{"id":3155,"date":"2018-10-10T12:24:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T16:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/?p=2601"},"modified":"2018-10-10T12:24:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T16:24:27","slug":"pancarte-petrocaribe-challenge-jovenel-moi%cc%88se-behind-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/?p=3155","title":{"rendered":"Pancarte PetroCaribe Challenge, Jovenel Moi\u0308se Behind Bars."},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>HAPPENINGS\u00a0<\/strong><em>by RAJ<\/em><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><strong>WANTED<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Pancarte PetroCaribe Challenge, Jovenel Moi\u0308se behind bars.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">October 17 will mark the 212th\u00a0anniversary of the assassination\u00a0of Haiti\u2019s hero of independence, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. On that\u00a0date, there is a callfor nationwide\u00a0demonstrations to draw more\u00a0attention on the $3.8 billion heist\u00a0of the PetroCaribe Fund by government officials, from 2008 to\u00a02016. Meanwhile, the government\u00a0has announced a first : The\u00a0Ministry of Education will organize all sorts of games throughout the country for the youth, in\u00a0remembrance of that fateful day, only two years after the declaration of independence. Then\u00a0there\u2019s this intriguing information released Friday (Oct. 5) by\u00a0the internet site \u201cLoop News.\u201d The Police, it is stated, deployed\u00a0throughout the country to enforce\u00a0a government decision to ban all\u00a0demonstrations, including sit-ins, throughout the country, from\u00a0October 14 to the 30th. Reactions\u00a0were swift against the possibility\u00a0of arbitrary cancellation of the\u00a0nationwide civilian movement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Despite denial on radio by a\u00a0spokesperson of the Police saying the latter had not issued such\u00a0order issued, a communiqu\u00e9 on\u00a0the letterhead of the National\u00a0Police, signed by Michel-Ange\u00a0G\u00e9d\u00e9on himself, and states otherwise. Issued October 5, 2018\u00a0from the office of the General\u00a0Director to the Central Directors, as well as to the Departmental\u00a0(ministates) Directors, the seemingly official document states, \u201cDispositions to be taken :<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201c-<em>Annul all vacation and permits so that your personnel will\u00a0be ready for action beginning\u00a0October 15 until further notice<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c-Identify and secure all\u00a0strategic buildings in your jurisdictions (such as Parliament, the\u00a0various ministries and State\u00a0buildings, the National Penitentiary and other prisons, the seat\u00a0of the SuperiorCourt of Accounting, the water reservoirs, the\u00a0electric plants, specially the\u00a0hydroelectric plant at P\u00e9ligre, the\u00a0<\/em><em>public market places, the supermarkets, commercial centers, bridges, national as well as departmental roads, etc.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c-Reinforce the surveillance\u00a0of territorial and maritime borders.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Considering what happened\u00a0last July 6-8, following the government\u2019s announcement of\u00a0steep hikes on fuel prices, when\u00a0rioters caused havoc in Port-au-Prince and surroundings, the\u00a0Police seems to be getting ready\u00a0for major disturbances throughout the country. It is a difficult\u00a0task for approximately 15,000<br \/>\nmembers of the National Police\u00a0to control a population of about\u00a012 million spread over a mountainous country the size of the\u00a0state of Maryland. Several Haitian citizens have taken to social\u00a0media calling for \u201cpeaceful demonstrations.\u201d Dignified demonstrations, most agree, will send a\u00a0more powerful message to the\u00a0world.