{"id":5467,"date":"2020-07-01T07:15:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T11:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/?p=5467"},"modified":"2020-07-01T07:15:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T11:15:25","slug":"haiti-is-officially-becoming-a-gangster-state-apparently-with-international-approval-by-raymond-a-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/?p=5467","title":{"rendered":"Haiti is officially becoming a gangster-state, apparently with international approval by Raymond A. Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>HAPPENINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>H<span style=\"color: #000000;\">aiti is officially becoming a gangster-state, apparently with international approval<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> <em>by Raymond A. Joseph<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Events of the past week indicate that the Haitian government is moving full speed ahead in officializing the gangs that have caused havoc in the country. More troubling, however, is the apparent involvement of the international community, including the United States, in facilitating this turn of events.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">On Sunday, June 21, Jimmy Ch\u00e9rizier, alias Barbecue, organized a parade with members of his \u201cG9 Family,\u201d a self-styled federation of gangs, in the vast shantytown of Grand Ravine, in Martissant, south of Port-au-Prince center city. Barbecue, it should be noted, is a 43-year-old former police officer, who has an outstanding warrant for his arrest. He is accused of having led the attack, in November 2018, against defenseless citizens in what has been declared the \u201cLa Saline Massacre,\u201d during which more than 70 people, including the elderly, women and children were killed, their bodies thrown on heaps of garbage for swine to feed on. Last year both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights weighed in with damning reports concerning that massacre.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Then, on Monday, June 22, Emmanuel \u201cToto\u201d Constant landed at the Port-au-Prince international airport. He has been deported by the United States, after weeks of indecision, due to objection of some U.S. legislators, lawyers representing immigrants and human rights organizations. They pleaded against deporting that former strongman and infamous killer to Haiti, especially at a time that the country is besieged by problems of all sorts, including COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Constant, 51 years old, we\u2019ll point out, is wanted in Haiti for having conducted massacres of civilians during the reign of terror under the military government between 1991 and 1994, following the overthrow, September 30, 1991, of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Condemned in 2008 in a Brooklyn court for real estate fraud and larceny to 37 years in jail, he was released last April after serving only 12 years of his sentence. Constant has always maintained that he collaborated with the CIA when he ran his Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Is it coincidental that these two infamous killers are projected in the forefront at this time when President Jovenel Mo\u00efse asserts that he will organize \u201cdemocratic elections,\u201d that he failed to hold for months?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">By his actions, singlehandedly, he\u2019s deprived the country of a Parliament since last January and has empowered himself to rule by decree. All this under the glare of the BINUH, that United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti which, in October of last year, replaced the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH), itself having replaced the United Nations Mission for the Stability of Haiti (MINUSSTAH), which had been in the country since 2004. Under UN\u2019s watch, the gangs have proliferated, to the point of being officially recognized. By their action, or inaction, the leaders of the international community, with the United States playing a key role in Haiti, have been rather cynical, as they\u2019ve watched the evolution of the gangs. In that light, one questions the release of Toto Constant from jail after serving only one third of his sentence. One wonders also, what role the Federal government played in his early release, and what will be his new mission in Haiti.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5441 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/HO1juillet2020gangstad-1-300x193.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" \/>A first-rate killer, will Toto Constant become an adviser to Barbecue, as the latter expands his \u201cfederation of gangs,\u201d with sup port from the government? There\u2019s a saying, \u201cIf you can\u2019t fight them, then join them.\u201d Would that be the reasoning behind Washington giving tacit approval to the formation of a new criminal organization in Haiti, styled after the Tontons-Macoute gestapo-like police of Fran\u00e7ois \u201cPapa Doc\u201d Duvalier? After all, for years, during the Cold War period, Washington cuddled that ruthless murderer of a dictator who boasted about being a \u201cbulwark against communism!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Meanwhile, Andr\u00e9 Michel, the activist lawyer of the opposition \u201cDemocratic Sector\u201d group, on Monday, June 22, denounced Jimmy Ch\u00e9rizier\u2019s \u201calliance of criminals\u201d and noted that before their deployment in Grand Ravine, they had a meeting among them where some government officials were present. Referring to the parade, he said, \u201cTo have such a deployment in full view of all, without being disturbed, is irrefutable proof that election is impossible with Jovenel Mo\u00efse in power.