CSMS Magazine Staff Writers
Last month, the New York Times published a lengthy article titled Haitian Leader’s Power grows as Scandals swirl on Michel Martelly and the corruption plaguing his presidency—from drug trafficking to bribery and political assassinations. It seems like few people took notice—at least within the Haitian community. So meticulous was the article, one wonders why would the New Times publish something like this? Knowing the role of this important, mega-mainstream publication in the United States—often the mouthpiece of American power—it is intriguing to find out why the Times would zero in on Martelly, a client Head of State who holds no real power in Haiti. He is a proxy president bent on doing what he is told—a caretaker “president” who, in proxy politics, would have no serious input in strategic matters regarding Haiti.
Is this an attempt to rewrite the narrative on Martelly’s circumstantial win 4 years ago? Or is this a way to signal that Martelly has been literally dumped by his bosses? To this reasoning, The Times explains how Martelly, then Sweet Micky, was ushered into the presidency. According to the Times, “Mr. Martelly was elected in 2011 after being placed in a runoff despite coming in third in a disputed election. International organizations, with an assist from Washington, helped Mr. Martelly by documenting his opponents’ widespread voter fraud.” Here, the New York Times exposes the political maneuverings, the backstabbing, and the raw disrespect for the Haitian voters. “Placing” a candidate in a runoff while he stood 3rd in the field only throws out the “holy” narrative of “fairness” that Bill Clinton and others were claiming to characterize the election of Michel Martelly in 2011.
The UN which certified the election then conceded that only 33 % of eligible voters went to the polls, which means 67 % stayed home. In this calculus, even if Sweet Micky were to receive 100 % of the vote, it would not have been sufficed to secure popular legitimacy. Now, we know the election was a farce, the voters were window-dressing in a “staged” play that stuffed Martelly into the pie—presumably because he was the best among the stooges fighting for who would be the most qualified candidate to represent foreign interests in Haiti.
The Times says “International organizations, with an assist from Washington” without mentioning their names, but we get the message. We’re not stupid, and we can read between the lines. René Preval, who was then president, was simply outmaneuvered. Unwilling to fight for Haiti, he forfeited his right to govern. (See René Preval bows as Hillary Clinton orders)
The Times also points out that recently Martelly has managed to upstage his political opponents and emerged victorious after a long political bickering. Martelly’s power grew in the aftermath of that political battle that left the Haitian Parliament disbanded. Now that he and he alone shapes power in that Caribbean nation, he has been ruling by decree. The times goes on to say that Martelly went on to shield many of his protégés and family members, including his wife Sophia Martelly formally charged on corruption charges.
According to the Times, “the Martelly administration’s influence has been criticized most for its effect on the judiciary, where the criminal cases of some people close to the president have stalled or disappeared.” The New York Times goes on to say that “prosecutors who objected to the administration’s interference were fired or fled, and one judge who complained that the president had meddled in a civil corruption case against Sophia Martelly, the first lady, died two days later.”
That’s not all. Adding to the First Lady’s case, several dubious figures sought by police, previously arrested on drug trafficking and cold-blooded murder were later released under threat from Martelly as it was the case of a certain “Evinx Daniel, a prominent hotelier and Martelly campaign supporter who owns Dan’s Creek, a beachfront hotel the president is known to frequent.” The Times says Martelly was heavily criticized for the handling of the case.
When the suspect was interrogated by investigators, “Mr. Daniel told the authorities that he had found 23 packages of marijuana floating at sea and decided to bring them home. He called the president’s brother-in-law, Mr. Saint-Rémy, who called the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to pick up the load, the brother-in-law said.
A prosecutor, Jean Marie Salomon, doubted the story, suspecting that it was a ruse to cover up a drug deal that local residents had stumbled upon, and arrested Mr. Daniel on drug-trafficking charges. But the prosecutor was nervous, because he knew the hotelier had been active in the president’s campaign.”
And to send a message to the judge who ordered the arrest of Evinx Daniel, the next day, “Martelly went to Port Salut, about 140 miles west of the capital, and stayed at his friend’s hotel.” The trip to Port Salut was told by Sweet Micky’s own brother in-law now feeling estranged after being forced to resign in the wake of the drug scandal.
“It was not only a provocation from the president, but also a coded message,” Mr. Salomon, the judge said in reference to Martelly’s weekend trip to his friend’s hotel in Port Salut. “That day, I understood there was a bounty on me, and my days were numbered.” Mr. Salomon called the United Nations for help and fled the country.
