This article,
originally published
by Al Jazeera America on Jul. 15, lays out the mechanics
of how Washington supports candidates and “U.S. foreign
policy objectives” in Haitian elections. The same
dynamic is surely at work as the Oct. 25 first round of
Haiti’s presidential election approaches.
The U.S. Agency for International
Development gave nearly $100,000 to a Haitian political
movement with close ties to President Michel Martelly
after the country’s 2010 elections,
documents obtained by Al
Jazeera show. The money was allocated shortly
after Washington helped overturn the election results to
thrust Martelly into power.
On the afternoon of Haiti’s Nov. 28, 2010,
elections, 12 of 18 presidential candidates took the
stage at the glamorous Karibe Hotel, high up in the
mountains that surround the capital. The elections were
a fraudulent mess, they told the gathered press, and the
only way out was to cancel the poll and start over.
Chaos soon engulfed Port-au-Prince and other cities, as
thousands of young Haitians, many clad in the pink
synonymous with Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, took to
the streets to simultaneously denounce electoral fraud
and herald the victory of their candidate, many days
before any official results would be announced.
In the midst of the mayhem, key international
actors mobilized. At an
emergency meeting at
the home of the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission,
Edmond Mulet, leading diplomats pushed then-President
René Préval to accept their offer of a plane to take him
out of the country and avoid further confrontation.
Mulet also approached the front-runners, including
Martelly, telling them they had secured a spot in the
second round and to cease calls for the election’s
cancellation. Days later, when the electoral council
announced preliminary results that did not have Martelly
advancing to the runoff, the streets were once again
taken over by largely pro-Martelly protesters. The U.S.
Embassy released a statement questioning the announced
results, fueling the demonstrations in Port-au-Prince.
The pressure of these pro-Martelly demonstrators
— on the day of the elections and during the following
weeks — was a key factor in convincing the U.S. and
other international actors to intervene in Haiti’s
elections and force the electoral authority to change
the results of the first round, so as to ensure that
Martelly remained on the ballot.
According to numerous firsthand accounts,
Mouvement Tét Kale (MTK), a political organization with
close ties to Martelly, was active in these street
mobilizations. Now documents through Freedom of
Information Act requests reveal that the U.S. government
later provided nearly $100,000 in support to MTK,
through the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID).
The arm of USAID that funded MTK can provide
support to political groups, as long as that support is
provided to all political parties equally and does not
influence election outcomes.
The second round of that election, held in March
2011, was the last election held in Haiti. Mayors across
the entire country saw their terms expire in 2012 and
were replaced by political appointees who are in power
today. Also in 2012, a third of the Senate reached the
end of their terms; without new elections, this severely
hampered the Senate’s ability to reach a quorum and
legislate.
On Jan. 12, 2015, on the fifth anniversary of the
earthquake, the terms of the entire Chamber of Deputies
and another third of the Senate came to an end, leaving
Martelly to govern by decree.
Throughout it all, the U.S. government has stood
by the president. On Jan. 11, as leaders scrambled to
cobble together a last-minute deal to prevent parliament
from dissolving, the U.S. Embassy released a statement
dumping cold water on any hopes for an agreement. Even
if no deal is reached, it wrote, “the U.S. will continue
to work with President Martelly and whatever legitimate
Haitian government institutions remain.”
Aid funds to political groups
It was through the Office of
Transition Initiatives (OTI) arm of USAID, specifically
through the for-profit contractor Chemonics, that the
support for MTK was provided.
Chemonics’ contract with USAID
explains that its primary focus is “to support U.S.
foreign policy objectives.” Further, while noting that
the “OTI cannot create a transition or impose
democracy,” the office may “identify and support key
individuals and groups … In short, OTI acts as a
catalyst for change where there is sufficient indigenous
political will.”
In the lead-up to Haiti’s election, the OTI
funded campaigns to increase voter turnout that targeted
Haiti’s youth, funded Haiti’s first televised debates
and created a website to track election news and
analysis. It also provided funding to political
organizations on opposing sides, according to a former
technical adviser who worked for the OTI program for
Chemonics and who spoke on condition of anonymity
because of a nondisclosure agreement with the
contractor. USAID funding for political parties is not
in and of itself a breach of policy, though it is
restricted. The documents indicating $100,000 in support
to MTK redact information on any funding to other
groups.
USAID’s political party assistance policy,
crafted in 2003 under George W. Bush’s administration,
encourages support
to political parties as a way to foster “friends and
allies” and develop relations with incoming governments.
The policy also covers NGOs that “operate as de facto
political parties.” However, support is allowed only
under certain terms, including that all democratic
parties receive “equitable levels of assistance” and
that the funding not affect election results. Waivers
must be obtained from the USAID administrator for any
financing outside the scope of the policy. USAID press
officer Lisa Hibbert-Simpson confirmed in an email that
no waivers have been requested in Haiti since the
earthquake.
“It was very difficult to be nonpartisan,” the
former technical adviser said. At the time, USAID’s
program was being run by both Chemonics and Development
Alternatives Inc. (DAI). “If one [Mirlande] Manigat
supporter goes to DAI and requests support … then OTI
would ask Chemonics how to help the other party.”