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In its editorial, last week, the Haiti-Observateur aptly concluded: \u201cWhat more eloquent testimony could there be to show that these criminals are enlisted in Jovenel Mo\u00efse\u2019s private militia, the mission of which is to terrorize the population? Clearly, Barbecue had the blessing of the Head of State to carry out the Sun day activities in Grand Ravine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5445 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/HO1juillet2020jimybabeQ-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"279\" height=\"180\" \/>Meanwhile, two Haitian human rights organizations, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (French acronym RNDDH) and \u201cFoundation Je Klere\u201d (Bright Eyes Foundation) released detailed reports in which names of police officers working with Barbecue are cited. Le Nouvelliste, the Haitian daily, ran a story last Thursday, June 26, publishing the names of five policemen, who accompanied Jimmy Ch\u00e9rizier in armor-plated police vehicles during the raids of May 23 to the 27th in the following neighborhoods of the capital considered strongholds of opposition groups: Pont Rouge, Nan Brooklyn, Chancerelles, Fort Dimanche and Tokyo. According to RNDDH, 34 people were killed, including three minors and six women, with eight more sustaining gun wounds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Minister of Justice and Public Safety Lucmane Dellile denounced the human rights organizations during an impromptu press conference that same Thursday. The reports only show their anti-government bias, he said. \u201cThey\u2019re the ones who defend the bandits when we decide to track them down,\u201d he asserted, adding \u201cbut they say we are organizing massacres.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Indeed, last month, the minister announced publicly that he planned to attack Village de Dieu, in Port-au-Prince\u2019s southern section of the Bicentenaire, next to the bay area. He summoned residents, who are not allied to the bandits, to relocate within 72 hours. Of course, there was a general outcry about Delille\u2019s announcement, which was interpreted as a message to help the bandits escape, while putting the whole community at risk of being decimated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Contacted by Le Nouvelliste, Herv\u00e9 Julien, Inspector general of the Haitian National Police, said he has begun an enquiry to \u201cverify what is said in the RNDDH report.\u201d Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe, also said he welcomed the report and everything will be done to find the underlying cause of police involvement, \u201cwith armor-plated police vehicles\u201d no less, against the civilian population. President Mo\u00efse\u2019s silence in the matter has been deafening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">However, more troubling is the attitude of Helen Meagher La Lime, head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), who briefed the Security Council on the current situation in Haiti. Via videoconference, last Friday, June 26, La Lime, rightly, put the emphasis on COVID-19, explaining how Haiti was ill prepared to deal with an expected onslaught of the pandemic, and asked aid for the country. Though she said that the \u201cvicious circle of mistrust, recrimination and ultimately violence\u201d is intruding at a time when unity to fight the pandemic should be the main objective, she failed to say anything about the implication of the government in creating an atmosphere of fear, which is the root cause of the mistrust she has mentioned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">For La Lime, what is needed is \u201cConstitutional reform\u201d to break the cycle and create conditions for institutional stability, good governance and the rule of law, which she says are \u201cthree essential characteristics for the country to thrive.\u201d She also mentions elections that must be held. Are these possible with President Mo\u00efse still in power? Who will trust him to undertake any \u201cConstitutional reform?\u201d What democratic elections can he oversee?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As things stand, the various UN missions to Haiti, going back to the 1994 \u201cOperation Uphold Democracy,\u201d can\u2019t claim to have succeeded in stabilizing Haiti, in enhancing justice or in making the country more democratic. On the contrary! Now, after more than a quarter century of involvement in Haitian affairs, the UN comes across as being complicit in the rise of gangs being the masters of Haiti\u2019s destiny. What a distinction to be added to UN\u2019s legacy in Haiti of nearly 10,000 Haitians dead and more than 800,000 infected from the cholera brought to the country by UN troops, and hundreds of fatherless children left behind by its sex-craved so-called peacekeepers! <strong>RAJ, July 1st, 2020<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Cet article est publi\u00e9 par l\u2019hebdomadaire Ha\u00efti-Observateur \u00e9dition du 1 juillet 2020, <strong>Vol. L, No.25<\/strong>, et se trouve \u00e0 <strong>P. 1, 7<\/strong> \u00e0 : <a href=\"http:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/H-O-1-juillet-2020-1.pdf\">http:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/H-O-1-juillet-2020-1.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HAPPENINGS Haiti is officially becoming a gangster-state, apparently with international approval by Raymond A. Joseph Events of the past week indicate that the Haitian government is moving full speed ahead in officializing the gangs that have caused havoc in the&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,43,53],"tags":[317,747,1488,1724,1742,2341,2701,3093],"class_list":["post-5467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haiti","category-raj","category-usa","tag-barbecue","tag-constant","tag-haiti","tag-jimy","tag-joseph","tag-observateur","tag-raymond","tag-toto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5467","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=5467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5467\/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=5467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haiti-observateur.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}