tuesday, January 25, 2011

An Urgent call:Return Former President Jean-bertrand Aristide to haiti

January 23, 2011

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Powered by Translateby Haiti Action Committee

Despite ever-threatening military occupation and police repression, Haitians’ have incessantly demanded the return of President Aristide since he was kidnapped and forced into exile by U.S. Marines in the Feb. 29, 2004, coup d’etat.Haiti Action Committee is honored to post this full-page ad that appeared Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011, in the Miami Herald, echoing the call of Haiti’s democratic movement for the return of President Aristide.

Signed by hundreds of people, it demands that the United States, the United Nations and the Haitian government stop blocking President Aristide from returning to the land of his birth.

The text of the ad and a list of signers appear below.

NYT Promotes Destructive Myths About Aristide


http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/25-7

by Joe Emersberger

Ginger Thompson wrote in the New York Times on January 19 that former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide “rose to power as a champion of Haiti’s poor but became notorious for his violent crackdowns of political dissent.” [1]

The "political dissent" that Thompson refers to is a campaign that included murderous raids into Haiti by rebels comprised of former soldiers and death squad leaders. The rebels were given a safe haven and a base for operations in the Dominican Republic. They were audacious enough to mount an assault on Haiti's National Palace in December of 2001. After a gun battle, they were chased back into the Dominican Republic. The rebels were led by Guy Philippe and Jodel Chamblain, a man responsible for the deaths and torture of thousands of people during Haiti's military rule of 1991-1994 (after the first US backed coup ousted Aristide in 1991). [2]

Saturday, January 22, 2011

A class analysis of Baby Doc

Mothballed playboy dictator recalled to service in Haiti

By Kim Ives
January 20, 2011
This article was first published by Haïti Liberté.
The big question Haitians are asking is: who is behind Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s surprise arrival in Haiti with an expired Haitian passport on Jan. 16 aboard an Air France flight from Paris? “I have come here to see how I can help my country,” he announced, stepping off the plane.
Yeah, right. It is inconceivable that Baby Doc, 59, would return to the country where there are outstanding criminal proceedings against him without knowing that some powerful foreigners have his back.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Maxine Waters calls for Haiti's botched elections to be voided and new elections to be held


Washington – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) issued the following statement today, marking the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti:

"One year after a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, the country is still devastated. A million displaced Haitians are still living in tent camps, mountains of rubble are piled in the streets, and billions in assistance pledged by the international community has yet to be delivered. Meanwhile, recent elections have been widely discredited and are unlikely to result in a government capable of leading recovery and development efforts.

So it's with a heavy heart that I issue this statement today because I am very disappointed about the pace of both humanitarian relief and democratic recovery in Haiti, though I remain in awe of the strength and resiliency of the Haitian people.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Return of Former Haiti's Democratically Elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Is Crucial for his Health

 by Wadner Pierre
 "The return is indispensable, too, for medical reasons: It is strongly
recommended that I not spend the coming winter in South Africa’s because in 6
years I have undergone 6 eye surgeries.  The surgeons are excellent and very
well skilled, but the unbearable pain experienced in the winter must be avoided
in order to reduce any risk of further complications and blindness," from the letter of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide wrote to describe the state of his health


 One year-and- eight days already passed since a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the most important part of Haiti. This horrible earthquake took away over 300, 000 lives, left over 1.5 million homeless and several thousands injured. Ten months after this tragedy a Cholera outbreak discovered. UN is accused. This deadly cholera already sent over a thousand people to death and several thousands to hospital.

Seemingly, the Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier  took advantage of the terrible and inhumane situation, and  chose to return to the country. It was told that Mr. " Baby Dictator" received his diplomatic passport under the defacto regime Boniface Alexandre/Gerard Latortue, a regime fully backed by Washington at that time. Why Mr. Dictator did not make it back in 2005 or whatever the time he received it? Mr. 'Dictator'  brutally ruled the country for 15 years after his father 's death.

The question is, why cannot  former democratically elected President Aristide, a victim of the 2004 coup d'etat obtain his diplomatic passport to return to his country or to go to a country where  he can receive the care he needs for his health? It is a way that the coup organizers and executors use to slowly kill him?  The health of former President Aristide is now a human rights concern. Right to health care is one of the rights that President Aristide has as human. Former President Aristide was forced to leave Haiti. His return should be conditioned. how can a dictator come back to his country,  perhaps, one of his victims cannot?

Mr. Duvalier  left Haiti in 1986 with  millions of dollars and let thousands of people with tears. Now he is in Haiti, the Haiti's justice system made a an important step on January 17th to prosecute him. Haitian people deserve justice, and justice must be given to all victims of the Duvalier's regime.
Meanwhile, President Aristide has been asking for a diplomatic passport for several years. He still cannot obtain it.  President's supporters have been asking for his return since the day after the coup d'etat.  But they have been asking for all coup leaders like Louis Jodel chamblain, Guy Phillipes along with "Mr. Baby Doc' to be take to the court.

The return of President Aristide is today imminent, not only because he legally has  to come back to his homeland,  but also his health condition necessitates this return. He would be shameful to have a democratic President constraints to reserve the care  that his health necessitates  while assassins, murders and criminals are  freed to walk on the streets teasing their victims like nothing had ever happened. "There is reconciliation without justice," said Haitian famous Agronomist Journalist Jean-Leopold Dominique.

Time is come to render justice to the thirty of justice. Time is come to judge the criminals and to send a clear message to those who intend to commit the same criminal acts as did the Duvalier regime.
Haiti has suffering for a long time. Haiti's suffering started back from the day  of its independence. United States, France and Canada along with the Haitian elite, who see only their own economic-interest by destroying the masses, or make them poorer that they had never been before.

   As know on December 16, 1990 Haitian said no to dictatorship and military regimes that ruled this country for a long amount of times. But seven month after the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide got into office, a coup ousted him. This Coup d'etat was backed up by United States/ CIA , the Haitian elite and the Haitian former army as the executor of this coup.

Resistance of Haitian people defeated this coup d'etat. on October 15, 1994 "Titid" came back, and he organized democratic elections and  made the first peaceful transitional power in the history of Haiti.
After the celebration of Haiti's hundredth Independence, Another coup d'etat was already on its way. And this this time it was curried by a special US commando. The February 24 coup was the worst political coup  in Haiti's history because it was the time that the country was trying to ride the democratic and economic bus.

In 2006, again people's resistance defeated the coup by electing Preval at the head of the country. President Preval normally has betrayed them. Still, they want to get ride of him in a democratic way, which is inclusive, fair and just elections. But, not the one  OAS, UN, CARICOM cautioned last November 28. Haitian demand for new  fair, just and inclusive elections, not flawed elections. Less than 70% of the Haiti's population went to vote on November 28, 2010.

