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Have
the Latortues Kidnapped Democracy in Haiti?
by Anthony Fenton
June 26, 2005
“More than a year after its establishment, allegations are increasing
of widespread corruption in state institutions, reaching into the offices
of the prime minister and the presidency themselves.”
International Crisis Group Report, “Spoiling Security in Haiti,”
p. 8.
"At a lower level, the virtuous Gerard Latortue must, for his part,
face his critics. He is blamed for retaining in his entourage his nephew,
Youri Latortue, a person nicknamed 'Mister 30 Per Cent' because of the
percentage he demands in return for favours. Worried, not without reason,
about his own security, the prime minister pays 20,000 euros a month
to this former police officer implicated in various scandals for 'organizing
an intelligence service'."
Thierry Oberlin, Le Figaro, December 21, 2004, Quoted on Haiti’s
Radio Metropole, December, 2004.
For the past two months, the coup-installed Haitian government led by
de facto Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has been overseeing a climate
of insecurity and generalized terror featuring, among other crimes,
dramatic, high-profile kidnappings. The kidnappings and terror are -
according to multiple sources - orchestrated by the PM's nephew and
Security Chief, Youri Latortue. But they are blamed, in media and government
circles, on the principal victims: Haiti's poor majority and specifically
supporters of ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has, through UNSC Resolution 1608,
extended the mandate of its 'Stabilization Mission' (MINUSTAH) to February
15, 2006, and augmented the number of personnel, adding a 750-strong
'rapid reaction force' to the 7,000 international troops already occupying
Haiti, along with an additional 250 civilian police officers.
UNSC Resolution 1608 also calls upon the transitional government to
conduct “thorough and transparent investigations into human rights
abuses, “particularly those allegedly involving HNP (Haitian National
Police) officers.” To counter the UN’s rapidly deteriorating
situation in Haiti, the UNSC calls for a “proactive communications
and public relations strategy, in order to improve the Haitian population’s
understanding of the mandate of MINUSTAH and its role in Haiti.”
The resolution echoed many of the recommendations made at the Montreal
International Conference on Haiti, which brought together many members
of the coup government with sponsors in the Canadian, French, and U.S.
governments and business community. UNSC 1608 is at least in part a
response to increasing calls from Haiti’s elite for a more “robust”
security presence in response to the rise in violence that has Haiti
in its grips.
The rise of kidnappings has contributed to the perception that Haiti
is “plagued by insecurity,” “chaotic,” and that
these criminal activities are among deliberate movements to “destabilize”
the country before the elections, scheduled for October (local) and
November (legislative and presidential) of 2005. Some are saying that
the kidnapping enterprise affords pro-Aristide gangs “the means
to arm themselves and wage an “urban guerilla war” while
“holding slumdwellers hostage” in areas such as Cite Soleil
and Bel Air.The reality is different.
The Media’s Kidnapping Scourge
The“kidnapping scourge”, as NYT’s Ginger Thompson
termed it on June 6th, has been responsible for hundreds of kidnappings
for ransom in recent months, with an estimated 6 to 12 kidnappings taking
place daily. Among these have been high-profile kidnappings of an Indian
businessman, a Russian diplomat, two Mexican telecommunication workers,
a Canadian man and a 65-year old businesswoman from Montreal. No Americans
have been kidnapped to date, although a U.S. embassy vehicle was fired
upon prompting the Embassy to issue a travel warning on May 25th “in
the midst of a spate of kidnappings and carjackings in the country.”
(St. Petersburg times, May 27, 2005)
On May 8th, visiting Chilean diplomats were quick to attribute the new
violence on Haitian criminals that are being deported from the U.S.
Over 30 such convicts have beendeported since the February 2004 coup.
Because the prison system is full of political prisoners, many of these
criminals are free in Haiti.Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue echoed
the statements of the Chileans a few weeks later, saying (on May ? )
“the origin of the insecurity, especially in matters regarding
kidnapping, is something that is exported to us here,” Implying
that the Americans were doing the exporting.
