(Please note that the information here was provided by a longtime trusted colleague, Ricot Dupuy who is a highly regarded and internationally respected political analyst on Haiti. I had a conversation with him yesterday after he was done with interviews for national television networks and radio commitments. He will probably be on at least one Jamaican radio station later today).
Written by Dave Rodney from last night’s interview with Haitian Political Analyst Ricot Dupuy
The bitter resentment towards President Moise had been brewing for years. Several experts agree that President Jovenel Moise came to power under suspicious circumstances in a fraudulent election, and in any case, his mandate ended in January 2021, six months ago. His execution on Tuesday night was regrettable and it triggered condemnation from CARICOM and assorted world leaders. But few tears were shed, and here’s why.
Moise ran a criminal enterprise for a government and the country was effectively ruled by 9 gangs who had the president’s stamp of approval and his official consenting wink to launch a carnival of criminality, including a series of kidnappings to generate income. Haitians of limited means were forced to sell everything they had to pay the ransom to get their relatives back alive, and this often needed the help of family and friends in the Diaspora who had to cough up the US$200,000 to $400,000 bandit fee. In one particularly chilling kidnapping that was recorded and went viral, a church minister with clergy and choir members were kidnapped during their church service. The gang operations were ably supervised by a man called “Barbeque”, a feared and ferocious government terrorist. Guns were the currency on the streets, and some of these guns made their way to Jamaica.
During Moise’s term in office, there were 11 state-sponsored massacres across Haiti in which hundreds of innocent lives were lost. The slaughters were primarily designed to instill fear among the people and to suppress any thoughts of opposition to and demonstrations against the government.
The ongoing deep-seated corruption was even more ruthless. As scandal after scandal unfolded, it was revealed that US$4 billion dollars that was made available to the country in loans and grants from international partners to build roads and bridges and to upgrade a seriously decayed infrastructure had vanished. So too had millions of Petro Caribe dollars earmarked for development. Not a road, not a bridge, not a clinic, not a school anywhere in sight!
And yet this notoriously corrupt government was propped up and supported by the Organization of American States, Dupuy, who also hosts a 24 hour Haitian Creole radio station in New York stated.
“With friends of Haiti like the coalition of the UN, the OAS, US, France and the UK, who needs enemies?”, Ricot Dupuy rebuked, sarcastically.
When questions were raised about the mysterious disappearance of millions of government dollars by UCREF (L’Unité Centrale de Renseignements Financiers) , an independent organization mandated to carry out high level financial criminal investigations, President Moise immediately fired the director and dismantled the organization, effectively bringing its remains under his jurisdiction and under his control.
The last straw was the president’s intention to stall constitutionally due democratic elections to provide time to single-handedly change the constitution of Haiti to declare himself King of Country for Life.
A growing list of countries are texting and tweeting their condolences, but many Haitians feel none of these countries were there to help in the past, and neither will they be there to assist in the future. CARICOM has offered to help hammer out an ‘indigenous’ solution to the crisis.
What will happen next is unclear. There are whispers of the discovery of natural resource deposits in Haiti. If this is true, will it serve the interests of the Haitian people who have been cemented in poverty, exploitation and abuse for generations? CARICOM and the OAS appear to have very different views on what is now unfolding in the country. But it is early days yet, so one will continue to watch for the next moves.