As many political, economical and sociological experts acknowledge or can argue, progress cannot be made where there is political instabilities, and where  injustice is the rule.

Below is a letter from first former Haiti's democratically elected President Aristide from his exile describing the state of his health. Special thank to Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network who shares this letter with us.



Dr  Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Former President of Haiti
19 January 2011

I would like to thank the government and the people of South Africa
for the historic hospitality, deeply rooted in Ubuntu, extended to my family
and I.

Since my forced arrival in the Mother Continent six and a half
years ago, the people of Haiti have never stopped calling for my return to
Haiti.    Despite the enormous challenges that they face in the aftermath of the
deadly January 12, 2010 earthquake, their determination to make the return
happen has increased.

As far as I am concerned, I am ready.  Once again I express my
readiness to leave today, tomorrow, at any time.  The purpose is very clear: To
contribute to serving my Haitian sisters and brothers as a simple citizen in
the field of education.

The return is indispensable, too, for medical reasons: It is strongly
recommended that I not spend the coming winter in South Africa’s because in 6
years I have undergone 6 eye surgeries.  The surgeons are excellent and very
well skilled, but the unbearable pain experienced in the winter must be avoided
in order to reduce any risk of further complications and blindness.

So, to all those asking me to return home, I reiterate my
willingness to leave today, tomorrow, at any time.  Let us hope that the
Haitian and South African governments will enter into communication in order to
make that happen in the next coming days.

United to the Haitian people, once again my family and I express
our sincere gratitude to the government and the people of South Africa.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Human Rights Groups Call for Immediate Arrest of Jean-Claude Duvalier Jan­u­ary 17, 2011-Port-au-Prince and Boston- Today

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS:
Mario Joseph, Av., Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (Port-au-Prince, Haiti),
mario@ijdh.org, 509-3701-9879
Brian Concannon Jr., Esq., Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (Boston, MA), brian@ijdh.org, 541-263-0029
Iran Kurzban, Esq. IJDH Board Chair and attorney in Jean-Juste v. Duvalier, (Miami, FL) ira@kkwtlaw.com, 305-444-0060

Human Rights Groups Call for Immediate Arrest of Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jan­u­ary 17, 2011-Port-au-Prince and Boston- Today, the ­Institute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti (IJDH) and the Bureau des Avo­cats Inter­na­tionaux (BAI) call on the Government of the Republic of Haiti to comply with Haitian law and arrest ex-President Jean-Claude Duvalier, who returned to Haiti on a commercial flight yesterday.
IJDH and the BAI note that the extensive legal documentation of Mr. Duvalier’s crimes includes:
·         A July 3, 2009 order from the First Court of Public Law, of the Federal Court of Switzerland, which notes that the Haitian government had informed it of current criminal proceedings against Mr. Duvalier as late as June 2008;
·         The Decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Jean-Juste v. Duvalier, No. 86-0459, dated January 8, 1988, finding Mr. Duvalier liable for over $500,000,000  for his misappropriation of public monies for his personal use; and
·         An extensive accounting of Mr. Duvalier’s misappropriation of public funds conducted for the Haitian government by a U.S. accounting firm between 1986 and 1990, establishing the theft of over $300,000,000 U.S.D. of public funds.

Friday, January 14, 2011

One Year After Haiti Earthquake, Corporations Profit While People Suffer

By Jordan Flaherty
Photo by Wadner Pierre
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/flaherty120111.html
One year after an earthquake devastated Haiti, much of the promised relief and reconstruction aid has not reached those most in need. In fact, the tragedy has served as an opportunity to further enrich corporate interests.
The details of a recent lawsuit, as reported by Business Week, highlights the ways in which contractors – including some of the same players who profited from Hurricane Katrina-related reconstruction – have continued to use their political connections to gain profits from others' suffering, receiving contacts worth tens of millions of dollars while the Haitian people receive pennies at best. It also demonstrates how charity and development efforts have mirrored and contributed to corporate abuses.
Lewis Lucke, a 27-year veteran of the US Agency for International Development (US AID) was named US special coordinator for relief and reconstruction after the earthquake. He worked this job for a few months, then immediately moved to the private sector, where he could sell his contacts and connections to the highest bidder. He quickly got a $30,000-a-month (plus bonuses) contract with the Haiti Recovery Group (HRG).
HRG had been founded by Ashbritt, Inc., a Florida-based contractor who had received acres of bad press for their post-Katrina contracting. Ashbritt’s partner in HRG is Gilbert Bigio, a wealthy Haitian businessman with close ties to the Israeli military. Bigio made a fortune during the corrupt Duvalier regime, and was a supporter of the right wing coup against Haitian president Aristide.
Although Lucke received $60,000 for two months work, he is suing because he says he is owed an additional $500,000 for the more than 20-million dollars in contracts he helped HRG obtain during that time.
A Symbol of Political Corruption
As Corpwatch has reported, AshBritt “has enjoyed meteoric growth since it won its first big debris removal subcontract from none other than Halliburton, to help clean up after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.” In 1999, the company also faced allegations of double billing for $765,000 from the Broward County, Florida school board for clean-up done in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma.
Ashbritt CEO Randal Perkins is a major donor to Republican causes, and hired Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s firm, as well as former US Army Corp Of Engineers official Mike Parker, as lobbyists. As a reward for his political connections, Ashbritt won 900 million dollars in Post-Katrina contracts, helping them to become a symbol of political corruption in the world of disaster profiteering, even triggering a congressional investigation focusing on their buying of influence. MSNBC reported in early 2006 that criticism of Ashbritt “can be heard in virtually every coastal community between Alabama and Texas.”
The contracts given to Bush cronies like Ashbritt resulted in local and minority-owned companies losing out on reconstruction work. As Multinational Monitor noted shortly after Katrina, “by turning the contracting process over to prime contractors like Ashbritt, the Corps and FEMA have effectively privatized the enforcement of Federal Acquisition Regulations and disaster relief laws such as the Stafford Act, which require contracting officials to prioritize local businesses and give 5 percent of contracts to minority-owned businesses. As a result…early reports suggest that over 90 percent of the $2 billion in initial contracts was awarded to companies based outside of the three primary affected states, and that minority businesses received just 1.5 percent of the first $1.6 billion.”
Alex Dupuy, writing in The Washington Post, reported a similar pattern in Haiti, noting that "of the more than 1,500 US contracts doled out worth $267 million, only 20, worth $4.3 million, have gone to Haitian firms. The rest have gone to US firms, which almost exclusively use US suppliers. Although these foreign contractors employ Haitians, mostly on a cash-for-work basis, the bulk of the money and profits are reinvested in the United States." The same article notes that "less than 10 percent of the $9 billion pledged by foreign donors has been delivered, and not all of that money has been spent. Other than rebuilding the international airport and clearing the principal urban arteries of rubble, no major infrastructure rebuilding - roads, ports, housing, communications - has begun."
The disaster profiteering exemplified by Ashbritt is not just the result of quick decision-making in the midst of a crisis. These contracts are awarded as part of a corporate agenda that sees disaster as an opportunity, and as a tool for furthering policies that would not be possible in other times. Naomi Klein exposed evidence that within 24 hours of the earthquake, the influential right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation was already laying plans to use the disaster as an attempt at further privatization of the country's economy.
Relief and recovery efforts, led by the US military, have also brought a further militarization of relief and criminalization of survivors. Haiti and Katrina also served as staging grounds for increased involvement of mercenaries in reconstruction efforts. As one Blackwater mercenary told Jeremy Scahill when he visited New Orleans in the days after Katrina, "This is a trend. You're going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations."
And it's not just corporations who have been guilty of profiting from Haitian suffering. A recent report from the Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) describes a "significant lack of transparency in the disaster-relief/aid community," and finds that many relief organizations have left donations for Haiti in their bank accounts, earning interest rather than helping the people of Haiti. DAP director Ben Smilowitz notes that "the fact that nearly half of the donated dollars still sit in the bank accounts of relief and aid groups does not match the urgency of their own fundraising and marketing efforts and donors’ intentions, nor does it covey the urgency of the situation on the ground."
Haitian poet and human rights lawyer Ezili Dantò has written, "Haiti's poverty began with a US/Euro trade embargo after its independence, continued with the Independence Debt to France and ecclesiastical and financial colonialism. Moreover, in more recent times, the uses of US foreign aid, as administered through USAID in Haiti, basically serves to fuel conflicts and covertly promote US corporate interests to the detriment of democracy and Haitian health, liberty, sovereignty, social justice and political freedoms. USAID projects have been at the frontlines of orchestrating undemocratic behavior, bringing underdevelopment, coup d'etat, impunity of the Haitian Oligarchy, indefinite incarceration of dissenters, and destroying Haiti's food sovereignty, essentially promoting famine."
Throughout its history, Haiti has been a victim of many of those who have claimed they are there to help. Until we address this fundamental issue of corporate profiteering masquerading as aid and development, the nation will remain mired in poverty. And future disasters, wherever they occur, will lead to similar injustices.

