Lan yon EDITORYAL-NEW YORK TIMES mande BIDEN pou l kwape JOVENEL MOISE

Lan yon EDITORYAL,NEW YORK TIMES mande pou BIDEN ede AYISYEN yo debarase AYITI de JOVENEL MOISE e etabli yon GOUVENMAN TRANZISYON:


Haiti Needs Help. This Is What the U.S. Sends Instead.
Our neighbor is in a constitutional crisis, and instead of carrying aid, planes arrived with deportees.

By The Editorial Board
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

Feb. 10, 2021


Months of often violent protests against Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse have repeatedly brought life to a halt in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Months of often violent protests against Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse have repeatedly brought life to a halt in the capital, Port-au-Prince.Credit...Valerie Baeriswyl/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sunday should have been a day of celebration in Haiti. It marked the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, and the last day in office of the despised President Jovenel Moïse. Instead, it was another day from hell.

Rather than leave office, Mr. Moïse claimed that he had foiled a coup. He sent troops in the middle of the night to round up a judge, a senior police officer and more than 20 others. The fragmented opposition, in the meantime, compounded the crisis by installing two presidents — a Supreme Court judge who had been fired by Mr. Moïse and a lawyer in Haiti’s north.

For the long-suffering Haitians, the power struggle promised only more bloodshed and chaos. They have already been battered by recent hurricanes, an earthquake and a cholera epidemic introduced, in a cruel irony, by United Nations peacekeeping forces. Few countries have endured so much, and no others that lie within a few hundred miles of the richest nation on earth.

A plane arrived from the United States on Monday. But instead of help or hope, it carried several dozen Haitians, including a 2-month-old and 21 other children, deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. President Biden had ordered a 100-day moratorium on such deportations, but a Texas judge temporarily blocked the order, prompting the agency to defy the administration’s wishes and accelerate deportations. More such flights to Haiti are expected through the week.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has not had much respite from corruption and chaos in the 35 years since democracy was restored. But Mr. Moïse is widely blamed for making lives that were already very difficult, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, even worse through rampant plunder and mismanagement.

Months of often violent protests against Mr. Moïse have repeatedly brought life in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and other cities and towns to a halt. Fuel shortages are routine, hospitals have cut services or have closed, public transportation has ground to a halt, and businesses have shuttered. The rapid spread of kidnapping for ransom by well-organized gangs has forced schools to close for fear of students and teachers being captured.


ImageMr. Moïse is widely blamed for making life in Haiti worse through rampant plunder and mismanagement.
Mr. Moïse is widely blamed for making life in Haiti worse through rampant plunder and mismanagement.Credit...Jean Marc Herve Abeland/EPA, via Shutterstock
The constitutional crisis has centered on a dispute over when Mr. Moïse’s term should end. The constitutional term is five years, and Mr. Moïse was elected in 2015 and should have been installed in February 2016. But election monitors deemed that election too corrupt to stand, and a caretaker government remained in office until another election was held a year later. It was hardly fairer, but Mr. Moïse took office on Feb. 7, 2017. He insists that his five years expire in 2022.

The reality is that Mr. Moïse has effectively has lost all popular support and abandoned any pretense of democratic rule. He has ruled by decree since last year, when he suspended two-thirds of the Senate, the entire lower chamber and every mayor across Haiti. He has refused to hold any elections for four years, so there are only 11 elected representatives in office for 11 million people. He is seeking to expand his powers through a referendum on the Constitution set for April.

Haitians tend to look to their powerful northern neighbor for guidance in times of unrest, but the signals they’ve received have been mixed. The Trump administration backed Mr. Moïse, mainly because he supported a campaign to oust President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. On Friday a State Department spokesman, Ned Price, concurred with Mr. Moïse’s argument that he has another year to go, adding that “the Haitian people deserve the opportunity to elect their leaders and restore Haiti’s democratic institutions.” The Organization of American States and the United Nations took similar positions.

Several members of the U.S. Senate and House urged the State Department to reject Mr. Moïse’s efforts to stay in power, and on Monday a State Department spokesman said, “The situation remains murky.”

That it does. Mr. Moïse must go, but ousting him or trying to hold elections when the courts, the legislature and security forces are in disarray and violence rules the streets could make matters worse. Haiti’s history shows that a government in the hands of a contentious opposition might not be a major improvement. When a country comes as close to collapse as Haiti has, it is very difficult to restore order and effective governance.

One suggested solution is for outside powers — some combination of the United States, the O.A.S., the U.N. and the European Union — to organize a council of civil society leaders, along with representatives of churches, farmers and other groups, who can form a transitional government and prepare for new elections.

The Biden administration should promptly order a review of what is happening there and how the United States and its allies can assist in finding a path forward.