On the heels of the U.S., Canada issued a heightened travel warning
on May 27th, stating that "Kidnappings and carjackings are on the
rise.” Ottawa reiterated this warning on June 21st, citing ‘an
increasingly deteriorating security situation’. In a May 28th
article discussing the travel warning after the kidnap and release of
a Canadian man, the Canadian Press made sure to note that, in one case,
“Police officers pursuing the abductors in the slum of Bel Air
came under heavy gunfire from armed gangs.” Bel Air is known to
be the launching point for large demonstrations calling for Aristide’s
return.
On June 2nd Canada’s National Post blamed the violence on “continuing
confrontations with supporters of Jean Bertrand Aristide.” The
same day, the Associated Press reported that “[U.S.] Ambassador
James Foley said Haitian police, armed mostly with pistols and shotguns,
are outgunned by pro-Aristide gangs armed with heavy machine guns. The
gangs have been blamed for increasing violence and kidnappings.”
The frenzied atmosphere caused by the kidnappings prompted calls for
“tougher action” on the part of Haiti’s business elite.
Reginald Boulos, millionaire, President of the Haitian chamber of Commerce,
longtime opponent of Aristide and Aristide’s popular movement,
Lavalas, and longtime recipient of USAID funding, recently threatened
to call a general strike if security measures were not increased. He
also called on the government to allow people like himself to create
their own private militias and be permitted to brandish their own automatic
weapons.
The anti-Aristide Group of 184 spokesperson Charles Baker complained
that MINUSTAH is protecting the “bandits,” and called for
more guns and ammunition for the HNP to “fulfill their duty.”
Haiti’s Police Chief Leon Charles said on May 30th: “We
must say that it is a movement of destabilization. The truth is that
there is a war in Haiti. Armed individuals are shooting at the people.
It is urban guerrilla warfare. An urgent solution needs to be found
to this situation. Actually, we are working with Minustah [UN Stabilization
Mission in Haiti], despite all the misunderstanding, so that we can
find a solution to these problems.”
In a June 5th article, the New York Times (NYT) wrote “Justice
Minister Bernard Gousse and other officials said Friday that authorities
planned tougher action against armed gangs in pro-Aristide slums, where
victims of a recent wave of hundreds of kidnappings are often said to
be held.” Reporting on a manifestation of this “tougher
action,” the NYT documents how “As many as 25 people were
killed in police raids on Friday and Saturday in the slums of Haiti's
capital after the government said it would get tougher on gangs.”
Just a few days later, on June 8th U.S. Ambassador James Foley and U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega were on hand to present Charles
and his HNP with $2.6 million in police equipment.
Justice Minister Bernard Gousse, who resigned his post on June 15th
after being publicly rebuked for incompetence and corruption by US Congressman
William Delahunt and 10 other Congresspeople on June 10th, announced
the creation of a new, multinational SWAT team as one of his final official
acts on Radio Vision 2000 on June 4:
“Regarding kidnappings, there is a mixed SWAT team. A foreign
SWAT team has arrived here and will work together with our local SWAT
team to respond rapidly to kidnapping situations. There is an intelligence
cell, which police spokeswoman [Jessie Cameau] Coicou has spoken about,
that will reinforce the judicial police's intelligence cell. We are
also going to create other brigades that will face up to the bandits
and intervene in the areas where the bandits operate. The purpose of
this action is to prevent the bandits from feeling safe wherever they
are in the metropolitan area.”
Gousse did not state what country the foreign SWAT team is from, and
has not responded to interview requests.
On June 9th, Radio Vision 2000, which is jointly owned by Boulos and
Andy Apaid, leader of the anti-Aristide and U.S. backed Group of 184
coalition, blamed “unabated” kidnappings on “bandits.”:
“It really seems as if armed bandits will not give Port-au-Prince
residents a moment's respite, because not a day has gone by without
a kidnapping being committed in the capital.”
