Laurent Lamothe forced to resign, Clinton couldn't save him, Martelly next | Anbake Ayisyen, Anbake Pitit Desalin, Anbake | Video: Gov. Protestors tear gassed and some shot | UN soldiers shoot live anmo at protestors | Haiti deputy walks to UN occupants with his weapon in hand to show this is OUR country | Impeach Martelly to Avoid Further Bloodshed and Unconstitutionality
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zili danto
Dec 14, 2014, 8:33:59 PM12/14/14
to Zili Danto
Former President and Haiti envoy Bill Clinton defended PM Lamothe and that didn't save him, neither will US defense of Michel Martelly: Anbake Ayisyen, Anbake Pitit Desalin. Anbake! #BlackLivesMatter. Impeach Michel Martelly to avoid further bloodshed and unconstitutionality --Ezili Dantò, Free Haiti Movement, December 14, 2014 http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article4431060.html
***
Demonstrators shot and tear gassed:
Video: The victims of the anti-government demonstrations in #Haiti tear gassed and some shot by police - Dec 13, 2014 #BlackLivesMatter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv1hwzWxZbQ
Video: UN troops (MINUSTAH) fire live ammo and tear gas grenade on protestors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38owUZrNHzA, Dec 12, 2014
UN "peacekeepers" attack protesters in Haiti
http://bit.ly/1GlmUGq
Photo essay: UN "peacekeepers" attack Haiti protesters with live ammo and chemical agents. As usual, the UN will "investigate" itself like it did with the cholera epidemic and not indict just like the US grand juries in Michael Brown and Eric Gardner cases #BlackLivesMatter https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10154882305365394
********
Laurent Lamothe resigns, Martelly next:
Video: Laurent Lamothe, premier ministre d'Haïti, démissionne
http://fr.canoe.ca/infos/international/archives/2014/12/20141214-020255.html
Video: Haiti PM Laurent Lamothe forced to resign amid protests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUfZjVH_QDI
(Photos) Desalin is rising worldwide: New York Haitians protest police brutality - We Need Justice, Let U.S.A Breathe! The Haitian community remembers the Abner Louima case amongst others..
Desalin debake nan Harlem, li sou zile Ilavach. Li toupatou.
#BlackLivesMatter #bannousouf #Icantbreathe
https://www.facebook.com/groups/annpale/permalink/902334883111391/
VIDEO: Haiti - Depute Arnel Belizaire kanpe Zam a la Main devan yon solda MINUSTAH jounen 12 Decembre 2014
Arnel Belizaire face a l'occupant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=strxOBJjglw
*************
Impeach Martelly to Avoid Further Bloodshed and Unconstitutionality http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2014/12/impeach-martelly/
(Haiti Photo Essay) The UN is a criminal organization. A tool of empire from Lumumba to Aristide
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.946777938672001.1073741831.179960898687046
Ezili Dantò on hidden US occupation, DR apartheid and Haiti resistance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5pVH321NeI
***************
??? "...Martelly is expected to name an interim prime minister from within his administration to address the country’s day-to-day affairs.???"
PORT-AU-PRINCE
Bowing to pressure, Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe resigned Saturday, paving the way for a new government to lead the country into long overdue legislative and local elections.
Lamothe announced his resignation in a speech that was recorded shortly after 11 p.m., but did not air until almost 2 a.m. Sunday because of technical difficulties. He thanked President Michel Martelly, parliament, ministers and the Haitian people as he gave an account of his accomplishments. They included everything from increasing the percentage of children enrolled in school, augmenting tourism and foreign investments, and cutting insecurity and extreme poverty.
Citing a recent World Bank study that looked at the drop in poverty in Haiti between 2000 and 2012, Lamothe who took office in May 2012, said, “We are happy, but we are not satisfied when we see the number of people in extreme poverty has dropped from 31 percent to 24 percent in 2014 thanks to [our] work.”
The Bank acknowledged the government’s investments in social programs, which Lamothe took credit for in his speech, but questioned the programs’ sustainability in the face of dwindling foreign aid nearly five years after Haiti’s Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake.
“We can say today, that after 31 months, the results are there,” Lamothe said. “We’re leaving. We are going with the sentiment that we did all we could for the country....I leave the post of prime minister this evening, with the feeling of accomplishment.”