These revelations are blatant and humiliating for a people who have suffered so much. When they spearheaded Martelly and his band to the presidency, they knew he was involved in all kinds of dirty dealings. But it was their way to tie the leash on Haiti and its people, handpicking the most vulgar elements in outer layer of society so the coons can be totally beholden to their masters. The New Times article was a vivid reminder to Sweet Micky and his bands of who truly rules Haiti. It’s hard to imagine these are the people they have put in charge to rule the land of Dessalines.
The New York Times article can also be interpreted as the beginning of the end for Martelly who has fired Laurent Lamothe, his former Prime Minister—a Bill Clinton protégé. The coming of Evans Paul, current Martelly’s PM, has yet to receive Washington’s blessing, and if the Times’ article exposes Martelly, it also shields Lamothe “[who] was seen by [Washington] as cracking down on kidnapping and organized crime.” But Lamothe himself was involved in shadowy dealings, as it was rumored in many venues. But he is Bill Clinton’s man, now. His narrative will have to be for sometimes in the future.
What has Haiti done to deserve this?
Note: For a complete read of the New York Times article, click here: Haitian Leader’s Power grows as Scandals swirl Like us on FB: www.facebook.com/csmsmagazine
JeffKalyllJunior Will check it out. Thanks!
EziliDanto JeffKalyllJunior Once, this is a well thought response. To this end, I’m encouraging you to read this new novel. It’s titled “Midnight at Noon.” It’s the best Haitian novel I read, and some critics say it is the best “read” since Jacques Stephen Alexis wrote “Compere General Soleil”. Midnight is a book that describes class antagonisms in Haiti at its rawest form. I believe it is a book that every Haitian of good faith should read. It’s my hope the author will publish a French version. This book certainly has the potentials to contribute in the current debate in Haiti and in the Haitian Diaspora on how to move forward. The author is a well-known intellectual, social activist and university professor Ardain Isma
Once again, Thank you for your comments!
JeffKalyllJunior Thank you for the response. Much appreciated. It’s not often we speak to conscious folks who are familiar with the non-colonial narrative on Haiti. Much appreciate the intervention.
As you know Haitians fight for change constantly and the generation before us, like Jacques Stephen Alexi and before him, like Anténor Firmin where “energetic and patriotic Haitians” with the courage who fought so hard, they left lands and islands for this generation that the tyrants are now back, in full force with their small conquered nations at the UN, to take from the poor.
Part of the problem is not just the Haitian agents the imperialist buys off to do his biding, but the fact that the most EDUCATED, POWERFUL and RICHEST citizenry on planet earth ACCEPT injustice for themselves and especially for “the other.” So, as long at the US masses, for instance, tolerate de-legitimized elections in the US, then it’s harder for tiny Haiti to, alone, lift the US-Euro boots off their nation’s neck. That boot is romanticized in the US as “good, charitable and just and democratic!”
Late this year, Haiti is set to have another US-funded and sponsored carnival – they’ll call it “elections.” In 2016, that same theater will play out in the US, where the duopoly will entertain their masses.
The fact that a small minority, a small group of families – the tiny world oligarchs – run everything and buy votes, manipulates votes, gerrymanders local community power blocs out of existence, seems to escape the US citizenry, their pundits or the NYTimes when it writes.
They’re self-servingly oblivious to the disastrous neoliberal policies (that is, the privatization of public assets for the private use of the corporatocracy) designed to protect the interests of the
largest trans-national corporations at the expense of workers,
consumers, the environment and the very foundations of justice, fair play and democracy.
Incredibly, the masses EVERYWHERE are locked
out of the process governing themselves, not just in Haiti. The US oligarchs don’t just feed at the trough of the modern day re-enslavement of Haitians, but also their own people in the US. The impoverishing of small US farmers may not hurt as much as when the US impoverished Haiti farmers in order to sell its big-agro subsidized Arkansas rice. But don’t tell that to the US family who went bankrupt in the US. Thing is, the few ruling the planet are hurting us all. In Haiti they OPENLY destroy our efforts at representative democracy in order to give jobs to the citizens they’ve oppressed in the US who have taken jobs at NGOs, non-for-profits, the military and PMSCs. The US destroys democracy to bring Haiti democracy. But the media will deflect this. It doesn’t seem IRRATIONAL to any of those who are BENEFITING from our demise. So I think people in the powerful countries who are benefiting
from Haiti’s oppression must get the courage to STOP. Must find the courage to put together a representative government, of the people, for the people, by the people in the United States!. Obama, the first Black US president is as much a puppet of white supremacy and subjugation as Martelly, Kagame, Yoweri Museveni, Alassane Ouattara, et al..