In a later interview with Haiti’s Radio Metropole, Apaid would
characterize the violence and kidnappings as “part of a Lavalas
plot to regain control.” Apaid refers to the kidnappings as being
carried out in a series of “well coordinated waves”:
“I have no doubt that some sectors are doing this for commercial
reasons or things like that. But most of the violence that we are undergoing
today comes from these people that were armed by the former dictator
[Jean-Bertrand Aristide]...It is clear that it is the armed branch of
the Lavalas party, the armed sectors of the Lavalas party that are sponsoring
the violence for the most part. They are the ones that are sponsoring
the kidnapping...The kidnapping is mainly a political instrument aimed
at reinforcing this terror and bringing despair and discouragement in
order to give better political options. Because there is a plan behind
all this....The plan is to entertain such violence that should unseat
and put everybody in a state of helplessness and discouragement.”
As the ‘kidnapping scourge” reached a crescendo, the high-level
delegation led by Noriega along with Canada’s special envoy to
Haiti, Denis Coderre, and France’s Daniel Parfait. This visit,
premised on a show of “solidarity” with Gerard Latortue
by the primary “donor” countries, saw an increase in speculation
about U.S. troops being sent in. On the show of support for Latortue,
Coderre said, “ 'We are here together to send a strong message:
We want the elections to take place in time.”
On June 10th, the Miami Herald summarized Noriega’s trip: “Noriega
calls for the UN “to be more 'proactive' in squelching 'a coordinated
campaign of criminality' that is undermining efforts to restore peace
to this troubled Caribbean nation.” In an Orwellian moment Noriega
said, 'The rights of the vast majority of the Haitian people are being
violated by the ones who spread violence . . . It's a deadly destabilization
plan...'
The Herald concluded, showing how Noriega’s sentiments cater to
the business elite, “Noriega's comments echoed the sentiments
of many Haitians who see the peacekeepers as too passive in the face
of an onslaught of kidnappings, carjackings and shootouts.”
On June 14th HNP spokesperson Jessie Coicou announced the creation of
a “special intervention unit...to combat kidnappings for ransom.”
Coicou would attended the Montreal International Conference on Haiti
two days later, and would subsequently get promoted to inspector-general
of the HNP on June 22nd. Coicou also announced the arrests of several
individuals in relation to kidnappings, including at least one Haitian
police officer and someone supposed to be affiliated with Aristide,
who was allegedly “caught while distributing money in Bel-Air
to maintain the climate of violence.” After weeks of presuming
the guilt of Aristide supporters, the government had finally taken what
seemed to be a concrete measure to substantiate any of the claims.
Coicou’s announcements were well-timed to coincide with the conference
in Montreal, Where security in advance of the October elections was
a central topic of discussion. Two days before the conference, the AP
speculated that kidnappings and other violence could “undermine”
the election process.
During a June 12 interview with virulently anti-Aristide reporter Nacy
Roc, Denis Coderre feigned sympathy for the kidnap victims: “I
would like to offer my condolences to all the victims of kidnapping,”
Coderre intoned. Roc herself would flee the country just days later
in the face of alleged kidnapping threats against her. The NED-funded
pseudo-human rights organization Reporters Without Borders would quickly
come to her defense, and took a swipe at the exiled Aristide in the
process, writing that Roc “blamed the threats on drug-traffickers,
linked, she believes, to the Fanmi Lavalas, militias that support ex-president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.”
Interstingly, RSF notes how Roc’s employer at Radio Metropole,
Richard Widmaier, escaped a kidnapping attempt on June 11th. RSF neglected
to mention Widmaier’s opinion on the kidnappings,captured in the
Miami Herald on June 23rd: 'We have a situation here that is more similar
to what you see happening in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's terrorism...You
have guys who pretend to be supporters of former President Aristide,
attacking people in the streets, burning cars and kidnapping people.'
An unidentified speaker on a June 15 Haitian Signal Radio broadcast
referred to ““a very organized sector” that is executing
the kidnappings. This was echoed in a June 20th Agence Haitienne Presse
(AHP) article “ citing a radio director from Quebec, “the
kidnappers are well-organized gangs, formed, among other things, by
Haitians who lived in Quebec and in the United States and who were expelled
because of their criminal activities. White people living in Haiti could
also be part of these criminal gangs.” Signal Radio also warned
of an “exodus” of Haitians fleeing the kidnappings and other
insecurity.