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist and senior consulting community organizer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience, and his award-winning reporting from the Gulf Coast has been featured in a range of outlets including the New York Times, Mother Jones, and Argentina's Clarin newspaper. He has produced news segments for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, and Democracy Now, and appeared as a guest on CNN Morning, Anderson Cooper 360, and Keep Hope Alive with the Reverend Jesse Jackson. His new book is FLOODLINES: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six. He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org, and more information about Floodlines can be found at floodlines.org. For speaking engagements, see communityandresistance.wordpress.com.

NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS: See Jordan Flaherty and Asia Rainey at Maple Street Book Shop on Wednesday, January 19 at 6:00pm. More info: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=192600370755981

US NGO's not-so-charitable

Monday, January 3, 2011

Workers, community converge at Southern Human Rights conference


Published Dec 22, 2010 11:47 PM
Under the theme “From Exclusion to Power,” hundreds of workers and community members gathered in Birmingham, Ala., from Dec. 10 to 12 for the eighth Bi-Annual Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference.

WW photo: Dante Strobino
March on opening day of Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference, in Birmingham, Ala. Carrying lead banner are Daniel Castellanos; Pamela Brown, Community Voices Heard; and Araceli Herrera Castillo (left to right).
Jaribu Hill, conference founder and executive director of the Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights, opened up with a call for human rights and social justice activists from across the country “to retool and rethink, plan and build. In these critical times of unjust wars and economic decline, it is urgent that we forge unity based on common struggles and experiences.”
The gathering opened with a press conference — on International Human Rights Day — that highlighted the work of the Excluded Workers Congress and announced a new report that examines the plight of workers barred from labor protections and the right to organize.
The report said that in 1983, 20.1 percent of the U.S. workforce was unionized, whereas in 2009 that proportion was only 12.3 percent. In so-called right-to-work states, union density now averages 6 percent. (www.excludedworkerscongress.org)
Included in the press conference were the congress’s nine sectors, including domestic workers, farmworkers, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, day laborers, guest workers, workers from right-to-work states, workfare workers and formerly incarcerated workers.
“I came from Peru to work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina,” stated Daniel Castellanos, founder of the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, “but my boss told me that I couldn’t organize. But we decided to organize anyway.”
Organizations active in the congress include Domestic Workers United, the National Domestic Worker Alliance, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, All of Us or None, Community Voices Heard, the Southwest Workers Union, Black Workers for Justice, Alabama Day Laborers and Jobs with Justice. Their members addressed workplace conditions and their fights for recognition, dignity and better wages.
Araceli Herrera Castillo, a 20-year domestic worker from San Antonio, Texas, and SWU and NDWA member, said that they are demanding that the International Labor Organization pass a convention on domestic workers’ rights in June 2011 at their 100th labor congress. “We are demanding our basic rights to be implemented here, like the basic right to organize,” stated Herrera.
Activists marched down Birmingham sidewalks to support domestic worker organizing. They chanted, “Free, Free Domestic Workers! End, End Slavery!” and “!Mujeres marchando, el mundo van cambiando!” They went to the bus terminal, a hub from which domestic workers go “over the mountain” to the suburbs to clean homes and take care of wealthy families.
The Excluded Workers Congress first convened at the U.S. Social Forum in June. Many of its partner organizations gathered for its official founding in September at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The congress is fighting these workers’ exclusion from the National Labor Relations Act, which excludes farmworkers and domestic workers; from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which bars many workers from minimum wage and overtime laws; from the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Civil Rights Act Title VII anti-discrimination protections; and from state labor laws related to the Taft-Hartley Act.
The congress has made gains: Rep. George Miller has agreed to introduce the POWER (Protect Our Workers Against Exploitation and Retaliation) Act in the House of Representatives, and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said she would meet with excluded workers. The act was introduced in the Senate in April by Sen. Robert Menendez, among others.
Its supporters say that the law would strengthen workers’ and immigrants’ rights, that it would provide legal protection for workplace organizing, and from immigration enforcement and deportation. It would give workers a way to hold employers accountable. Activists assert that millions of undocumented workers could access their legal rights and would be protected if employers call Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (www.excludedworkerscongress.org)
SHROC provided opportunities for other issues and movements to converge. Workshops and strategy sessions focused on the national fightback to defend education and to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Others discussed expanding the fight for human rights to include environmental justice and health care.
An international panel spoke on U.S. imperialism’s impact around the world. On the Haitian people’s fight for human and democratic rights, Wadner Pierre stated, “You cannot have an election in Haiti without including Fanmi Lavalas,” criticizing the U.S. role there. Fanmi Lavalas, which was banned from participating in Haiti’s recent election, is the party of democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in a U.S.-led coup in 2004.
Emria Woods, from Liberia, discussed the negative global role of the U.S. in the fight for human rights. She addressed the struggle in Africa against the U.S. African Command (Africom) and stressed that the U.S. goal there is to secure oil markets. “The fact that 25 percent of U.S. oil now comes from Africa was the leading cause for the establishment of Africom,” stated Woods. Other panelists were Jorge Guerrero Veloz, from the Red Afrovenezolana, and Charo Mina Rojas, from the Black Communities’ Process in Colombia.
Organizers left Birmingham strengthened by the unity at the conference and the fightbacks going on across the South, vowing to move ahead. Organize the South!