A 2009 Congressional Research
Service report on the OTI’s activities called
the USAID branch “overtly
political” and said that while it is subject
to the party assistance policy, “its work often lends
itself to political entanglements that may have
diplomatic implications.”
Assad Volcy, a spokesman for the opposition
political platform Pitit Dessalines, was unsurprised
when shown evidence of U.S. support for MTK. “They give
money to control the power,” he said.
“An electoral movement”
In May 2011, with Martelly’s
inauguration just days away, USAID provided a grant of
$98,928 to Chemonics to support MTK. According to
Chemonics’ internal activity database, the grant was for
cleaning up the capital “in advance of the presidential
inauguration.” Chemonics and USAID declined to be
interviewed for this story. In an emailed statement,
USAID said that Chemonics used the money to provide hand
tools to MTK to clean the streets as part of a “civic
engagement” program.
Both Chemonics and USAID, in separate emails,
used the exact same language to describe MTK, calling
the group a “network of community-based organizations” —
and not a political organization. However, one person
who was an MTK member from 2010 to 2014 and who
requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, explained
that from the very beginning, MTK “was a political
movement.”
The former MTK member explained that before the
election, many Haitians bought pink membership cards
declaring themselves the Base of Michel Joseph Martelly
(BMJM). The pink cards were supposed to get people jobs
with the new government as well as discounts at local
businesses. It was also a tremendously successful way to
obtain personal information on thousands of potential
voters. At the time,
analysts noted the
similarity to the infamous Tontons Macoutes, the brutal
secret police active under François “Papa Doc”
Duvalier’s dictatorship, which had a similar system of
membership cards that yielded patronage and privileges
for holders.
The first round of the election was
fatally flawed from the
beginning. With over a million people still
displaced by the earthquake and a cholera epidemic
sweeping the country, there was predictably massive
disenfranchisement, with most would-be voters simply
staying home. Initial results released by the electoral
authority put Manigat and Préval’s preferred successor,
Jude Célestin, in the runoff election.
For days, throngs of Martelly supporters took to
the streets of the capital seeking to push their
candidate into the second round. They were clad in their
signature pink and loudly declared their support for
MTK. Many also carried their pink membership cards.
Manigat, his eventual rival in the second round,
dubbed the street supporters
Martelly’s “pink militia” and warned of the
threat to political tolerance that they represented.
“It was an electoral movement,” a current member
of MTK, who held various positions in the organization
and spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid
reprisals, said during a recent interview in
Port-au-Prince. “After the first round, it was us in the
streets protesting … This is the movement that put
Martelly into power.”
The former MTK member said that at first members
were given BMJM cards but that after the election they
were given new cards, with MTK emblazoned on them. He
showed both his now expired cards.
Street pressure and U.S.-led diplomatic pressure
succeeded in overturning the first round results, in
what Organization of American States (OAS) whistleblower
Ricardo Seitenfus later
described as a “silent coup.” A mission
nominally from the OAS but in reality funded in large
part and controlled by the United States government,
according to analysts, went to Haiti to analyze the
results. What the OAS recommended was unprecedented.
Without any statistical basis,
the mission said Martelly came in second, ousting
Célestin from the runoff. In a private meeting in 2011,
the head of the OAS statistical team, Fritz Scheuren,
acknowledged that in all his years, he had never
otherwise seen an example of an election outcome being
reversed without a recount.
In a January 2015 interview in his home in the
historic Pacot neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the prime
minister at the time, Jean-Max Bellerive, said that when
he first received the OAS’ report on the elections, it
was clear that the conclusions it reached were not
supported by the evidence in the report. According to
Bellerive, Mulet would not accept a result that put
Célestin in the runoff. Hillary Clinton, the U.S.
secretary of state at the time, traveled to Haiti in
late January 2011 to push for overturning the first
round election. “We tried to resist and did, until the
visit of Hillary Clinton. That was when Préval
understood he had no way out and accepted” the OAS
report, Bellerive said.
Consolidation of power
Sitting in an air-conditioned
office behind the gates of Auction City in Haiti’s
wealthy Pétionville neighborhood, Georges Racine, the
president of MTK, defended the group’s social mission
and discussed the relationship between the movement and
the party.
“We started the organization based on the needs
in Haiti, and so we began to train first responders,” he
said, adding that the initial goal was to have MTK first
responders in every locality in Haiti. And group members
have appeared alongside Haitian first lady and [since
disqualified] Senate candidate Sophia Martelly at big
events, such as Carnival. Members have been invited to
the National Palace to receive certificates for their
first-aid training. “At first there was more support,”
he said, but now “sponsors are afraid to back the
organization because they see it as political.”
But he insisted that MTK is “totally separate”
from Martelly’s political party, Parti Haïtien Tét Kale
(PHTK). He wasn’t as sure in 2012 after the formation of
PHTK, however, when Haiti’s leading daily,
Le Nouvelliste,
asked about MTK’s relationship with the party. “I can’t
tell you if it's a movement, if it’s a party. Contact me
on Monday, and I’ll be able to give you more
information,”
he told the paper.
