Former Crack Cocaine User to the Second Round of Haiti’s Fraudulent Election

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OAS Advances an Admitted Former Crack Cocaine User to the Second Round of Haiti’s Fraudulent Election
JANUARY 30, 2011
tags: Haiti, Haiti Election 2010, Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly
by Thought Merchant

http://thoughtmerchant.net/2011/01/30/oas-advances-an-admitted-former-crack-cocaine-user-to-the-second-round-of-haitis-fraudulent-election/





In the video above, Haiti’s Presidential Candidate, former Haitian Konpas singer, Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly admits to having used crack cocaine while living in Miami, FL between the years of 1986-1987. The video is in Haitian Creole, but the response by Martelly when asked by the interviewer in Creole, “Michel Martelly were you ever exposed to drugs?” Martelly responds stating he first used marijuana, then the clear reference to using crack, and thinking it was very good, but damaging. This can be understood even to an English speaker when he says, “M’ te fimen crack:” which in Haitian Creole means “I smoked crack.” Martelly admits in the video that after two years of crack use he got control of himself and quit, to his credit, because he realized the drug was destroying his life, He further goes on to say that he was in the military academy in Haiti but only made the level of Cadet because he was so troublesome that he got expelled. After being asked what his academic specialty is, Martelly admits that he attended over five different colleges, quite similar to Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, but unlike Palin, Martelly admits he never completed any level of higher education and has what is equivalent to a High School diploma. He brags about not believing in the need for an education, and that a man can come to his own understanding of the world without such things. He further goes on to talk about his music career and even admits that he has no music training and can’t even read music or really play any instrument besides a couple of notes.

After the Obama administration signaled that it would consider nullifying Haiti’s admittedly fraudulent election exposed here, though foolishly allowing it in the first place, disregarding strong warnings from Republican members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee, and over 45 mostly Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representative due to its clearly visible impending fraud, the Administration took a different posture.

The bipartisan push for warning Obama’s Administration from supporting the November, 201o election stemmed from Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) being completely stacked with cronies of outgoing Haitian President Rene Preval. Obama’s Administration signaled that as long as a key stipulation required by them was met for nullifying the November 28, 2010 Haiti election, they would push for that decision.

The United States has significant influence over the Organization of the American States (OAS), which is usually viewed by many skeptics as nothing more than an arm for American foreign policy in the Caribbean and South America. It was the OAS that was responsible for organizing and monitoring Haiti’s November 28, 2010 election, which resulted in stuffed ballots, voter intimidation, discounted ballots of Haitian’s registered to vote, and failure to effectively purge names of Haitians who died in the earthquake, and ensuing cholera epidemic from the voter roles.

For Obama, as long as the OAS published a report that proved that the Haitian election was seriously tampered with, and the best remedy was to nullify the election and start from scratch with a new CEP replacing Preval’s flunkies, the November 28, 2010 sham of an election, which was charged to be overseen by the OAS in the first place, would be erased from Haiti’s political history and a fresh start with Obama behind it would give Haitians more than a mere semblance of democracy. Sadly that did not occur.

The overtly fraudulent November, 2010 election resulted in the need for a second round runoff between Former Haitian First Lady Mirlande H.Manigat, a popular and well respected former parliamentarian, Sorbonne graduate, and Constitutional Law scholar, and the highly unpopular Preval flunky, Jude Celestin. Celestin was recently found to have lied about his Degree in engineering from a University in Switzerland. He was actually a well known a D.J. who was very popular with the ladies. To even the uninformed observer of Haitian Politics it was clear the election was a scam because Jude Celestin in most polls taken before the November 2010 was far from the top two candidates. This was due to his taint from being a pathetically willing acolyte of currently corrupt President Rene Preval.

Therefore, the November 28, 2010 election results did nothing but confirm that the election was a set up for Preval to ensure that his handpicked successor, Jude Celestin, would be sitting on top of the billions of dollars in foreign aid after the money started rolling in. The irony is that it was the international community who pushed for this election immediately after Haiti faced one of the worst natural disasters in modern history, instead of creating a provisional government to govern during the time needed to rebuild the country. Yet, that same international community is now decrying this foreseeable election debacle.
The first round of the elections on November 28, 2010 fraudulently showed that the vote tally between Manigat and Celestin were too close to call while Michele “Sweet Mickey” Martelly came in third and was disqualified from competing in the impending runoff because he was too far behind Celestin (too far by less than 10%.) Martelly, viewed in the video above admitting he smoked crack, was leading a strong campaign that allowed many of Haiti’s population, a significant number of whom are under 30 years of age, to forget many of his more nefarious political acts and affiliations. This political amnesia among the Haitian people combined with Martelly’s charm laced with dubious “populist claims” allowed Haiti’s inexperience with democracy to shine through by allowing Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly to have been expected as second in popularity only to Mirlande Manigat.