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Hold New, Open, Fair Elections

HAITI


BY NICOLE PHILLIPS and NICOLAS ALBERTO PASCAL

www.HaitiJustice.org

Photo by Wadner Pierre

As a special team from the Organization of American States tries to resolve the country's election impasse, the one solution acceptable to most Haitians -- fair, inclusive elections -- is not on the table.
Thousands of Haitians protested, demanding new elections. Several Haitian senators and 12 of the 19 presidential candidates want the same. Yet the United States, Canada, France, the United Nations and OAS, which say they are committed to helping Haitians resolve this crisis, will not support new elections.
Instead there has been a feeble attempt by the international community to quell the protests. The OAS monitored the flawed elections and originally said that ``the irregularities, as serious as they were, [did not] necessarily invalidate the process.'' Amid accusations that the OAS terminated its Special Representative to Haiti, Ricardo Seitenfus, after he was critical of the international community's operations in Haiti, the OAS is heading back to Haiti to negotiate a resolution and monitor a recount of votes from the presidential election.
A recount of votes for the entire House of Deputies and two-thirds of the Senate seats has not been planned, even though those results were undermined by the same irregularities.
The elections that the international community helped organize and pay for were so deeply flawed from beginning to end that the only resolution that would be fair to Haitians and the taxpayers of donor countries is to start all over again.
Scrutiny must first fall on the Haitian Electoral Council, which was illegally hand-picked by President Préval and marred by allegations of corruption. The Council excluded 15 political parties from the legislative elections, among them Fanmi Lavalas, Haiti's most popular party, and created a new requirement to disqualify Fanmi Lavalas from the presidential elections.
So no matter what happened on election day, the vote was already tainted. But the U.S. government nevertheless wrote a $15 million check to pay for these elections, despite warnings by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and 44 other members of Congress, along with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., that the process would be a sham.
It was no surprise that there were reports of widespread election irregularities almost as soon as the polls opened on election day. In addition to ballot-box stuffing, observers and journalists saw countless people turned away from polling stations, unable to vote because their names were not on electoral lists.
At least 90,000 identity cards requested by voters could not be printed in time and tens of thousands of cards that had been printed were not distributed. An estimated 75 percent of registered voters were either unable to vote or stayed home. Such clear disenfranchisement, along with the dubious candidate-selection process, stripped elections of legitimacy.
Responding to the election crisis, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rightly recognized that, ``If you ignore the legitimate questions raised about the election, you create conditions for longer-term instability.''
Sen. Patrick Leahy said that the United States ``must come down squarely in support of the Haitian people's right to choose their leaders freely and fairly'' and called for cutting off direct aid to pressure Haiti's government.
But by supporting a recount of tainted votes from the previous flawed elections rather than supporting a fair rerun, the United States is creating the very conditions for long-term instability Clinton hopes to avoid. The only way to support long-term stability in Haiti is to support inclusive elections.
The Obama administration should: 1) announce that it will not provide any further financial support to the current Electoral Council or to any government resulting from this Council's elections; and 2) offer to support fair elections under a new Electoral Council.
The Préval administration should: 1) ask the Electoral Council to annul the first round of elections and resign; 2) work with Haitian society to appoint a balanced Electoral Council; 3) allow all political exiles, including President Aristide, to return; and 4) run the elections the Haitian people deserve.
The time and cost of organizing new elections is a small price to pay to avoid wasting the $11 billion promised for earthquake reconstruction. The elections budget -- $29 million -- is less than two weeks' expenses for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti. Fair elections would do more for ensuring a stable and democratic government able to rebuild the country effectively than peacekeeping troops ever could.
Nicole Phillips is a staff attorney at the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti and assistant director for Haiti Programs with the University of San Francisco School of Law. Nicolas Alberto Pascal is a graduate student in Global & International Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara.