On the official policy side, where examples of the kidnappings being
used as a pretext to increase repression are slightly more transparent,
we can turn to Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, who addressed
the topic of kidnappings, to fellow “trustees,” in Montreal
on June 16th:
“The recent wave of abductions in Port-au-Prince is especially
troubling. This climate of violence must change in anticipation of the
fall elections...Port-au-Prince, where most of the violence has occurred,
must be secured. We must study with utmost care the possibility of augmenting
military and police contingents...Maintaining security, in addition
to having benefits for Haiti's people, is necessary for the holding
of free, transparent and democratic elections this fall.”
In a special parliamentary hearing on Haiti on June 14th, Pettigrew
and Coderre were called upon to discuss human rights in Haiti with other
parlaimentarians. Coderre must have picked up some counterinsurgency
lingo from his friend Noriega, which he deployed in the meeting, volunteering
the profound analysis that there is an “urban strategy to try
to destabilize the situation.”
Deflecting questions raised by NDP foreign affairs critic Alexa McDonough,
Pettigrew referred to the kidnappings to illustrate his point about
the danger of looking at things in a one-sided way: “When we had
the kidnapping of the Canadian women, the Montreal women, two days ago,
I had been the first to say that there were security concerns, so I'm
not saying that raising them.... I'm talking about absolutism. I'm talking
about taking only that part of the picture and focusing on it plays
into the extreme elements of de la valeur, which don't want the rest
of the picture... certainly I think it's our duty as members of Parliament,
and for us as the government, to make Canadians well aware of the situation,
so that they don't set their foot into a reality that they're not aware
of.”
Rather than raise a question that drew from the independent and meticulously
documented human rights report by Thomas Griffin of the <”http://www.law.miami.edu/news/368.html”'">University
of Miami, which the Canadian government and Pettigrew specifically have
dismissed without counterargument, slurring it as 'propaganda,' McDonough
based her question on the most recent International Crisis Group Report
(ICG), released on June 1st. Partially funded by the Canadian government,
the ICG report has, in theory, a far greater influence on policy than
the numerous independent reports on Haiti. Interestingly, the ICG report
is much clearer than Pettigrew or Coderre on the possibilities of transitional
government and international complicity in the crime wave, kidnappings,
and drug trafficking.
Where the ICG does mention “factions sympathetic to Aristide”
as among the “powerful spolilers” who have “much to
gain” from insecurity and violence, they also refer to “elements
of the business elite, drug traffickers, or other criminal organizations”
as having an interest in delaying elections.”
“Powerful people” have an “overarching long-term objective,”
which is to “prevent the creation and development of solid and
effective state institutions which would reduce or halt their current
activities.”
“Groups linked to criminal activities, particularly drug-trafficking
and contraband (in Haiti and abroad) are behind much of the current
wave of violence.”
Noting that “the HNP and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
have arrested many individuals linked to Fanmi Lavalas,” the ICG
emphasizes that “only suspects believed to be close to Lavalas
have been detained in combined HNP/DEA operations. They continue:
“The perceived inaction of international law enforcement agencies
with regard to the transitional government has led many in Haiti to
believe that their actions are driven in part by political or strategic
reasons. The roles of U.S. agencies such as the DEA and CIA, therefore,
continue to be controversial.”
Faced with McDonough’s question, Pettigrew deferred to Coderre.
Before addressing the ICG report, Coderre, knowing that human rights
activists had met recently with Alexa Mcdonough, was quick to define
his position on independent reports, characterizing them as “propaganda
reports,” which he also claimed are lying. Coderre presented no
evidence and refused to address any of the facts, interviews, photographs,
or other damning context, in these so-called ‘propaganda reports’.
He called the University of Miami report which he and dozens of Members
of Parliament have been presented, “disgusting.” He cited
allegations of Canadian police misconduct as “baloney.”
Turning to the the ICG report, Coderre changed his tune:“a lot
of the report is good,” he said, and “we should provide
some credibility”to it.