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>To be noted : October 17 is\u00a0next Wednesday, exactly one\u00a0week from today<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Since the launching of the\u00a0#PetroCaribe Challenge in\u00a0mid-August, the movement\u00a0against the Haitian leadership, past and present, has been gaining ground inside Haiti as well as\u00a0in Haitian communities abroad. Nevertheless, the official stand\u00a0against impunity and corruption\u00a0by the Catholic bishops of Haiti<br \/>\nhas had the effect of a bombshell. The leadership of the Catholic\u00a0Church has decisively joined the<br \/>\ncitizensin the fight against the ills\u00a0ravaging the nation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">On September 27, after a Plenary Assembly held in Cap-Haitien, Haiti\u2019s second largest city, the bishops representing Haiti\u2019s\u00a010 regions, including the only\u00a0Haitian cardinal and three bishops-emeritus, issued a wide-ranging communiqu\u00e9 of which\u00a0we give excerpts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>*\u201cWe are living difficult moments in our history as a people.\u201d \u201cWe can\u2019t help but be\u00a0concerned about the ills rav- aging our country. . . .\u00a0 Actually, we must acknowledge that our\u00a0country issick. The illsthat gnaw<\/em><br \/>\n<em>at us are: impunity, corruption\u00a0and the violence of the armed\u00a0gangs.\u201d In addition to seeing, without any good reason, the one\u00a0who was jailed for good cause\u00a0going about freely.\u201d Moreover, \u201cThrough impunity justice is\u00a0trampled. And the lack of justice\u00a0means a State of lawlessness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Other than impunity, there is\u00a0corruption. \u201cAnother scourge is\u00a0corruption. . . . As proof, take the\u00a0 PetroCaribe affair, which has\u00a0provoked a healthy awakening of\u00a0the people\u2019s civic and patriotic<br \/>\nconscience. . . . Our greatest\u00a0wish isto see justice reign, asthe\u00a0final verdict of the institutions\u00a0concerned are respected and\u00a0applied as intended. That is also\u00a0the desire of the whole nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The appeal to fight against\u00a0the ills that thwart the development of the country could not be\u00a0stated more clearly. \u201c We, Catholic bishops of Haiti, urge allsons\u00a0and daughters of the nation to\u00a0look at this crisis as an opportunity to root out impunity, corruption, the violence of the armed\u00a0gangs and, once and for all, to\u00a0get the country from the slump in\u00a0which it is mired.\u201d For the full\u00a0text and the signatures of the\u00a0bishops, turn to pages 10 and 11.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This sortie of the Haitian\u00a0Catholic bishops leaves the leadership of the Haitian Protestant\u00a0clergy in an awkward situation. According to a dispatch, September 27, from the online Kapzy\u00a0News, Brignol Dorc\u00e9, pastor of\u00a0the First Baptist Church of Gona\u00efves, has stated that it is \u201cthe\u00a0duty for the church to denounce<br \/>\nacts of corruption.\u201d He urgesthe\u00a0church to get involved and to\u00a0support the PetroCaribe movement, adding, \u201cThe church is not\u00a0only called upon to preach the\u00a0gospel to sinners.\u201d The national\u00a0leaders of the Protestant denominations are put on notice.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>President Mo\u00efse in\u00a0Pearl River, N.Y., and\u00a0in Manhattan did not\u00a0escape Haitian\u00a0demonstrators<\/strong><br \/>\nAs was previously reported, President Jovenel Mo\u00efse decided\u00a0to meet members of the Haitian\u00a0 community at the Hilton Hotel in\u00a0Pearl River, far from Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey communities with large concentrations. Yet, even there, demonstrators\u00a0showed up, shouting hostile slogans\u00a0against the president and his\u00a0associates responsible for the\u00a0heist of $3.8 billion from the\u00a0PetroCaribe Fund.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nonetheless, the president\u00a0was buoyed by some 200 people\u00a0who showed up, including New\u00a0York Assembly member Clyde\u00a0Vanel who presented him a plaque, congratulating him for his\u00a0determination to bring meaningful changes to Haiti.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In a 20-minute speech, President Mo\u00efse laid out some of his\u00a0accomplishments during his 19\u00a0months in office: building 1,500\u00a0kilometers of roads throughout\u00a0the land. In addition, they will not\u00a0cost as much as in the past, because he has tackled corruption in that business. He discovered that an asphalt distributor<br \/>\ncharged the State $3.85 per gallon of asphalt while buying it at\u00a0$1.27, making a hefty profit of\u00a0$2.48 on each gallon. Unfortunately, President Mo\u00efse did not say\u00a0how many gallons of asphalt are\u00a0used per kilometer. That would\u00a0have helped in calculating the\u00a0savings for the State. He noted, however, that he\u2019s spending $200,000.00 instead of the $1.5\u00a0to $2.5 million per kilometer\u00a0before.