NEW REPORT URGES CHANGES IN U.S. FOOD AID TO HAITI


by Roger Annis (Haiti Liberte) An important new study on the right to food in Haiti was published in December. It examines the impact that foreign food aid programs have had on Haiti, U.S. programs in particular.
The report is based on surveys of families in the region surrounding the town of Hinche in central Haiti. It is entitled "Sak Vid Pa Kanpe: The Impact of U.S. Food Aid on Human Rights in Haiti." The title draws on a Haitian proverb, lamenting that a sack cannot stand if it is empty. It is a powerful metaphor for the importance of food and sustenance to a human's capacity to "stand" and function.
"Sak Vid Pa Kanpe" finds that while U.S. food aid may provide nourishment to many people, it fails to improve long-term food security and therefore interferes with basic human rights.
The study's four authors are the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law, Partners In Health, the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, and Zanmi Lasante, the Haitian health agency allied with Partners In Health.
*Existing policy has "disastrous" results*
The report argues that the right to food is a basic human right. Nothing controversial there; any government in the world will say it follows that principle in its aid programs. But the report shows this is anything but the truth. There is very little of a rights-based approach in the food aid programs of the United States, and most other big powers for that matter.
"The realization of the right to food requires more than temporary alleviation of hunger," the report says. It traces U.S. policy towards Haiti over the past several decades and concludes: "While coercing Haiti to nearly eliminate its import tariffs on rice, reduce investments in agriculture, and focus on a few crops for export, the United States gradually increased shipments of its own agricultural commodities to Haiti."
The result has been "a disastrous effect on Haitians' ability to produce food for domestic consumption and has created Haitian dependence on the importation of food." In 1986, Haiti produced 80% of the food it consumed. By 2008, that figure was 42%. In the wake of the earthquake and now the cholera outbreak, the gap between local agricultural production and imported aid is widening every more.
Researchers for the report found that in the region of Hinche, food aid did fill important gaps in people's needs but did not eliminate hunger. Nearly 90% of people responding to the survey - and over 80% of their young children - had gone to sleep hungry in the month before the survey because there was not enough food.
Some 62% of surveyed aid recipients reported that they did not know how to prepare the food because it was unfamiliar while 11% of recipients received food that was inedible; 14% became ill from eating food aid.
The report says that one out of ten children under five years of age in Haiti is severely malnourished. One in three is chronically malnourished. This has a direct impact on the child mortality rate (five years of age and under), which is 72 per 1,000 live births.
Surveys of the camps of earthquake survivors in recent months have documented similar examples of malnutrition. (See, for example, "We've Been Forgotten": Conditions in Haiti's Displacement Camps Eight Months After the Earthquake, September 2010, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.)
"In the short term, U.S. food aid in Haiti does reduce food insecurity for individual households receiving help," the report states. "But in the long term, food aid has been unable to ensure lasting, sustainable food security, an element of the right to food. Instead of supporting the agricultural production upon which so many Haitians depend, it has undermined the livelihoods of peasants and small farmers in Haiti."
*Unacceptable conditions of food aid*
The report looks at the negative consequences of tying food aid to the commercial interests of the donating country. In addition to the aforementioned consequence on local food production, it finds that imported food is very costly. Two thirds of "Title Two" food aid (the program under which the vast majority of U.S. food aid is provided) goes to cover transportation costs.
According to the report, in 2008, the United States spent 67 times more money on food aid to Haiti than in providing assistance to Haitian farmers.
The United States and Japan are among the few remaining countries in the world to tie food and other aid to procurement in their own countries. Whereas the proportion of aid that is tied is gradually falling in the world, it remains at nearly 100% in the U.S.
An article by Beverley Bell of Other Worlds, "Miami Rice": The Business of Disaster in Haiti details the destructive consequences of the commercialization of food aid on Haiti's rice producers. (See other excellent articles on Haitian agriculture by Beverley Bell and other authors on the website of Other Worlds.)
"Monetization" of food aid is another harmful practice. This is where charities and NGOs are permitted to sell donated food on local markets in order to finance their programs.
Recent Wikileaks revelations show that U.S. trade policies in agriculture are not the benign workings of the "free market," as proponents argue. The U.S. government has taken aggressive moves in Europe to break down barriers to the importation of genetically modified seeds patented by U.S. agricultural and chemical conglomerates.
Threats and aggressive moves have been used against successive Haitian governments to "open" Haiti's markets to U.S. imports.
*Cholera and agriculture*
A recent article by Haitian agronomist William Michel on the Haiti-Nation website looks at the impact of the cholera epidemic on the future of agriculture in Haiti. He says the date of cholera's arrival will go down in infamy among Haitian peasants in the same way that Sep. 11, 2001 has for many U.S. citizens.
The author expects the cost of rice, vegetables and other crops will rise due to a host of reasons, including the need to procure uncontaminated water for processing. Demand will likely drop out of fear that food in contaminated. The epidemic began in Haiti's most fertile agricultural region, the Artibonite River valley.
Indeed, a Nov. 20 article in French entitled "Cholera: Artibonite rice producers in trouble" on the website of the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH), the foreign occupation force, says that wholesale rice buyers in Port-au-Prince have stopped buying rice from the Artibonite valley, forcing farmers there to lower prices that are already below production costs.
"Sak Vid Pa Kanpe" proposes recommendations for U.S. government policy makers, including:
-- Cease the policy whereby food aid must originate from U.S. sources. Boost Haitian agricultural production through local purchasing and assistance to local producers.
-- End the policy ("monetization") that allows NGOs and charities to sell U.S. food aid.
-- Institute full transparency and disclosure of foreign aid, and cooperate with the Haitian government and agencies in planning aid programs.
-- Ensure meaningful participation of Haitians in all U.S. assistance programs to Haiti.?
The same consortium of groups which authored "Sak Vid Pa Kanpe" produced the 2008 report "Woch nan Soley: The Denial of the Right to Water in Haiti," which noted that the politically motivated "actions taken by the United States [in 2001] in blocking IDB development loans earmarked for water projects in Haiti were a direct violation of the U.S. government's human rights obligations."
"Sak Vid Pa Kanpe" is a welcome addition to the growing trove of books and studies which illustrate how U.S. food aid, whose main beneficiary is U.S. agribusiness, has sabotaged Haiti's food sovereignty rather than promoting it.
To read or download "Sak Vid Pa Kanpe," and for more information on the groups who wrote it, go to: www.rfkcenter.org/files/RTF_Briefing.pdf . Roger Annis is a coordinator of the Canada Haiti Action Network.

Qui est le candidat Michel Martelly ?

Par Jeb Sprague
Haïti Liberté

[Ndlr.] Le texte qui suit est une traduction modifi ée de la version anglaise parue dans l’édition de la semaine dernière (Haiti Liberte V.4. No. 22. Michel Martelly, Stealth Duvalierist. P.9). Il est présenté sous un autre titre.

Dans la presse couvrant la crise électorale en cours en Haïti, le candidat à la présidence Michel « Sweet Micky » Martelly, que le candidat du Parti dirigeant Unité Jude Célestin a dépassé avec moins de 1% des votes avec qualifi cation pour le deuxième tour le 16 janvier, a été dépeint comme une victime de fraude électorale et comme le chef d’un soulèvement populiste contre le Conseil électoral provisoire (CEP) corrompu d'Haïti.

Certains ont mis en question son aptitude à devenir président en montrant du doigt ses bouffonneries vulgaires en tant que musicien konpa au cours des deux dernières décennies, lorsqu'il faisait des remarques avilissantes à l'endroit des femmes et périodiquement, baissait ses pantalons pour exhiber ses fesses.

Cependant, le vrai problème avec Martelly n’est pas sa morale lubrique, mais son histoire odieuse en politique et une étroite affi liation avec les «forces des ténèbres» réactionnaires, comme on les appelle en Haïti, qui ont étouffé chaque véritable tentative que les Haïtiens ont faite au cours des 20 dernières années, pour élire un gouvernement démocratique. Loin d’être un champion de la démocratie, Martelly a été une majorette au service de sanglants coups d’Etat et de régimes militaires auxquels il a peut-être même participé.

Après avoir été diplômé de l’école secondaire et une tentative infructueuse pour étudier la médecine, Martelly a été brièvement enrôlé à l’Académie militaire d’Haïti avant d’abandonner. Il a émigré aux États- Unis avec une femme américaine, où il s’est inscrit à Red Rocks Collège, une institution communautaire à Lakewood, Colorado et a travaillé dans une épicerie locale. En 1986, après seulement un semestre, il a divorcé et est retourné en Haïti.

Affi nités Duvaliéristes

Sous la dictature de Baby Doc Duvalier, Martelly a dirigé une boîte de nuit appelée Le Garage, fréquentée par des militaires et des membres de la petite minorité dirigeante. Lors d’une récente conférence de presse, Martelly a parlé avec nostalgie de l’ère Duvaliériste, quand François «Papa Doc» Duvalier et plus tard son fi ls Jean-Claude «Baby Doc» imposaient leur despotisme par les fusils et les machettes brandi par des Tontons Macoutes, une sorte de Gestapo haïtienne.