One embattled African president who kicked the NGOS out of his country and who talks about the West’s fake charity, fake elections and fake democracy, said most notably:
“The most undemocratic nation on earth is the United States…. It’s a
controlled democracy. It’s anarchic totalitarianism. Anarchy for a small
minority- the special interests. But it’s totalitarian. It’s
totalitarian because they control everything. They control the economy,
they control resources, they control the lives of human beings. They
control almost everything: culture, social life of human beings. They
control everything…. ”
“There has to
be a genuine representative for the people. If you live in a community,
the community will have to elect the people who manage the affairs of
the community. Without that you cannot live as a community. And that’s a
basic requirement for a nation building… If you buy votes, is that
representation?… If one percent of the population is the percentage
that has everything; and if money is elections, then one percent will
buy the votes of 99%. The end result represents one percent of the
population. Ok?… We can’t put aside this issue. It’s a critical issue…” http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2015/04/foreign-aid-is-meant-to-cripple-people
CamilleGauthier Vous avez raison Mr. Gauthier. Un front uni est necessaire en Haiti pour pour reconquerir notre independance perdue. Votre message est bien recu.
«Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes »
Nous, militants sincères qui luttons toujours
Pour une meilleure Haïti, comment avions-nous
Pu accepter en cadeau de la Communauté
Internationale, en 2004, une tortue (made in U.S.)
Et en 2011, un aigle chauve et cosmopolite?
C’est parce que nous ne nous asseyons pas ensemble.
Nous pouvons arriver à diminuer, en Haïti,
La misère, la pauvreté, le sous-dévelopement;
Parce que la Communauté Internationale
A peur d’un front ayant une seule tête.
D’une part, nous voulons de bonnes élections,
D’autre part, nous refusons catégoriquement de la
Communauté Internationale, ni sa tortue ni son aigle.
Personne ne sait réellement s’il y aura cette annéee
Des élections ni quand le prochain dechoukaj en Haïti.
C’est pourquoi, nous, compatriotes de bonne foi,
Sommes condamnés à faire d’une pierre deux coups:
Bâtissons un front unique dont les piliers sont
Organisation, mobilisation, unité, solidarité,
Discipline; sans cela, aucun résultat, nous perdons
Notre temps, le danger sera toujours présent
Et nous ferons l’affaire de la Communauté
Internationale qui est toujours prête à
Nous donner une tortue américaine
Ou un aigle chauve et cosmopolite.
EziliDanto You have a strong point, meticulously detailed. Change will come to Haiti only and only when all energetic, patriotic Haitians will have finally mastered their courage under the guided spirit of our ancestors to wipe out all the sons of Conze and achieve once more what Jacques Stephen Alexis called back in 1957, the new independence. Thanks for your comments!
New York Times ignores US imperialism in Haiti
The New York Times wrote about US imperialism and bullying in Haiti without ever mentioning it.
http://bit.ly/1IcKdCShe New
York Times’ is a day late, a dollar short on reporting the criminality of the
Michel Martelly regime. Notice it comes, not when Haitians where daily http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2014/11/vertieres-2014-haiti-resist-us-occupation/ against Martelly, the legal bandits and rejecting the murders, fraud and ascendancy to formal http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2015/02/barack-obama-installed-dictatorship-haiti/.
Oh no. It comes after formal neoDuvalier dictatorship begins under the US’s first Black president. After
Samantha Powers, Pamela White, Susan Rice, Hollywood and the Clintons
have solidified Obama’s strongman in Haiti. Why? Because mainstream
media, like the NYT, are also part of the organized syndicate working
against the well being of the people of Haiti. They’re part and parcel
of the imperial mafia. The NYT article exposes the crimes of the lowly
soldier for empire, Michel Martelly. It’s like reading a police crime
blotter sheet on Martelly. It’s all true and Haitians in our circle have been naming these
crimes and fighting this corruption daily. The misinformation part is
that Michel Martelly, Laurent Lamothe and the rest of the US thugs were
not put in power by a free Haiti. They’re mere employees of the US
bosses who put them in power and keep them in power against the Haitian
people’s constant dissent and struggle. The New York Times did not point
out that Michel Martelly has been ruling by decree since before
Parliament was officially dissolved. It did not list the deep politics
and crimes of the top US-Euro bosses in Haiti that orchestrated this
travesty. Never mentioned the respondeat superior – how Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama finished the Bushes’ project to destroy
democracy and installed outright dictatorship back into Haiti.
The Haiti struggle is the greatest http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2014/12/one-hundred-years-haiti-resistance/
David vs Goliath battle being played out on planet earth. But, we who
don’t assimilate are Haitians, from the womb to the tomb and Desalin is http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2015/01/haiti-waking-5-years-later/. Desalin taught us how to http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2014/11/vertieres-2014-haiti-resist-us-occupation/
against the greatest evils on planet earth and say no. ( For the piece
answering NYT with the counter-colonial narrative, go to: http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2015/03/mexico-haiti-nyt-ignores-imperialism/ )