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Still on the corruption dossier, he discovered 23,000 \u201czombie\u201d checks that is for inexistent State<br \/>\nemployees. Yet he said nothing\u00a0about who the perpetrators of the\u00a0fraud are and howlong theywere\u00a0at it. Neither did he say whether\u00a0there have been arrests. Some\u00a0analysts assert that bigwigs with\u00a0official contacts in the system are\u00a0probably involved, thus inhibiting the president from doing anything against them. There may be\u00a0some truth to that, because in his\u00a0September 26 speech, President\u00a0Mo\u00efse declared that there are \u201cpeople with powerful interests\u201d who could \u201ccause one to go to\u00a0hell alive\u201d if their interests were\u00a0to be touched.In the same breath, without citing any name, hementioned a company that has a $10\u00a0million contract monthly spread\u00a0over 15 months and which can\u00a0pay itself directly by tapping into\u00a0the State\u2019s account at the Central\u00a0Bank, whenever payment is late. Obviously, he was referring to\u00a0one of the private electricity\u00a0providers are accused of \u201cselling\u00a0blackout\u201d to the clients.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">President Mo\u00efse and histeam\u00a0also ran into protesters in Manhattan on Thursday (Sept. 27)\u00a0when the chief went shopping on\u00a0Fifth Avenue and had stopped by\u00a0the Haitian Consulate on Second\u00a0Avenue. The noisy demonstrators had placards showing the\u00a0president behind bars and were\u00a0shouting : \u201cTo jail they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In his speech to the United\u00a0Nations Assembly on Thursday, President Mo\u00efse rightly raised the\u00a0issue of the cholera brought to\u00a0Haiti in the fall of 2010 by Nepalese soldiers under the MINUSTAH, the UN Peace Mission to\u00a0Haiti. Before Secretary General\u00a0Ban Ki-moon left his post in\u00a0December 2016, he finally admitted that the UN was \u201cmorally\u201d obliged to help Haiti wipe out\u00a0cholera. A $400 million fund to\u00a0that end is far from reaching its\u00a0goal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Diplomatically, President\u00a0Mo\u00efse made the International\u00a0Monetary Fund (IMF) responsible for the fuel riots last July that\u00a0brought down the government of\u00a0Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant. Though the IMF urged the\u00a0Haitian government to cut fuel\u00a0subsidies to the public to get a\u00a0loan from the international organization, it\u2019s doubtful that the\u00a0IMF would have pushed for\u00a0immediate hikes of more than\u00a0100%.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">President Mo\u00efse also asked\u00a0help from the UN to end poverty\u00a0in Haiti by 2030. He noted various sectors that need adequate\u00a0funding to realize the goal. These\u00a0include agriculture, education, electricity, health, potable water, reforestation and road infrastructure, giving a dollar amount for\u00a0each sector. The total amounted\u00a0to $2.8 billion. Comments on\u00a0social networks aren\u2019t tender\u00a0toward the president. Invariably, people note that the $3.8 billion\u00a0heist of the PetroCaribe Fund\u00a0would cover all those expenses\u00a0with one billion left for additional projects.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Based on the president\u2019s\u00a0speech in Rockland County and\u00a0the hostility displayed toward\u00a0him and his government by protestors and the critical comments\u00a0on social media, one gets the\u00a0impression that he\u2019s way over his\u00a0head. By just talking and taking\u00a0no action, President Mo\u00efse proves himself under siege. In fact, when he landed in Haiti on\u00a0September 28, from a week in\u00a0New York, he faced another\u00a0 demonstration, this time from\u00a0some people who called themselves \u201cOriginal PHTK,\u201d the \u201cBald-Headed Party\u201d under\u00a0whose banner he assumed\u00a0power. They fault the president\u00a0for ignoring them in distributing<br \/>\ngovernmental posts. They even\u00a0mentioned two oftheir allies who\u00a0were dismissed in the cabinet\u00a0shakeup when the new Prime\u00a0Minister came in three weeks\u00a0earlier.