Coderre seems to believe that “credibility” can come only
from the Canadian government or, presumably, Washington, and not from
the evidence itself, which he ignores.
While it is unlikely that Coderre himself understands this, aspects
of the ICG report are, indeed, credible. Youri Latortue's career confirms
a number of the report’s assertions about the Haitian government's
involvement in kidnapping and insecurity. There is, however, much missing
from the ICG report: Specifically, the extent to which the US/Canada/French-backed
regime is involved in kidnapping, drug smuggling, massacre, and arms
trafficking. All this, too, is illustrated by focusing on Youri Latortue.
Kidnapping Reality and the Latortues
Before Jean Bertrand Aristide assumed the Presidency in early February,
2001, Youri Latortue was second-in-command at the General Security Unit
of the National Palace (USGPN) under President Rene Preval. After Aristide's
accession, other USGPN policemen found him "hostile" to his
new President, who worried about his involvement in a "plot",
according to Haiti's elite-owned radio station Signal FM on February
21, 2001. By this time, Youri Latortue’s friends Guy Philippe
and Jackie Nau, son-in-law and security chief for today’s Foreign
Affairs Minister Herard Abraham, had been implicated in a plot to overthrow
Preval’s government in October 2000, one month in advance of Haiti’s
Presidential elections. Nau’s brother-in-law, Roger Alteri, would
be arrested for helping the coup-plotters escape to the Dominican Republic.
At the time, Alteri was “a contractor for the U.S. embassy.”(Signal
Radio, November 7, 2000) .
Philippe and Nau ‘s names would come up in relation to other early
coup attempts in July and December, 2001, and Philippe would emerge
as a central figure in the February 2004 “uprising” against
Aristide, where he stated quite openly that his idols were, fittingly
enough, Augusto Pinochet and Ronald Reagan.
After being kicked out of the USGPN, Youri Latortue was transferred
to the HNP (Haitian National Police). While there are numerous mentions
of Youri Latortue the security agent in media prior to 2001, I found
no reference to him in Haitian or international media from February
2001 to February 2004. After his transfer to the HNP, Youri Latortue
disappeared from the media to rappear only three years later, after
the 2004 coup.
In a phone interview on June 12, 2004, Youri Latortue explained this
three year absence: he had lived in Miami, studied in Montreal for two
years, and then returned to Haiti.Upon returning after the coup, he
was offered various jobs in the interim government: “they tried
to choose me as the Chief of Police when Aristide went,” he said.
“I said I didn’t want to because I want to choose a political
career, I don’t want to be chief of police.” Instead, Youri
Latortue took the position as head of security for his uncle, Gerard
Latortue.
In September 2004, as Haiti was responding to the devastating flooding
caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne in Gonaives, which killed 3,000 and
left hundreds of thousands homeless,Youri Latortue appeared in that
city to dictate the dispensation of aid. In Australia’s Daily
Telegraph, he was the spokesperson describing how “only part of
a government aid shipment was handed out because the crowd grew too
unruly.” Two months later, he was “blacklisted” by
Le Figaro, a left-leaning French newspaper, who called him “Mister
30 per cent,” and, according to Radio Metropole “portrayed
Youri Latortue as the interim government's strongman.” The Le
Figaro article, dated December 21, 2004, was titled, "Drug traffickers
help themselves to Haiti.”
French journalist Thierry Oberle made the obvious connection between
uncle and nephew:"at a lower level, the virtuous Gerard Latortue
must, for his part, face his critics. He is blamed for retaining in
his entourage his nephew, Youri Latortue, a person nicknamed 'Mister
30 Per Cent' because of the percentage he demands in return for favours.
Worried, not without reason, about his own security, the prime minister
pays 20,000 euros a month to this former police officer implicated in
various scandals for 'organizing an intelligence service'."
Youri Latortue contested Oberle's claims of his corruption and theft
of international aid, calling them false and suggesting that he had
hired a lawyer to "pursue justice" . He later admitted that
he would not "pursue justice" because he did not want to pay
the expensive legal fees.