But first, the new administration needs to find a way to halt Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations to Haiti — which are in defiance of the Biden administration’s directives. At the very least, the United States should stop contributing to its close neighbor’s distress.

Biden accused Trump of ignoring Haiti. As turmoil deepens, will he change US policy?
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
FEBRUARY 14, 2021 07:00 AM, UPDATED 9 MINUTES AGO
PlaySkip Back
Skip Forward
Mute
CaptionsCurrent Time 0:00
/
Duration 4:14Fullscreen
Haiti's deteriorating human rights problem
SHARE
Jacques Letang, president of the Haitian Bar Federation and founding member of the Human Rights Office in Haiti addressed the U.N. Security Council in June on the deteriorating human rights situation in Haiti. BY UN WEB TV

As Haiti descended into violent anti-government street clashes last fall, then-U.S. presidential contender Joe Biden, fresh off a campaign visit to Little Haiti, took to Twitter to slam Donald Trump.

“The Trump Administration is abandoning the Haitian people while the country’s political crisis is paralyzing that nation,” Biden wrote. “As president, I would press for dialogue to prevent further violence and instability.”

Now as Haiti’s political turmoil deepens, the nation’s crisis is quickly becoming one of his administration’s first foreign policy tests. There are worrying signs that President Jovenel Moïse is becoming Latin America and the Caribbean’s newest strongman. He has been ruling by decree for over a year after dismissing most of the legislature and issued a number of executive orders strengthening his powers as president. Opponents say his term expired on Feb. 7. He disagrees.

TOP ARTICLES
FIU tells employees to return to campus, saying the university’s success depends on it
Since then, Moïse’s government has jailed 23 people, accusing them of plotting a coup. He’s also fired three Supreme Court justices named by the opposition as potential replacements. And he’s appointed three magistrates to the high court in a move experts say is illegal and designed to pack the judiciary with loyalists. He also named a new head of public security, jailed for his involvement in a 2005 police-involved massacre at a U.S.-funded soccer match in a poor Port-au-Prince neighborhood.

Late Saturday, following public outcry, the nomination was revoked and Moïse named instead a current Haiti National Police inspector with military experience to the job.

Get unlimited digital access
Subscribe now for only $1

CLAIM OFFER


The Biden administration has stated it supports Moïse’s claim that his term expires in 2022 and called on Haiti to hold new legislative elections and ensure a peaceful transfer of power when the president’s time in office ends. But thus far there have been few changes from the Trump administration’s policies. Planeloads of Haitian deportees continue to arrive in Port-au-Prince. Official remarks still skirt around addressing broader concerns about human rights and rising fears of authoritarianism. No high-level visit has been announced, something former diplomats believe could help break the impasse if the right person is sent.

READ NEXT
AMERICAS
Biden promises a new era with Latin America and the Caribbean. How much can he really do?
JANUARY 14, 2021 7:00 AM
In Haiti and in the diaspora, some are looking to the U.S., which has long played a role in the nation’s politics, to take a stronger stance.

“During Biden’s visit to Little Haiti on Oct. 5, 2020, he promised he would work to bring his support to the Haitian community,” said Ancelyn-Glinaud Vilbert, 25, a resident of Cap-Haïtien who was among those who felt compelled to seek out Biden’s October 23, 2020 tweet and offer up a fresh response.
“We are headed into a dictatorship,” Vilbert said in an interview. “The United States of America must stop supporting these acts.”

A State Department spokesperson told the Miami Herald that the Biden administration will push for accountability for current and former Haitian government officials involved in human rights abuses and corruption, including through individual sanctions.

“President Biden has been very clear that we will put democracy and human rights back at the center of American foreign policy,” the spokesperson said. “The U.S. government has criticized a number of actions President Moïse and his administration have taken, and we will continue to press for the prompt organization of overdue legislative elections.”

MOUNTING FEARS OVER ABUSE OF POWER
The constitutional crisis currently plaguing the Caribbean nation is part of a larger battle over governance and who is in charge. Moïse wants to introduce a new constitution. He has described the country’s current Magna Carta — written after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship 35 years ago this Feb. 7 — as “an act of corruption.”


The constitution, he said, is a roadblock to governing because it requires the president to seek approval from parliament for many decisions, including the appointment of a prime minister, who is then tasked with executing the programs.

In the proposed overhaul, there would be a unicameral legislature, eliminating the Senate, and the new parliament would be elected every five years to match the term of the president, whose powers would be strengthened.

Thousands march in Haiti to say ‘No to dictatorship’ as peaceful protest turned violent
FEBRUARY 14, 2021 8:12 PM
While the current constitution doesn’t allow two consecutive presidential terms, the draft is silent on it and only states that a president cannot serve more than two terms— leaving the door open for Moïse, 52, to run again.

The proposed overhaul, which has the support of the United Nations, is being viewed by some as unconstitutional and a power grab by Moïse because the current constitution forbids referendums and requires any changes to go through parliament.