Dans un article paru en 2002, le Washington Post a expliqué comment le chanteur konpa fut pendant longtemps « le favori des voyous qui ont travaillé au nom de la dictature de la famille des Duvalier tant haïe, avant son effondrement en 1986 » Mais les médias traditionnels n’ont pas encore souligné ces affi liations passées du chanteur.

Les affi nités duvaliéristes ne devraient pas être prises à la légère. Des groupes des droits de l’homme comme La Ligue des anciens prisonniers politiques et des familles de disparus ont compilé une liste partielle de plusieurs milliers de victimes du régime Duvalier, qui a été publié dans Haïti Progrès en 1987, mais des estimations totales des personnes tuées pendant les 29 ans de cette longue dictature appuyée par les Etats-Unis, sont de l'ordre de 30.000 à 50.000 personnes.

Après la chute de Baby Doc en Février 1986, un mouvement démocratique de masse, longtemps réprimé par les Duvalier, éclata et devint connu sous le nom de Lavalas, ou torrent. Martelly est rapidement devenu un adversaire acharné de Lavalas, en lançant des attaques acerbes contre le mouvement populaire dans ses chansons jouées sur les antennes de radio haïtienne. Martelly a commencé à jouer du clavier comme un «fi ll-in gigger» à Pétionville et à Kenscoff, banlieue est de Port-au-Prince. L'un de ses emplois régulier était à El Rancho, un casino appartenant à Joe Namphy, le frère du général Henri Namphy, qui a été président d'une junte militaire pendant une courte période après le départ de Jean-Claude Duvalier.

La montée d'Aristide et le coup de 1991

Après son élection spectaculaire avec 67% des votes aux élections du 16 décembre 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ancien prêtre de paroisse et leader du mouvement Lavalas, a été inauguré le 7 février 1991 en tant que président démocratiquement élu d’Haïti, mais pour être ensuite renversé par un coup d’Etat militaire, la première fois, le 30 septembre 1991, après seulement sept mois de son terme de cinq ans. Le Miami Herald observait en 1996 que Martelly « a été étroitement associé à des sympathisants du coup d’Etat militaire de 1991 qui a renversé l’ancien président Jean-Bertrand Aristide »

La junte militaire au pouvoir en Haïti entre 1991 et 1994 a été sanglante et brutale. Selon Human Rights Watch, quelque 5.000 personnes ont été assassinées par des soldats de la junte et des groupes paramilitaires, et des milliers d'autres torturées et violées. Des centaines de milliers ont été poussés à la clandestinité et à l’exil. Martelly est devenu le bouffon du coup d’État, applaudissant la junte alors qu’elle était au pouvoir.

Il était un copain du redoutable lieutenant-colonel Michel François, qui, comme chef de la police, a été la principale personne à la tête des bourreaux du coup d’État. Par exemple, selon un rapport de la Commission d’enquête sur le Coup d’Etat du 30 septembre en Haïti dirigée par l’ancien procureur général américain, Ramsey Clark, François conduisait une Jeep rouge en tête de plusieurs bus pleins des soldats qui se dirigeaient vers de grandes foules manifestant contre le coup d’Etat sur le Champ de Mars, devant le Palais national dans la nuit du 30 septembre 1991. (En Janvier 1991, neuf mois plus tôt, un autre coup d’État par Roger Lafontant avait été avorté à la suite de manifestations de masse similaires.) La foule applaudit les soldats, croyant qu’ils étaient venus pour mettre une fi n au coup d’Etat. Au contraire, au signal de François, on ouvrit les fenêtres des bus, alors la police et les soldats ont fauché des centaines de manifestants avec des tirs de mitrailleuses.

Martelly affi rme qu'il a eu son surnom de «Sweet Micky» (c'est aussi le nom de son groupe) lors d'une performance dans une boîte de nuit en 1988, mais c’est un sobriquet également partagé par le colonel Michel François. Le cinéaste et écrivain américain Kevin Piña se rappelle un concert à l’Hôtel El Rancho à Pétionville en Juillet 1993 où le colonel "Michel François, ... qui était aussi appelé ‘Sweet Micky'après le coup d'Etat de 1991 parce que les gens prétendaient qu'il avait un large sourire sur son visage quand il tuait les partisans de Lavalas…saisit la main de Martelly en annonçant à la foule: "Voilà le vrai Sweet Micky ". Et Piña d'ajouter: «C’est la première fois que j'ai entendu Martelly appelé comme tel »

On avait annoncé un concert que Martelly avait organisé à la demande de Michel François et d'autres dirigeants de la junte militaire à titre de manifestation contre Dante Caputo, le représentant spécial des Nations Unies en Haïti qui tentait de déployer des observateurs des Nations Unies des droits humains dans le pays. Au même moment, l’armée haïtienne et les escadrons de la mort de l'infâme FRAPH étaient en train de massacrer des membres de la résistance contre le coup d'Etat.

Martelly a joué un concert gratuit avec l'idée de s’opposer au retour du président déchu d’Haïti et à toute présence américaine sur l’île troublée. Le charismatique Martelly a refusé de céder à la critique de ses affi liations avec des politiciens et des fonctionnaires corrompus. Comme il a déjà eu à déclarer à un journaliste «je n’ai pas à me défendre .... C’est mon droit. C’est mon pays. Je peux me battre pour ce que je crois » (Miami New Times, May 29, 1997). Martelly, connu à l’époque pour ses nombreuses amitiés parmi les militaires, s'expliquait ainsi au Miami New Times: « Je n’ai pas accepté [la demande de jouer] parce que j’étais l'ami de Michel François, je n’ai pas accepté parce que c’était l’Armée. J'y suis allé parce que je ne voulais pas voir Aristide revenir ».

Plus choquant encore, le Père Jean-Marie Vincent (qui a été tué par un escadron de la mort putschiste le 28 août 1994) avait accusé Martelly d’accompagner la police haïtienne durant des raids de nuit meurtriers dans le but de traquer de présumés dirigeants de la résistance Lavalas. « Nous avons des informations que Michel Martelly se déplaçait avec des escadrons de la mort de la police quand ils sortent la nuit pour prendre en chasse et tuer des dirigeants Lavalas», eut à déclarer Vincent au cinéaste Pina dans une interview fi lmée.

Après le retour d'Aristide en Haïti en Octobre 1994, Martelly a passé le plus clair de son temps à vivre «dans un condo à Miami Beach», où il « présentait régulièrement un concert à la Promenade sur Ocean Drive, où son groupe Sweet Micky jouait le compas, une musique rythmique de danse haïtienne », selon le Miami New Times. En 2000, Aristide a été élu à une majorité écrasante pour un second mandat. Mais l’administration Bush, arrivée également au pouvoir à cette époque, a lancé une campagne de déstabilisation, visant à renverser Aristide, ce qui est raconté en détail dans le livre de Peter Hallward, publié en 2007, Damming the Flood. Martelly n'a pas demandé mieux que de devenir un participant à ce coup d’Etat en gestation.