Youri Latortue suggested the real motivation behind Oberle’s accusations
was the French government's resentment towards him for shutting them
out of the PM's security detail: "The French are not very happy
with me because I said that Haitian police can do the security; we don’t
need French now for the security. They were very angry and then they
said something about me."'
A source close to Haitian government circles said “Many people...have
seen [“rebel” turned politician] Guy Philippe going in and
out of Youri Latortue's office...” Others, such as Joel Deeb,
a Haitian-American arms dealer who has reportedly brokered deals with
Youri Latortue since the February 29, 2004 ouster of President Jean
Bertrand Aristide, call Youri Latortue drug smuggling “Kingpin,”
with “close ties” to paramilitary leader Guy Philippe. Deeb
also said that “everybody knows” about Youri Latortue’s
involvement in kidnappings.
It is also widely known that Youri Latortue and his deputy, Jean-Wener
Jacquitte, who refused (on June 24) to comment on this role, are at
the least, funneling money associated with kidnappings. This has been
confirmed by sources both in diplomatic circles, as well as sources
inside and outside the de facto Haitian government.
Youri Latortue, like Guy Philippe, has political aspirations. One Haitian
human rights activist said that Youri Latortue is in the middle of a
scandal that finds “two political parties are buying electoral
cards in Gonaives for large sums of money.” The electoral cards
are an initiative of the interim government. Ostensibly designed to
regularize the electoral system in advance of November elections, the
cards in fact open the door to corruption and vote-buying. Gonaives
happens to be where Youri Latortue himself says he plans to run for
office. Another Haitian human rights activist said that Youri Latortue’s
“name is around all the streets of Port-Au--Prince as a drug dealer,
kidnapper and other crimes...he wants to be a senator just to have a
certain immunity to avoid being judged after the departure of the current
government.”
Over the course of several interviews between April and June 2005, Joel
Deeb stated that Youri Latortue presently has four sealed DEA indictments
pending aganst him, and that the DEA have issued an extradition letter
for Youri Latortue to the interim government. Youri Latortue himself
evaded questions about the DEA indictments, denying that he and Deeb,
as Deeb claims, were in regular contact. Deeb speculated that U.S. authorities
might soon pick up Youri Latortue, and that the interim government has
already been presented a letter requesting Youri Latortue’s extradition.
Efforts to this end have been foiled thanks to the interventions of
his uncle, who either relies on Youri Latortue or fears him too much
to let him go. The ICG report might lead us to conclude that if the
DEA has not picked up Youri Latortue yet, his uncle aside, there is
a political reason behind this. The U.S. Embassy would not comment on
DEA activities, nor on the PM’s nephew’s reputation. Gerard
Latortue also declined to speak about his nephew’s role in kidnapping
rackets.
Youri Latortue himself responded directly to questions about his involvement
in kidnappings:
“I don’t know anything about kidnappings. I am not in- I
am responsible only for the security of the Prime Minister; I know that
there a lot of kidnappings in Port au Prince, I was very surprised when...[I
was told] that you were talking about kidnapping. “
Deflecting further accusations, Youri Latortue responded:
“If they hear we have kidnappings, and this is very bad for the
government, and I work with the Prime Minister; we try to find a way
to fight against kidnapping, we try, but it’s for that we try
to find weapons, we try to find equipment for the police, we try to
find information, training. We try to find everything for the police
to fight. “
He then directly accused Lavalas partisans of involvement:
“Everybody knows that Lavalas gangs organize kidnappings and went
to Bel Air and Cite Soleil, these are two zones, areas that Lavalas
armed gangs took the persons, this is very impossible for the police
to go in this area. It’s for that they are kidnapping, becuase
the United Nations try to do something but until now it’s been
dificult for the United Nations to put order in this area...”
Youri Latortue claims that reports of U.S. Marines already being in
Port au Prince are “just rumours,” and claims not to have
known that 150 Chiliean Marines had just arrived, or that these Marines
had been trained in close-quarter battle techniques in Chile by U.S.