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">And now talks of \u201ccoup d\u2019\u00e9tat\u201d is in the air. On Monday, October 1st, Louis-Jodel Chamblain, who has participated in\u00a0previous coups, was heard in an\u00a0interview on a radio station in\u00a0Port-au-Prince stating that \u201ca\u00a0coup is in the planning stage\u201d against the president.The wouldbe plotters have weapons, but\u00a0lack ammunition, Chamblain\u00a0said, adding that he has both arms\u00a0and ammunition but wouldn\u2019t\u00a0participate in any coup, unless\u00a0they discuss with him about\u00a0whetherwhat is being done is \u201cin\u00a0favor of the people.\u201d He dismissed his questioner who said, \u201cBut\u00a0with that declaration, the police\u00a0could soon arrive at your place<br \/>\nto arrest you.\u201d The following\u00a0day, the District Attorney for\u00a0Port-au-Prince issue a warrant for\u00a0Chamblain to show up on Friday\u00a0(Sept. 5) to his office. Nothing is\u00a0said about whether that was done\u00a0and what has resulted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The social networks are abuzz\u00a0<\/strong><strong>about two Haitian-born Cana- dians who are bestowed the\u00a0<\/strong><strong>title of \u201cChancelor of the\u00a0<\/strong><strong>national Order of Quebec,\u201d along with 32 others, for their\u00a0<\/strong><strong>contribution to society<\/strong>. Wilson\u00a0Sanon was recognized for his\u00a0research in sickle cell anemia. After two of his sons died from\u00a0the hereditary disease, Dr. Sanon\u00a0delved into research of the disease. His work in genetics has<br \/>\nmade him a reference when discussing sickle cell anemia. He is\u00a0President Director General of the \u201cSickle Cell Association of Quebec.\u201d As for Patrick Paultre, the\u00a0other Haitian-Canadian, he holds\u00a0an engineering doctorate in paraseismic technology who has\u00a0trained hundreds of others in the\u00a0field. In recognizing him, mention was made of the sadness he\u00a0feltwhen the 7.0 magnitude 2010\u00a0earthquake destroyed Port-au-Prince and surroundings causing\u00a0more than 250,00 deaths and\u00a0thousands of wounded, some\u00a0having been amputated of limbs.\u00a0<strong>Oddly, Haiti\u2019s northwest re- gion,with its capital ofPort-de- Paix, was hit Saturday evening\u00a0<\/strong><strong>(Sept. 6) by a 5.9 magnitude\u00a0<\/strong><strong>earthquake that can\u2019t compare\u00a0<\/strong><strong>with that of 2010<\/strong>. Based on preliminary official figures, the toll\u00a0is 12 dead, 188 wounded, 23<br \/>\nhomes destroyed and 18 damaged. It\u2019s feared that those figures\u00a0will go up as outlying areas are\u00a0 reached. On Sunday, tremors\u00a0were felt in various parts of the\u00a0country, including in suburbs east\u00a0of Port-au-Prince.\u00a0<strong>RAJ<\/strong>, October 10, 2018<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<hr \/>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Cet article est publi\u00e9 par l\u2019hebdomadaire Ha\u00efti-Observateur, \u00e9dition du 10 octobre 2018 et se trouve en\u00a0<strong>P.1, 16<\/strong>\u00a0\u00e0 :\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/H-O-10-octobre-2018-1.pdf\">http:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/H-O-10-octobre-2018-1.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"postmeta\">\n<div class=\"post-tags\">\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2592 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ho10oct2018wantedjov-2-1-300x233.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"233\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HAPPENINGS\u00a0by RAJ WANTED Pancarte PetroCaribe Challenge, Jovenel Moi\u0308se behind bars. October 17 will mark the 212th\u00a0anniversary of the assassination\u00a0of Haiti\u2019s hero of independence, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. On that\u00a0date, there is a callfor nationwide\u00a0demonstrations to draw more\u00a0attention on the $3.8 billion heist\u00a0of&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16,25,43],"tags":[933,1061,1488,1491,1646,1750,2091,2421,2455,2505,2687,3164],"class_list":["post-3155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglais","category-diplomatie","category-haiti","category-raj","tag-dessalines","tag-earthquake","tag-haiti","tag-haiti-hobservateur","tag-international","tag-jovenel-moise","tag-meanwhile","tag-paraseismic","tag-paultre","tag-petrocaribe","tag-raj","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}