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The confirmation that senior
Haitian officials hold foreign nationality lends growing
credence to a leading senator’s charge that Haitian President
Michel Martelly is a U.S. citizen and hence illegally in power.
Two weeks ago, Sen. Moïse Jean
Charles submitted what he called “irrefutable” evidence
to a special Senate Select Committee that Martelly and 38 other
high government officials hold dual, and sometimes triple,
nationalities.
On Jan. 24, Sen. Joseph
Lambert, the Commission’s president, announced in a press
conference that the Commission has confirmed dual nationality
for two of the 10 cases it has investigated to date. However,
Lambert has so far refused to release the names of dual
citizenship officials, saying his commission would proceed “impartially”
and “without emotion.” He said arrangements have been
made to continue the nationality investigations overseas.
The Senate inquiry threatens to
create a political crisis which may force President Martelly,
his Prime Minister Garry Conille, and other ministers to step
down. If the charges against him prove true, it means that
candidate Martelly lied to election officials about holding dual
citizenship, which current Haitian law explicitly forbids for a
high elected official.
Sen. Jean-Charles has remained
unwavering in his accusations, ruling out any possibility that
he is mistaken. This week, he said the situation is in fact “much
more serious” than he had previously described.
Commission member Sen. Steven
Irvenson Benoît said that Haiti’s 1987 Constitution prohibits
any foreign national not only from becoming president or prime
minister, but also from acting as a minister or secretary of
state. The Constitution’s Article 56 stipulates: "An alien
may be expelled from the territory of the Republic if he becomes
involved in the political life of the country, or in cases
determined by law."
Sen. Benoît called on all
double nationality officials to step down, saying “any
minister or secretary of state whose foreign nationality is
proven must immediately resign.” He also pointed to legal
precedents in recent years where three Senators – Sajous, Boulos
and Ultimo – have been forced to resign for holding dual
nationality.
Sen. Jean Hector Anacacis, who
has remained discreet about the investigation until now, broke
his silence this week to support Sen. Jean-Charles’ charges. “The
proof is starting to come out now,” he said. “The
information communicated by Sen. Jean-Charles is beginning to be
confirmed.”
Sen. Anacacis also suggested
that certain Commission members, presumably Sen. Lambert and
Sen. Youri Latortue (both close Martelly allies), were looking
for an “escape hatch” for the government officials being
caught in the investigation’s tightening noose.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s Vice
President Andrice Riché said it was “scandalous that a
foreign citizen can deceive the vigilance of Haitian
institutions to enjoy privileges to which he is not entitled.”
He argued that “these citizens would have nothing against
[Haiti’s military] occupation” by UN troops, because “they
are true to nothing.” Sen. Riché argued that “giving up
Haitian nationality is an act of treason and the authors of such
an act should not have responsibilities in the management and
decision making for the country. If you said no to
Haitian nationality, you said no to the country.”
He concluded that “it
is unfortunate and scandalous that after more than 200 years of
independence, the president’s citizenship is in doubt.”
As the crisis deepens, members
of Haiti’s traditional political class have also begun to take
positions. Evans Paul, the spokesman for Alternative, a front of
social democratic political parties, called for respect of the
Constitution, saying that President Martelly will have to pay “the
consequence of his lack of principles” if the double
nationality charge against him proves true.
Meanwhile, Sauveur Pierre
Etienne, the general coordinator of the Struggling People’s
Organization (OPL), suggested that Sen. Jean-Charles’ charges
were simply tactics in the fight over “how to divide the cake”
of power. He proposed that Haiti’s “democratic opposition”
find “new tactics” to act as an “arbiter” in this
matter which could generate a “political crisis more serious
than we can imagine.”
Pierre-Etienne said that if
Martelly did not resign in the face of proven charges, he
doubted that the Chamber of Deputies would be able to muster the
2/3 majority necessary to impeach him because “certain
deputies would be tempted to accept bribes not to prosecute the
chief of state.”
However, Ghettos United, a
front of popular organizations from Port-au-Prince shanty towns
like Cité Soleil, Bel Air, La Saline, and Martissant, warned the
Senate Commission that it would “shift into high gear” if
the Senators refused to “tell the truth” and engaged in “monkey
business” (magouy) about Martelly’s nationality. In a
spirited press conference, Wilson Mésilien, a Ghettos United
spokesman, accused Martelly of having tricked the population and
violated the Constitution which he swore to respect and enforce.
Backed by a chorus of slumdwellers, Mésilien charged the
government with practicing “demagogy, corruption, theft,
lying, and bluff tèt kale,” a Kreyòl term meaning
bald-headed and completely, previously a Martelly slogan.
The National Initiative to
Strengthen Lavalas (INARF), in a Jan. 19 press conference, said
it took very seriously Sen. Jean-Charles’ charges. INARF’s
Secretary General, former deputy Willy Sénatus, denounced the
conduct of political parties which participated in the 2010-11
elections that allowed foreigners to be leading the country. “Haitian
people, INARF believes it is time for political parties stop
plotting against the interests of the country, destroying the
lives of Haitians in the interest of foreigners,” he said.
Another grassroots group, the
Citizen Opposition Movement (OMC), called for respect of the
1987 Constitution. Previously pro-Martelly, the OMC said it was
now opposed to the “Tèt Kale” government, said OMC
spokesman, Remulus Telong. “We in the Citizen Opposition
Movement, in spite of ourselves, declare that we are now in
opposition to the team "Tet Kale, kale tet" which seeks to
deceive the people of Haiti with a so-called program ‘kaba
grangou’ or ‘to end hunger,’ while the prices of all essential
commodities continue to rise dizzily on the market.”
Finally, the Collective of
Militants in Revolt raised their voice to denounce the presence
of “foreigners at the helm of the Republic.” Since this
violates the Constitution, they demanded the immediate
resignation of all foreigners in the government and “the
establishment of an interim government” to hold new “inclusive
but legal” elections in the next few months.
Haiti’s largest party, the Lavalas Family of former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has been excluded from all
elections since the coup d’état against him on Feb. 29, 2004. |