Marines before departing. The press release announcing these joint U.S.
and Chilean Marine exercises was issued in late March. Xinhua News reported
on their arrival on June 11th, delivered in the midst of the ‘kidnapping
scourge’. Less than forthcoming on the issue of arming Haiti’s
police or supporting the return of U.S. soldiers, Youri Latortue would
only say thet “he’s supporting every tool that can help
the HNP secure the streets.”
Youri Latortue’s credibility on the question of kidnapping rackets
is tenuous at best, given his involvement in illicit weapons transfers
and drug trafficking. His name was mentioned on the US Flashpoints Radio
program in connection with an alleged arms deal that involved him, arms
broker Joel Deeb, and Lucy Orlando, a close friend of both President
George W. and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and head of the Haitian-American
Republican Caucus in Florida.
A series of interviews with Orlando, Deeb, Latortue and others have
revealed a complex series of events that indicate at the least, incredibly
shady deals taking place outside the scrutiny of public opinion. What
is clear is that the interim Haitian government, with the probable knowledge
and complicity of the U.S. government, has attmepted to circumvent the
14-year U.S. arms embargo on Haiti.On May 25th, 2004, Orlando hosted
a fundraiser in her home for President Bush’s reelection campaign.
Orlando estimates up to 300 mostly Haitian-Americans attended her party,
to which Haiti Democracy Project (HDP) board member Alice Blanchet came
to help organize.
At the initiative of Youri Latortue, Orlando invited Joel Deeb to the
party, who she says was accompanied by Lionel Desgranges, a former aide
to Leslie Manigat, former President of Haiti (1988) and a long time
ally of Washington with ties to the International Republican Institute.
Desgranges had also attended the November 2002 opening of the Haiti
Democracy Project, which was one of the key international backers of
the 2004 coup. Also joining the party were Robert “Bobby’
Wawa, former vice-president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce, and
ex Haitian Army General Herard Abraham, another long time U.S. asset.
At the time, Abraham was Haiti’s interior minister, but has since
been moved to Foreign Affairs.
With the exception of Blanchet, the rest of this group met in Lucy’s
bedroom and discussed how to get weapons.
Orlando claims that on December 31st, 2004, Youri Latortue was present
in Gerardm Latortue’s office when Deeb was given a check for $1
million. Deeb denies receiving a check, though he acknowledges that
there was a check made out to his company, Omega. Deeb maintains that
the only money he received for weapons was the $533,333.33 deposited
in the form of a letter of credit into a Panamanian account. He says
that this money is frozen, but that Finance minister Henri Bazin has
been hassling him lately to write a check in the amount that is frozen
to Youri Latortue.
The first time Orlando was asked about her relationship with Joel Deeb,
she responded, “Joel Deeb? I’ve never heard of that; I know
Youri Latortue, and the government in Haiti, they are the ones involved
with Joel Deeb, with the arms...They want to call my name, they should
ask Youri Latortue the nephew or the cousin of Gerard Latortue...”
Orlando also claims that “[Gerard] Latortue put Youri to be the
head of Haiti.”
Orlando takes credit for having helped install the Latortue regime,
but thinks that they have come to resent her due to her close relations
with the Republican Party: “They don’t like me because I’m
a Republican. Who put them there? I was the one talking to the Governor,
to the President, to promote them. the first person they hate is you
because they don’t want you to know their business...What I got
for thank-you was ‘drop-dead Lucy.’
Orlando considers herself a key activist in helping to facilitate the
downfall of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Several individuals offered
different versions of circumstances, which found Orlando meeting with
President Bush in the weeks leading up to Aristide’s overthrow
in February 2004. All agree that Orlando demanded that Bush personally
intervene to “take Aristide out.” Interestingly, Orlando
would not deny that this meeting took place and abruptly ended the interview
when this question was raised.
Orlando’s connection to the Latortues was evidenced by her appearance
at a December 2002 conference sponsored by USAID and IFES in conjunction
with the anti-Aristide Haitian Resource Devleopment Foundation. Gerard
Latortue and Bernard Gousse, as an employee of IFES, were also in attendance.