In Haitian politics being the demagogue candidate of choice is common due to the lack of political sophistication of Haiti’s vast ocean of poor combined with the country’s lack of history with truly democratic elections.

If the suffering poor and historically disenfranchised Haitian people had known or remembered some of Michel Martelly’s actions during his time as a Konpas singer, his political popularity would have been inconceivable:

From: “Michel Martelly: Stealth Duvalierist”

Some have questioned his presidential suitability by pointing to his vulgar antics as a konpas musician over the last two decades, where he often made demeaning comments about women and periodically dropped his trousers to bare his backside. The real problem with Martelly, however, is not his perceived immorality, but his heinous political history and close affiliation with the reactionary “forces of darkness,” as they are called in Haiti, which have snuffed out each genuine attempt Haitians have made over the past 20 years to elect a democratic government. Far from a champion of democracy, Martelly has been a cheerleader for, and perhaps even a participant in, bloody coups d’état and military rule.
Duvalierist Affinities

Under the Duvalier dictatorship, Martelly ran the Garage, a nightclub patronized by army officers and members of Haiti’s tiny ruling class. At a recent press conference, Martelly spoke nostalgically of the Duvalierist era, when François “Papa Doc” Duvalier and later his son Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” enforced their iron rule with gun and machete wielding Tonton Macoutes, a sort of Haitian Gestapo. “Today the dog is eating its vomit,” lamented Marcus Garcia of Radio Mélodie FM in a Dec. 8 editorial. While “Michel Martelly openly defends the Duvalier regime in a press conference,” the youth who have been duped into supporting him are “without memory of [the infamous political prison] Fort Dimanche-Fort La mort, without memory of the Nov. 29, 1987 electoral massacre,” when neo-Duvalierist thugs killed hundreds of would-be voters

In a 2002 article, the Washington Post explained how the konpa singer was a long-time “favorite of the thugs who worked on behalf of the hated Duvalier family dictatorship before its 1986 collapse.” But the mainstream media of late has yet to pick up on the singer’s past affiliations. Duvalierist affinities should not be taken lightly. Human rights groups such as the League of Former Political Prisoners and Families of the Disappeared compiled a partial list of several thousand of the Duvalier regime’s victims, which was published in Haïti Progrès in 1987, but total estimates of those killed under the U.S.-backed 29-year long dictatorship range from 30,000 to 50,000 people. After Baby Doc’s fall in February 1986, a mass democratic movement, long repressed by the Duvaliers, burst forth and became known as the Lavalas, or flood. Martelly quickly became a bitter Lavalas opponent, making trenchant attacks against the popular movement in his songs played widely on Haitian radio.

Furthermore, Martelly’s actions during the rule of Former President Jean Bertrand Aristide can be found here as well:

Following his dramatic election with 67% of the vote in Dec. 16, 1990 elections, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former parish priest and Lavalas movement leader, was inaugurated on Feb. 7, 1991 as Haiti’s democratically elected president, but then deposed by a military coup, for the first time, on Sep. 30, 1991, only eight months into his first term. Martelly “was closely identified with sympathizers of the 1991 military coup that ousted former President Jean- Bertrand Aristide,” the Miami Herald observed in 1996.
The military junta that ruled Haiti between 1991 and 1994 was bloody and brutal. According to Human Rights Watch, some 5,000 people were murdered by the junta’s soldiers and paramilitaries, and thousands more tortured and raped. Hundreds of thousands were driven into hiding and exile.Martelly became the coup’s joker, applauding the junta while it was in power. He was friends with the dreaded Lt. Col. Michel François, who, as Police Chief, was the principal director of the coup’s executioners.

This is the man the OAS has determined to be the second runner up in Haiti’s election to face Mirlande Manigat, Constitutional Scholar, parliamentarian, and a well regarded intellectual.

The OAS report that the Obama administration sought out before it would move to nullify the election clearly admits that there was widespread fraud in the November 28, 2010 election. The Center for Economic and Policy Research, (CEPR) provided a competent and scathing analysis of the OAS report:

CEPR’s analysis found that the OAS report cannot help determine the outcome of the first round of Haiti’s election.
“This report can’t salvage an election that was illegitimate, where nearly three-quarters of the electorate didn’t vote, and where the vote count of the minority that did vote was severely compromised,” said Mark Weisbrot, CEPR Co-Director and co-author of the report, “Haiti’s Fatally Flawed Election.”

CEPR has been unable to find a presidential election in the Western Hemisphere, including Haiti, with such a low turnout, going back to 1947. Haiti’s parliamentary election of 2009, in which the country’s most popular political party was also banned, had a turnout of less than 10 percent.