Biden accused Trump of ignoring Haiti. As turmoil deepens, will he change US policy?
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
FEBRUARY 14, 2021 07:00 AM, UPDATED 9 MINUTES AGO
PlaySkip Back
Skip Forward
Mute
CaptionsCurrent Time 0:00
/
Duration 4:14Fullscreen
Haiti's deteriorating human rights problem
SHARE
Jacques Letang, president of the Haitian Bar Federation and founding member of the Human Rights Office in Haiti addressed the U.N. Security Council in June on the deteriorating human rights situation in Haiti. BY UN WEB TV

As Haiti descended into violent anti-government street clashes last fall, then-U.S. presidential contender Joe Biden, fresh off a campaign visit to Little Haiti, took to Twitter to slam Donald Trump.

“The Trump Administration is abandoning the Haitian people while the country’s political crisis is paralyzing that nation,” Biden wrote. “As president, I would press for dialogue to prevent further violence and instability.”

Now as Haiti’s political turmoil deepens, the nation’s crisis is quickly becoming one of his administration’s first foreign policy tests. There are worrying signs that President Jovenel Moïse is becoming Latin America and the Caribbean’s newest strongman. He has been ruling by decree for over a year after dismissing most of the legislature and issued a number of executive orders strengthening his powers as president. Opponents say his term expired on Feb. 7. He disagrees.

TOP ARTICLES
FIU tells employees to return to campus, saying the university’s success depends on it
Since then, Moïse’s government has jailed 23 people, accusing them of plotting a coup. He’s also fired three Supreme Court justices named by the opposition as potential replacements. And he’s appointed three magistrates to the high court in a move experts say is illegal and designed to pack the judiciary with loyalists. He also named a new head of public security, jailed for his involvement in a 2005 police-involved massacre at a U.S.-funded soccer match in a poor Port-au-Prince neighborhood.

Late Saturday, following public outcry, the nomination was revoked and Moïse named instead a current Haiti National Police inspector with military experience to the job.

The Biden administration has stated it supports Moïse’s claim that his term expires in 2022 and called on Haiti to hold new legislative elections and ensure a peaceful transfer of power when the president’s time in office ends. But thus far there have been few changes from the Trump administration’s policies. Planeloads of Haitian deportees continue to arrive in Port-au-Prince. Official remarks still skirt around addressing broader concerns about human rights and rising fears of authoritarianism. No high-level visit has been announced, something former diplomats believe could help break the impasse if the right person is sent.

READ NEXT
AMERICAS
Biden promises a new era with Latin America and the Caribbean. How much can he really do?
JANUARY 14, 2021 7:00 AM
In Haiti and in the diaspora, some are looking to the U.S., which has long played a role in the nation’s politics, to take a stronger stance.

“During Biden’s visit to Little Haiti on Oct. 5, 2020, he promised he would work to bring his support to the Haitian community,” said Ancelyn-Glinaud Vilbert, 25, a resident of Cap-Haïtien who was among those who felt compelled to seek out Biden’s October 23, 2020 tweet and offer up a fresh response.

“We are headed into a dictatorship,” Vilbert said in an interview. “The United States of America must stop supporting these acts.”

A State Department spokesperson told the Miami Herald that the Biden administration will push for accountability for current and former Haitian government officials involved in human rights abuses and corruption, including through individual sanctions.

“President Biden has been very clear that we will put democracy and human rights back at the center of American foreign policy,” the spokesperson said. “The U.S. government has criticized a number of actions President Moïse and his administration have taken, and we will continue to press for the prompt organization of overdue legislative elections.”

MOUNTING FEARS OVER ABUSE OF POWER
The constitutional crisis currently plaguing the Caribbean nation is part of a larger battle over governance and who is in charge. Moïse wants to introduce a new constitution. He has described the country’s current Magna Carta — written after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship 35 years ago this Feb. 7 — as “an act of corruption.”


The constitution, he said, is a roadblock to governing because it requires the president to seek approval from parliament for many decisions, including the appointment of a prime minister, who is then tasked with executing the programs.

In the proposed overhaul, there would be a unicameral legislature, eliminating the Senate, and the new parliament would be elected every five years to match the term of the president, whose powers would be strengthened.

READ NEXT
HAITI
Thousands march in Haiti to say ‘No to dictatorship’ as peaceful protest turned violent
FEBRUARY 14, 2021 8:12 PM
While the current constitution doesn’t allow two consecutive presidential terms, the draft is silent on it and only states that a president cannot serve more than two terms— leaving the door open for Moïse, 52, to run again.

The proposed overhaul, which has the support of the United Nations, is being viewed by some as unconstitutional and a power grab by Moïse because the current constitution forbids referendums and requires any changes to go through parliament.