The University of Miami human rights report goes into great detail about
how IFES, under the guise of “judicial reform” and “civil
society strengthening” helped to destabilize and foster the conditions
for the overthrow of Jean Bertrand Aristide. In 1999-2000 alone, IFES
received close to $7 million for such efforts from USAID.
Orlando has devoted a lot of her life to the Republican Party. She says
she went to Haiti and registered Haitian-Americans in Haiti who had
never registered to vote, “with the Chairman of the Republican
Party as my witness.” She says her allegiance to the Bush family
goes back to the Reagan years. She takes pride in her work mobilizing
Haitian-Americans to vote Republican, “I moblized all the Haitian
people, told them about the Republican Party, got them to vote...”
In this capacity she says she worked in Haiti with U.S. backed interim
Minister for the Haitian Diaspora, Alix Baptiste. Baptiste refused to
discuss his work with Lucy Orlando.
Orlando was also upset because Gerard Latortue had fired a close friend
of hers, Rene Meroney who had been appointed head of Haiti’s state-run
but slated-for-privatization telephone company, TELECO. She had brought
this friend with her to President Bush’s January 2005 inauguration.
“If they get mad if you have a friend in the position for whatever,
they fire them and destroy the name for people to know that they are
thieves, they are this, they are that, because of me, because anybody
who is my friend, they try to destroy them...They put them responsible
for what I said in the newspaper.”
Asked if she thinks today’s violence is as bad as the previous
(1991-94) coup period, Orlando replied, “I believe that Latortue
has been doing the same thing and have been blaming it on the Aristide
people...Everybody’s after one thing, fill their pockets and then
blame the poor ones.”
“Youri Latortue has his own guns...why do you think Latortue need
all the munitions right now? To give to all his guns, this way when
they want to go and do something, they can go and do it for him, that’s
why the country’s not going anywhere.”
“But Latortue will pay one day”, Orlando prophesied. “One
day the whole world will know the truth about the Latortues.”
This seems less likely no that Haiti’s de facto President Boniface
Alexandre has recently characterized Lavalas supporters as “terrorists”
and Roger Noriega, echoing his friend Andy Apaid, has openly blamed
the violence and kidnappings on Aristide: "As a longtime observer
of Haiti and a longtime consumer of information about Haiti, it is abundantly
clear to me . . . that Aristide and his camp are singularly responsible
for most of the violence and for the concerted nature of the violence"
Until the world does know about what the evidence suggests is a government-run
kidnap ring, Haiti will be condemned to ongoing, seemingly inexplicable
‘scourges’. Alternatively, the gangsters could be punished,
the political prisoners freed, and democracy restored. But between there
and here, there is, to use a word familiar to Coderre and Pettigrew,
a lot of ‘propaganda’ to be cleared away.
*Anthony Fenton is an investigative journalist , and co-author with
Yves Engler of the forthcoming “Canada in Haiti: Waging War Against
the Poor Majority,” Fernwood/Red Press. Feedback is welcome: afenton@riseup.net
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Barbados
Pressed not to engage with Death regime
May 18, 2004 |
Barbados' Shameless Path-
Pressed Not to Engage Haiti by Dawne Bennett
Caribbean Net News - Barbados Coresspondent |
International
Solidarity Day Pictures & Articles
May 18, 2005 |
Pictures
and Articles Witness Project |
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Ayiti
Flag Day
May 18, 2005 |
Ezili Danto Witness
Project: Direct from Haiti
- Jean's Report on the May 18, 2005 Demonstration |
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Ayiti
Flag Day
May 18, 2004 |
At
least 9 demonstrators killed during huge march on Haiti's Flag
Marguerite Laurent
HLLN
May 19, 2004 |
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UG
group solid with Haiti
Thursday,
May 19th 2005
Stabroeknews.com |
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Haiti
Occupation and Solidarity
by Jean St.Vil
Zmag.com
May 16, 2005 |
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Paper
Tiger, Rising Dragon
China's Deployment in Haiti Treads in Familiar Footsteps
by Pranjal Tiwari
May 19, 2005 |
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