The OAS report does confirm some of the most important conclusions from CEPR’s analysis of the elections, which was published on Sunday. For example, the OAS finds that 12 percent of the tally sheets were either not received by the Provisional Electoral Council or were quarantined – a much larger number of lost votes than the OAS or the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) had previously publicly acknowledged.

Yet the OAS report concludes that the election should not be re-run, but rather that the results should be changed so that Michel Martelly, rather than the government candidate Jude Celestin, would finish second and therefore proceed to a run-off election. But it is easy to see that there is no sound basis for such a conclusion.

Hence, because of the OAS’s inability to assure a secure election, and its unwillingness to nullify the November polls and hold a fair one without the influence of outgoing President Preval’s cronies on Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), we now have the former crack cocaine using, Duvalier enabler Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly having a very possible chance of becoming Haiti’s next President.

This alone shows that noise coming out of the Obama administration regarding nullifying the November 28, 2010 election was nothing but a smoke screen to allow the OAS–which works in concert with U.S. on these issues–to lay down the hammer while Obama and his State Department could mendaciously claim innocence in this newfound Haiti debacle.

Evidence of the Obama administration’s position on this subject can be found here:

The U.S. State Department said Friday it revoked the visas of about a dozen Haitian officials, increasing pressure on the government to drop its favored candidate from the presidential runoff in favor of a popular contender who is warning of renewed protests if he is not on the ballot.
Revoking visas that let prominent Haitians enter the United States is the latest step in an escalating effort to persuade Haiti’s government to accept international monitors’ finding that Michel Martelly rightfully belongs on the second-round ballot.

Martelly has adopted a combative stance and urged his supporters to take to the streets peacefully if the electoral council does not allow him to run against top vote-getter Mirlande Manigat in the runoff, in place of Jude Celestin. Demonstrations in December shut down all Haiti’s major cities for days, hampering earthquake reconstruction and efforts to halt a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly 4,000 people

At this point one must ask: Is Obama continuing the same policy of Haiti destabilization that Both the Clinton and Bush administrations have taken over the last 20 years such as the U.S. sponsored ouster of democratically elected President Jean-Betrand Aristede? Or is Obama trying to further extend the U.S. occupation of Haiti as currently overseen by the U.N Minustah or “Peace Keepers”.

Regardless, its a sad state of affairs when the first Independent Black Republic in history to gain its freedom in a slave revolt, Haiti, has to fear the machinations of America’s “First Black President” out of a sheer will to survive.

from → Haiti, Haitian Election 2010, Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly, Uncategorized

Voila: Michel dit "Sweet Micky" Martelly deja la risee du Monde
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Michel Martelly, "candidat du peuple"... et du système
Par Catherine Gouëset, publié le 04/02/2011 à 09:42
http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/amerique/michel-martelly-candidat-du-peuple-et-du-systeme_945848.html

Michel Martelly a estimé ce jeudi que la voix des électeurs avait été entendue, après l'annonce de sa qualification pour le second tour de l'élection présidentielle prévu le 20 mars, évoquant une "victoire pour le peuple".

REUTERS/Kena Betancur
Gros plan sur le chanteur Michel Martelly, un temps écarté du second tour de la présidentielle prévu le 20 mars prochain en Haïti, dont les partisans étaient descendus dans la rue à l'annonce de la disqualification de leur idole.

Michel Martelly, 49 ans, surnommé "Sweet Micky" ou "Têt Kalé" (en raison de son crâne chauve) était jusqu'au printemps seulement connu comme chanteur populaire. Engagé de longue date dans l'action sociale, le roi du Kompa (musique dansante de Haïti) a créé en 2008 avec sa femme une fondation d'aide aux plus démunis. Le site de la fondation reconnaît que "Sweet Micky", célèbre pour ses frasques, suscite la controverse comme quand il participait en travesti à un show ou baissait son pantalon sur la scène. "La seule chose qui est prévisible à propos de Sweet Micky, c'est qu'il est complètement imprévisible", indique le portrait que fait de lui le site de sa fondation. Plusieurs interviews circulent sur internet actuellement sur le net pour rappeler ses excentricités comme celle-ci.

Le candidat-chanteur manque peut-être également de sang-froid comme le montre une interview mouvementée sur une radio canadienne.