Michel Martelly, a famous kompa musician who
frequently performed for members of Haiti’s brutal
military under Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier,
eventually emerged triumphant from the rubble of Haiti’s
flawed elections. But he did so without a true political
base. Having campaigned on the ticket of a small party,
Repons Peyizan, he arrived in office without any
congressional allies and with less than 5% of the
electorate having voted for him.
USAID was quick to point out that “Mouvement Tet
Kale is not the same thing as the Tet Kale Party, which
came into being in 2012 — a year after the inauguration
and the grant.” But Bellerive explained that in Haiti,
politicians ride electoral movements to office then
consolidate their party afterward. It was no different
with Martelly, he said.
In PHTK headquarters, behind a palatial gate and
surrounded by lush trees, party representative Roudy
Chute explained the role of MTK over the loud hum of an
air conditioner. “MTK was a campaign movement, but we
needed a political party, and the president agreed,” he
said. “So we took from MTK and formed PHTK.”
“After we formed PHTK, some wanted to stay
outside the party so they wouldn’t be limited in what
activities they could participate in,” he said. “We get
help from outside … MTK exists because we need them.”
Racine, who is active in PHTK, acknowledged that
during the election he and other supporters formed MTK
in order to “help Martelly.” Asked about his role as
head of MTK and his political activism, Racine responded
that he “wears two hats.” A Martelly campaign poster
from 2010 stared back from the doorway. Racine became
secretary of state for the interior, the powerful
ministry in charge of internal security, in 2011, though
he later quietly resigned after questions arose about
his Haitian citizenship.
While waiting to speak with Racine, Al Jazeera
witnessed an SUV with tinted windows and government
plates drive into the parking lot. Georges Racine’s
wife, Magalie Racine, stepped out. Her mother, a
powerful Tonton Macoute, ran a notorious torture camp
during François Duvalier’ dictatorship, and the family’s
ties to figures from that era run deep. In early 2013
she became minister of youth, sports and culture, which
has been at the center of corruption allegations
involving the first family for years.
Ongoing support?
In MTK’s storage yard, boxes of old
clothing stood at least 15 feet high amid cluttered rows
of old appliances and furniture. A young man who milled
about as trucks came and went, dropping off goods and
leaving with fresh cargo, explained that much of the
equipment came from Haitian customs, which provides
seized goods to
Auction City, a
large auction yard and also the headquarters of MTK, to
be sold. Georges Racine confirmed this. That
relationship predates the election of Martelly.
Racine initially said the group received no funds
from the U.S. government, but after being presented with
evidence of the funding, he acknowledged that USAID
provided some support right after the election in 2011.
“They stopped after, I think because of apprehension.
They never said it, but I suspected it was because they
saw us as political,” he said. When he first approached
the U.S. government for funding during the campaign,
officials offered to build the movement’s first center,
but they later backed off, he said.
USAID confirmed by email that “this is the only
such grant provided by USAID/OTI, through Chemonics, to
MTK.” But whether deliberately or not, the U.S.
government continues to provide support for the
movement. Racine said that he has had trouble raising
funds for MTK and that the main support for the movement
at this point comes from Auction City.
Since at least 2003, the U.S. Embassy has sold
its old equipment, including cars, through Auction City,
providing ongoing indirect support to Racine and his
political groups. A former USAID official, who was not
authorized to comment on the relationship and asked not
to be identified, confirmed that Racine “has big
auctions, often of equipment from the international
community, specifically USAID … They know him very
well.”
Upcoming elections
With no functioning parliament
since January, Martelly has scheduled elections by
decree, with first round legislative elections on Aug.
9. Still, a majority of Haitians in a recent poll said
they don’t believe elections
will be held. If they are, Martelly’s
political party will be in a position of strength.
Jean André Victor, the coordinator of the
opposition platform MOPOD, said in his small office,
piled high with old folders and paperwork, that the
government consolidates power in order to weaken
opposition parties. “Elections for elections’ sake are
nothing,” he said. “The international community sees
elections as Election Day, but it’s the process that
matters to us.”
Having spent three years consolidating its
network, without having to compete in any elections,
PHTK was able to register more candidates than any other
political party. Victor and others allege that nearly
half the 128 registered political parties are closely
aligned with the president’s party, with their presence
on the ballots serving only to obfuscate and divide the
vote.
But if PHTK is successful, it won’t be because of
the base of support that pushed Martelly into the
presidency. Disillusionment with his government set in
quickly. A recent poll showed his approval rating nearly
20 points lower than the national average in the
all-important West department, home to the many poorer
neighborhoods from which his supporters emerged to take
over the streets in 2010.
The former MTK member sat back in his plastic
lawn chair, his frustration with the movement clearly
evident. “Before the election, they’re your friends, but
after, they’re gone. Those that seek change will be
disappointed … There is no change with MTK,” he said,
shaking his head.
Jake
Johnston works with the Center for Economic and Policy
Research, where he maintains the Haiti Relief and
Reconstruction Watch blog.
|