En 2002, l’étau se resserrait autour d’Aristide. D’anciens soldats avaient tenté un coup d’Etat le 17 décembre 2001, et l’embargo sur l’aide américaine faisait ses ravages. Néanmoins, le gouvernement d’Aristide avait lancé plusieurs programmes d’investissement social, y compris des coopératives alimentaires, la construction d’un nombre sans précédent d’écoles, des subventions pour manuels scolaires, et autres mesures, promouvant l’alphabétisation. Dans sa chanson de carnaval en 2002, Martelly a évoqué «des émeutes récentes dans un entrepôt du quai, déclenchées à la suite d’une rumeur que des fonctionnaires du parti d’Aristide volaient de la nourriture d’un programme alimentaire pour les pauvres», a écrit le Washington Post. Bien que la corruption sous Aristide fût pâle comparée à celle sous la junte militaire de 1991 que Martelly avait appuyée, sa chanson carnavalesque toucha une corde sensible.

En 2003, Martelly dépensait en moyenne $150.000 $ à $200 000 pour ses chars durant le carnaval annuel à Port-au-Prince, selon le Miami Herald. Pendant le carnaval où traditionnellement on se moque du gouvernement, Martelly a lancé des critiques extrêmement acerbes et vulgaires à l'endroit d'Aristide. Lors, « Kolangèt manman ou Aristide » a été l’un des refrains de Sweet Micky, peut-être la pire insulte qu'on peut faire en créole, ce qui signifi e littéralement «le colon a baisé ta mère.”

Le putsch de 2004 et ses conséquences

En février 2004, Aristide était chassé du pouvoir une fois de plus. Une équipe des "Seals" (ndlr. une force spéciale de la marine américaine) a enlevé le président chez lui - ce qu'Aristide a appelé «un enlèvement moderne" - et l’a envoyé en exil en Afrique, où il demeure à ce jour. Durant l'échafaudage de ce coup d'Etat, des soi-disant «rebelles», composés d’anciens soldats de l’armée haïtienne et d'anciens paramilitaires de l'escadron de la mort FRAPH, conduisaient des raids en Haïti dans le Plateau Central et dans le Nord, exécutant de façon sauvage des dizaines de partisans d’Aristide, des représentants du gouvernement et certains membres de leurs familles. Wyclef Jean, un ami de Martelly, a décrit les «rebelles» comme des combattants de la liberté qui «se battaient pour leurs droits.»

Après le coup d'Etat, des soldats américains, français, et canadiens ont occupé Haïti et ont mis en place un régime de facto illégal. Comme les protestations contre le coup d’Etat de Février augmentaient, Martelly tint un concert à Port-au-Prince en avril 2004 afi n de contrecarrer les appels en faveur du retour d’Aristide. Le concert était intitulé: «Gardez-le dehors!» En Septembre 2004, la tempête tropicale Jeanne inondait les Gonaïves, une ville du nord-ouest, tuant quelque 3.000 personnes. Gérard Latortue, le premier ministre de facto installé par les États-Unis, fut largement critiqué à cause de sa réponse tardive et ineffi cace à la catastrophe. L'une de ses rares initiatives fut d’organiser une collecte de fonds avec les gens d’affaires haïtiens et américains réunis à la Chambre de commerce haïtiano-américaine. Martelly, qui ne s'était servi de sa musique que pour saper Aristide, fut la vedette du gala de Latortue, ainsi que l'a rapporté le Miami Herald.

En 2006, alors que des militants Lavalas étaient dans la clandestinité, emprisonnés ou assassinés, le régime Latortue tint une élection qui porta l'ex-président René Préval au pouvoir. La base de Lavalas avait soutenu Préval, pensant qu’il allait faciliter le retour d'Aristide, libérer tous les prisonniers politiques du coup d’Etat, et renverser le cours néolibéral de la dictature de Latortue. Mais Préval a trahi ces attentes, créant, au contraire, un gouvernement dominé par des partisans du coup d’Etat et travaillant en étroite collaboration avec l’occupation militaire étrangère qui a été par la suite transférée à l’ONU. De larges couches de pauvres ne tardèrent pas à le vilipender pour avoir failli à permettre le retour d’Aristide ou à redémarrer plusieurs des programmes populaires d’investissement social qu'Aristide avait lancés. En 2009, le CEP de Préval interdit au parti d’Aristide, la Famille Lavalas (FL), de participer aux élections sénatoriales partielles et, plus tard, aux élections présidentielles et parlementaires. La piteuse réponse de Préval après le tremblement de terre catastrophique de Janvier 2010 a accéléré son déclin.

Les Sélections de 2010 et la montée de Martelly

Finalement, le CEP fi xait des élections générales pour le 28 novembre 2010. L’Associated Press rapporte le 10 décembre que la «popularité politique [de Martelly] a décollé dans les semaines avant le vote et semble avoir fait un bond depuis qu’il est apparu qu’il avait été disqualifi é de la course de justesse.» Cette hausse est due à la campagne de haute technologie de Martelly, d'une puissance supérieure à celle de ses 18 rivaux, qu'il a surclassés en lançant des dizaines de milliers de messages-textes téléphonique, demandant aux gens de voter pour lui. Martelly a embauché une fi rme de relations publiques espagnole hitech pour gérer sa campagne et le mettre en vedette. « La fi rme Sola, basée à Madrid, qui a joué un rôle essentiel en plaçant Felipe Calderón du Mexique dans le fauteuil présidentiel en 2006, a dirigé la campagne de Martelly durant les sept dernières semaines, ce qui en dit long pour comprendre comment le musicien, connu pour ses singeries, est devenu un candidat sérieux à la présidence d’Haïti », a rapporté le Toronto Star, le 6 décembre.

Communément, on admet que Calderón a volé les élections de 2006 au candidat de gauche López Obrador, une sale victoire qui a plu à Washington. L’entreprise Ostos & Sola a également contribué à la campagne de Lech Walesa, le pion de l’establishment américain en Pologne. Damian Merlo, directeur exécutif d'Ostos & Sola et dirigeant de la campagne de Martelly, a travaillé sur la campagne présidentielle de John McCain, l'ultra-réactionnaire républicain américain, avant de rejoindre l’entreprise. Toutes ces associations soulèvent des questions sur quelle «main cachée» peut-être derrière la campagne de Martelly. « Aujourd'hui la question qui n'a pas de prix est la suivante: qui est l’homme d’affaires de Miami qui est allé vers Antonia Sola pour retaper la campagne de Michel Martelly» a écrit le Toronto Star. «Sola sourit à la question, avec son charme espagnol. Il ne veut pas trop en dire. «Un ami, un homme d’affaires, nous a présenté Michel aux États-Unis», at- il seulement dit.

