Nearly a year after
President Joseph Michel Martelly’s inauguration, Haiti appears
to be descending into anarchy. Rebellion among policemen and
former soldiers is growing, and several high profile killings
have contributed to the atmosphere of crisis permeating the
country.
Meanwhile, rumors and doubts
about President Martelly’s health continue to swirl as he
reportedly recuperates out of the country from a post-surgery
pulmonary embolism which caused him to fly hastily to Miami on
Apr. 16. He had been in Florida from Apr. 4 to 12 to undergo
shoulder surgery.
On Apr. 17, a few dozen former
soldiers, many of them armed, barged into a session of Haiti’s
deputies to demand that they ratify Martelly’s Prime Minister
nominee, acting Foreign Minister Laurent Lamothe. Intimidated,
the deputies adjourned, although they had been meeting to review Lamothe’s ratification.
Acting Prime Minister Garry
Conille, who
resigned under pressure from Martelly on Feb. 24, called the
paramilitaries’ action an “assault on the public order” and
called an emergency meeting of all the acting ministers for Apr.
18. Not one of them showed up, presumably in solidarity with
Martelly.
Senator Kély Bastien described
the ministers’ boycott of the meeting “rebellious,” but it was
not the first time they had refused to be summoned by Conille.
On Apr. 19, Conille convened a
meeting of the Supreme Council of National Police (CSPN),
including Justice Minister Michel Pierre Brunache and Haitian
National Police (PNH) chief Mario Andrésol. The meeting, which
failed to produce any plan of action, was also attended by
representatives of the international community.
"If the presence of armed men
does not bother the Executive, it is because it feels
comfortable" with them, said Sen. Kély C. Bastien.
Sen. Andrice Riché was more
direct. "No paramilitary force could exist in the [national]
territory without the complicity, tolerance and the blessing of
those in power,” he said. “Democracy is in danger."
The Chamber of Deputies
announced a work stoppage to protest the paramilitaries’
assault. The lower house’s first secretary, Jude Charles Faustin,
said that the deputies would not resume their posts until they
got a satisfactory explanation from Martelly’s executive.
On Apr. 23, Lamothe submitted
59 personal documents to the deputies, which a special
commission of the lower house will review for ratification.
Meanwhile, a policeman’s
murder, also on Apr. 17, has sparked demonstrations and a
walkout by PNH officers. In broad daylight in the capital’s Martissant
27 neighborhood, gunmen fatally shot Walky Calixte, 27, an Agent II assigned to the
Directorate of Traffic and the Traffic Police (DCPR). Walky’s
killing came hours after he arrested the driver and close
associate of Port-au-Prince deputy, Rodriguez Séjour, for
illegal possession of a firearm. The driver was later released
after the intervention of senior state officials, including
Justice Minister Brunache and District Attorney Jean Renel
Sénatus.
The driver, on his release and
accompanied by Deputy Rodriguez, is said to have uttered death
threats against Walky Calixte. Three hours later, the policeman
was dead.
The next day, Apr. 18, Deputy Séjour went to Radio Caraïbes to deny reports he was the
“intellectual author” of Walky’s murder. But policemen descended
on the station, firing their guns off outside and demanding his
immediate arrest. The deputy barely escaped from the radio in a
chaotic scene.
Since then, the police have
been on strike in solidarity with their slain colleague,
creating massive traffic jams throughout the capital. In
Carrefour, on the Rues des Rails, area residents held protests
on Apr. 19 and 20 to protest Walky Calixte’s killing. The
residents said that Calixte was an “exemplary man” who was part
of the PNH’s 18th promotion and graduated with a psychology
degree from the State University’s Faculty of Humanities.
More protests involving burning
tire barricades were held in the capital on Apr. 23, paralyzing
traffic and commerce.
The policemen’s strike call has
been 90% respected, and almost nowhere in Port-au-Prince can one
see policemen on the street.
Demonstrators say their
movement is not just for Walky, but for all police officers
enduring mistreatment from Haitian authorities who think they
are above the law. Walky’s father, Ezekiel Calixte, said his son
played a major role in supporting the family. "The best
assistance that we expect from the authorities is that they
provide justice for our son," he said.
Judicial authorities and the
police say they are vigorously investigating Calixte’s murder.
District Attorney Sénatus said he has already issued arrest
warrants for suspects. One of Walky’s suspected killers known as
“Johnny,” wounded in the thigh and groin by the slain policeman,
died from his wounds at the Cuban-run Peace Hospital on Delmas
31, Sénatus said.
The killing has also created
tension in the Chamber of Deputies. The lower houses’ president
said that Deputy Séjour, who still has parliamentary immunity
from prosecution, is now in a safe place until the investigation
sheds more light on the matter.
Police chief Andrésol has
sought to calm the PNH ranks and get them back to work. “The
police are not allowed to strike or to take part in protests,”
Andrésol publicly declared on Apr. 23. “All sorts of people are
now trying to manipulate the police, including drug traffickers
and those who cannot enter the institution.”
On the evening of Apr. 18,
another murder shook the country. At the Haitian/Dominican
border town of Fond Parisien, Calixte Valentin, one of President
Martelly’s close political advisors, allegedly shot dead a
merchant, Octanol Dérissaint. Killed with three rounds,
Dérissaint, 32, was the father of two children, including a
three-month-old infant.
On Apr. 20, the district
attorney for the jurisdiction of Croix-des-Bouquets, Mario Beauvoir, arrested Valentin, who was then transported to a jail
in Port-au-Prince.
As the situation worsens,
politicians are weighing in. "We are in a country which is like
an aircraft without a pilot, a ship without a rudder,” said Mirlande Manigat, Martelly’s challenger in the Mar. 20, 2011
election, noting that while Martelly has been absent this month,
there is no real Prime Minister (only the contested Conille) to
step in and assume the reins of power. “So the state has no
leader right now in Haiti.”
Dame-Marie’s deputy Accluche
Louis-Jeune of the OPL opined that the "political situation in
Haiti has never been so confused. We are facing a real political
imbroglio compounded by a set of affairs which are sensitive, to
say the least. Parliament is unable to assume its role as the
final bulwark, and the Executive is in agony." He appealed for
an emergency convention for “a political dialogue with all
forces in the country” to avoid the country’s “total collapse.”
Haiti’s progressive forces, grouped in anti-imperialist
organizations, fronts, unions, and parties, are preparing for
severe political turbulence in the weeks ahead, as different
factions of Haiti’s ruling groups vie for power. Although
weakened by the 2004-2006 coup d’état and disenfranchised by the
illegal 2010/2011 elections, Haiti’s popular sector has been
regaining its strength and organizational footing. “The people
must get ready to rise up,” said Sen. Moïse Jean-Charles, a
former peasant leader who has led the charge in Parliament
against the Martelly regime’s corruption and flouting of the
Constitution. “We have to gird ourselves to save this country
from the disaster that Martelly has brought upon us.” |