C'est le rejet de la candidature à la présidentielle de la star mondiale du hip-hop, Wyclef Jean en août dernier (parce qu'il ne remplissait pas la condition d'avoir vécu cinq années consécutives en Haïti), qui lui a ouvert la voie. "Têt Kalé", novice en politique, a depuis gagné la sympathie des jeunes en quête de changement, mais aussi d'une partie des milieux d'affaires, qui ont senti le vent tourner. Après une fin de campagne remarquée, il était troisième dans les sondages à la veille du premier tour, le 28 novembre.
La disqualification
A la veille du scrutin, les sondages ne lui donnaient que 14% des voix. Mais deux jours plus tard, lui et la candidate centriste Mirlande Manigat réclamaient l'annulation du scrutin, dénonçant des "fraudes", puis, à l'instar de sa rivale, il revenait sur sa décision, constatant qu'il était arrivé en tête dans les bureaux où il n'y avait pas eu de fraude: "Je veux que le Conseil électoral, le président Préval et la communauté internationale respectent le suffrage populaire", expliquait celui qui est devenu le héros du petit peuple.
Le 7 décembre, le Conseil national d'observation électorale, financé par l'Union européenne, rendait publiques des estimations donnant Mirlande Manigat en tête avec 30% des suffrages devant Michel Martelly (25%) et le candidat du pouvoir, Jude Célestin (20%). Dès lors, l'annonce, le lendemain, par le Conseil électoral de la disqualification de "Sweet Micky" pour le deuxième tour est un choc. Avec 22,48% des voix, Jude Célestin devance de moins d'un point -et moins de 7000 voix- "Têt Kalé" (21,84% des suffrages). Le chanteur a obtenu ses meilleurs résultats dans la capitale, où la popularité du président Préval s'est effondrée depuis le tremblement de terre du 12 janvier 2010.
Pourtant Colin Granderson, le chef de la mission d'observation de l'Organisation des États américains (OEA), n'était pas surpris par les résultats officiels. Michel Martelly aurait commis l'erreur, le jour de l'élection, d'appeler ses partisans à boycotter le scrutin, qu'il jugeait invalide à cause de fraudes. Nombre d'entre eux seraient donc descendus dans les rues au lieu de prendre le chemin du bureau de vote.
Un politicien conservateur
Si "Sweet Micky" était un chanteur iconoclaste et provocant, "le politicien, lui, est plutôt conservateur tendance néolibérale, proche des militaires" écrit Nathalie Petrowski dans La Presse. Celle-ci l'a rencontré alors que le chanteur venait faire campagne auprès de la diaspora haïtienne au Canada.
Il se déclare proche des petites gens même s'il vit dans les beaux quartiers, possède un pied-à-terre en Floride et n'a aucun souci d'argent
"Il avoue qu'à 15 ans, il avait sa carte de tonton macoute [la milice duvalériste] pour ne pas être arrêté (...) Fils d'un technicien en pétrole, il a frôlé la délinquance, avant de trouver sa voie en musique et de devenir riche et adulé. Aujourd'hui, il se déclare proche des petites gens même s'il vit dans les beaux quartiers, possède un pied-à-terre en Floride et n'a aucun souci d'argent." L'Hebdomadaire de la diaspora haïtienne de New York Haïti Liberté (gauche) voit en lui un nostalgique de l'ancien dictateur Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Interrogé sur le retour surprise de l'ex-dictateur le16 janvier, le candidat Martelly affirmait qu'il n'avait rien à voir avec ce retour, mais approuvait ce retour : "Duvalier est Haïtien. Qu'il revienne, c'est la démocratie", a-t-il déclaré. Très oecuménique, le chanteur tenait d'ailleurs les mêmes propos sur l'autre ancien homme fort exil, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, chassé par un coup d'Etat en 2004: "Mon rêve c'est de voir tous ces anciens dirigeants tellement populaires réunis en un seul lieu pour la réconciliation nationale", déclarait-il. "Arrivé au pouvoir, j'aimerais que tous les anciens présidents deviennent mes conseillers afin de pouvoir profiter de leur expérience".
Le souvenir d'Aristide
Après l'annonce des résultats, Michel Martelly avait appelé ses partisans "à manifester sans violence... jusqu'à la victoire totale". Ceux-ci ont érigé des barrages de pneus enflammés dans la capitale et plusieurs villes de province et se sont affronté avec la police. Les heurts ont fait au moins 4 morts.
Pour sortir de l'impasse, le candidat chanteur avait proposé d'organiser une nouvelle consultation avec les 18 candidats du premier tour. Le vainqueur de ce tour unique serait devenu président, et "Têt Kalé" espèrait bien, avec la notoriété croissante que lui apporte la pression de la rue, être l'heureux élu.
Saura-til éviter de sombrer dans le populisme, une des plaies d'Haïti? "Il ressemble de loin à un l'autre leader qui a fait la pluie et le beau temps ces dernières années: Jean-­Bertrand Aristide. Les deux hommes se sont cordialement détestés, mais voilà que les méthodes de gestion de la pression populaire les rapprochent, commente le quotidien haïtien Le Nouveliste. Aristide aussi a détenu une bonne partie de son pouvoir grâce à la rue".