La clé de la formule de Sola pour Martelly a été de le présenter comme un «outsider», même s’il avait été le grand initié au sein de la bourgeoisie putschiste qui a renversé Aristide par deux fois. Le 28 novembre, comme il était devenu évident que les élections d’Haïti étaient chargées de fraudes avec en plus négation des droits civiques, Martelly a rejoint 11 autres candidats pour demander leur annulation. Mais plus tard, ce jourlà, selon ce qu'a rapporté Al Jazeera, Edmond Mulet, qui dirige la Mission des Nations Unies pour stabiliser Haïti (MINUSTAH), a appelé personnellement Martelly pour lui dire qu’il était en tête. Sweet Micky, sans même souffl er un mot aux autres candidats du groupe formé de façon impromptue, est retourné dans la course électorale.

Le lendemain, Martelly a nié avoir jamais signé la lettre commune, lue en sa présence lors de la conférence de presse conjointe des candidats le 28 novembre appelant à l’annulation de l’élection. Il a expliqué «son changement de position en disant que sa candidature menait gagnante dans les bureaux de vote où il n’y avait pas eu de fraudes,» a rapporté le Daily Herald de Chicago. «Il a vu toutes les fraudes qui ont eu lieu le jour du scrutin,» a déclaré à IPS un chauffeur de taxi moto, Weed Charlot, en parlant de Martelly. «Mais maintenant, il voit qu’il a des votes et le pouvoir, alors maintenant il va accepter les élections. » Le même jour où il a parlé à Martelly, Mulet a appelé la candidate Mirlande Manigat pour lui dire qu’elle aussi était en tête du vote. Elle aussi a abandonné le groupe des candidats revendiquant l'annulation.

Puis, le 7 décembre, le CEP a annoncé que Manigat était en tête avec Célestin du parti Unité en deuxième place, donc en position pour le second tour. Martelly, qui, apparemment, est arrivé troisième avec un peu plus de 21%, soit environ 6.800 moins de voix que Célestin, a repris la voie des protestations. La colère populaire était déjà forte contre Préval et le CEP pour avoir exclu Fanmi Lavalas (23% seulement des 4,7 millions électeurs haïtiens se sont présentés, selon le CEP). Le mess des élections a été la goutte d'eau qui a renversé le vase. En outre, il y avait la rage contre la MINUSTAH pour avoir tenté d’étouffer que ses troupes à Mirebalais ont accidentellement introduit le choléra en Haïti, où la maladie est maintenant devenue une pandémie. Avec Wyclef Jean à ses côtés prédisant une «guerre civile», Martelly a canalisé la profonde frustration populaire pour attaquer le gouvernement pour lui avoir “volé” une victoire que, prétend-il, devrait être sienne.

Le résultat a été une vague de chaos liée aux élections. «Il est clair que la plupart des actes de violence en Haïti autour de l’élection ont été menées par des partisans Martelly," a dit Ricot Dupuy de Radio Soleil d’Haïti, basée à Brooklyn. «Des milliers de ses partisans ont paralysé la capitale et d’autres villes durant des manifestations qui comprenaient des attaques sur des bâtiments publics », a rapporté Reuters. Certaines personnes sont mortes au cours de fusillades et escarmouches entre partisans de Martelly et ceux de Célestin. À la fi n de Novembre, le journaliste haïtien Wadner Pierre a vu un groupe de partisans de Martelly au centre de vote Batiment 2004 à Port-au-Prince lancer des pierres tout en chantant: «Si vous ne nous laissez pas voter, nous allons brûler ce bâtiment.» Les partisans de Martelly sont responsables de la destruction des bâtiments gouvernementaux dans la capitale et dans la ville méridionale des Cayes. Ils ont aussi agressé des adversaires, tandis que les partisans de Célestin ont été accusés d’avoir tué au moins un membre du secteur de Martelly au Champ de Mars.

L'ancien colonel Himmler Rebu a déclaré sur les ondes de Signal FM en Haïti qu’il avait été témoin de la tactique des troupes de Martelly dans la rue. «C’est rien de simple,” a-t-il dit, un euphémisme créole impliquant qu’il y a des forces cachées en action. En bref, il y a deux mouvements en Haïti aujourd’hui, que certains rapports de presse sont en train de simplifi er de façon trompeuse pour en faire un seul. Il y a les masses Lavalas mobilisées contre des élections frauduleuses et d'exclusion de Préval, contre l’occupation de l’ONU, et aussi pour le retour d’Aristide.

Ensuite, il y a la mobilisation de Martelly, utilisant sa célébrité et celle de Wyclef ainsi que les techniques scientifi ques d'Ostos & Sola, pour coopter la frustration populaire contre Préval dans un effort de se hisser au pouvoir. Pour jeter la confusion parmi les gens, il assimile Préval à Aristide, prétendant qu’ils sont les gouvernements "jumeaux" responsables des «politiques d'échec « de ces deux dernières décennies. En réalité, le triste état d'Haïti aujourd’hui peut être attribué principalement aux coups d’Etat de 1991 et 2004, que Martelly a appuyés. En outre, le pouvoir soutenant Préval - la bourgeoisie putschiste d'Haïti - est également proche de Martelly. Nous assistons [donc] à une féroce rivalité entre deux factions qui se partagent les deux mêmes sponsors: la classe d’affaires d’Haïti anti-Lavalas et les élites transnationales soutenues par les États-Unis, leur appareil d’État le plus puissant.

Comme Martelly l'a expliqué à Georgianne Nienaber du Huffi ngton Post, il est tout à fait d'accord avec l'ordonnance de Washington pour Haïti, soutenant "tout ce qui aidera les exportations ... tout ce qui aidera le secteur privé. « Deuxièmement, Martelly n'appuie pas l'appel du peuple à mettre fi n à l’occupation de l’ONU en Haïti: «Je tiens à dire à la communauté internationale, au corps diplomatique et aux organismes non gouvernementaux que nous avons besoin d'eux," a-t-il dit dans la même interview. En fi n de compte, le candidat Martelly n’est pas un “dark horse” (outsider) [ndlr. un inconnu (politique)], comme le Globe & Mail du Canada le suggère, sorti de nulle part pour se mettre à la tête des «jeunes et des démunis d'Haïti.» Pendant sa campagne, Martelly s'était plu à dire qu’en Haïti, « il s'agit davantage de l’homme que du plan » Si cela est vrai, les Haïtiens devraient avoir de sérieux doutes sur un homme qui a soutenu deux régimes issus de coups d’Etat et qui a utilisé des escadrons de la mort pour réduire au silence la majorité pauvre et étrangler la démocratie qui commençait à naître en Haïti.