Lamothe said he was making the sacrifice for Haiti because the country not only needs development but also political stability to advance.
“Despite all of these accomplishments, if this is what can truly unblock the political crisis, I’ve decided,” he said, “to hand President Martelly my resignation and that of the entire government.”
The government’s resignation came on yet another day of tense anti-government protests, which also spread to the cities of Cap-Haitien and Gonaives. In Port-au-Prince, protesters accused police of killing an unarmed demonstrator who had a visible bullet wound in his chest.
Police spokesman Gary Desrosiers said “no one died in today’s protests. There were no great incidents.” He said an investigation has been launched into the death of the unidentified man, but it looked like people “put the body there.”
The protests took place despite President Michel Martelly announcing Friday that he would accept Lamothe’s offer to resign as part of a series of far-reaching “calming” measures recommended by a presidential commission to quell rising political tensions.
But with no timetable on Lamothe’s resignation, opponents believed Martelly would try to outsmart them and took to the streets Saturday demanding both his and Lamothe’s resignations. Opponents accuse Martelly of intentionally delaying the vote so that he could rule by decree on Jan. 12, making it easier for Lamothe to become a presidential contender in next year’s presidential elections.
“Michel Martelly has allowed the crisis to rot and degenerate by not doing what he should have done months ago,” said Volcy Assad, a protest organizer, referring to the delayed local and legislative elections.
But his criticisms weren’t just about Martelly, who has accused opposition senators of blocking the vote of an electoral law needed to schedule the balloting. Assad and others criticized the U.S. support of Martelly. Some protesters even waved photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin while singing, “Long Live Putin, Down with Obama.”
They also strongly condemned former U.S. President and U.N. Haiti Envoy Bill Clinton for his recent defense of Lamothe in a Miami Herald interview.
“Bill Clinton says that this is ‘the most consistent and decisive government’ he has ever worked with, yet you have thousands of Haitians in the streets, who are hungry and protesting because they are not happy with the situation,” Assad said. “Yet he’s clapping, ‘Bravo.’ Economic interests are at play here, not Haitian interests. We are defending Haiti’s interests.”
Under increasing pressure to organize elections, Martelly, who took office in 2011, appointed an 11-member presidential commission late last month to help stem the crisis. They called for a new Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and several resignations including the controversial head of the Supreme Court.
At the top of their list, however, was the resignation of Martelly’s best friend and confidante, Lamothe. A tech-savvy entrepreneur, he was named prime minister with unusual swiftness after Martelly’s first prime minister, longtime U.N. diplomat Gary Conille, was forced to resign after only four months.
Lamothe’s energy on the job invigorated the government and captivated the international community. But his rigid personality, jet-setting and refusal to be accountable to parliament fired up opponents and the streets in a high-stakes, competitive and unforgiving Haitian political environment.
Adding to his woes were his political ambitions and allegations of government corruption amid rising discontent.
“Martelly had a Lamothe problem,” said Daly Valet, a local journalist and political analyst. “For emotional and political reasons, he couldn’t ask Lamothe to quit as prime minister. It’s not a good demonstration of leadership when a president is being forced to decide one way or another by events on the streets.”
And while some doubt that Lamothe’s resignation will quell tensions on the streets where U.N. peacekeepers opened fire on a crowd of protesters marching through Port-au-Prince Friday, triggering an investigation and condemnation of excessive use of force by the global body, Valet thinks the resignation is a good thing — at least for Martelly.
“Lamothe should have resigned three months ago to pave the way for his political future as a presidential candidate and to facilitate a comprehensive political settlement between President Martelly and the opposition,” he said.
Negotiations on a new prime minister and government more reflective of the political parties in parliament, per the commission’s recommendations, are expected to begin on Monday. Historically these have been protracted political battles in Haiti where the departure of a prime minister in the past has sometimes left a months-long political void and created further instability to the frustration of the international community.
As that search and negotiations get under way, Martelly is expected to name an interim prime minister from within his administration to address the country’s day-to-day affairs.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article4477734.html#storylink=cpy
******************
Former President and Haiti envoy Bill Clinton defends PM Lamothe
By Jacqueline Charles jcha...@MiamiHerald.com
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article4431060.html#storylink=cpy
The push to remove Haitian Prime Minister Laurent could erase the gains Haiti has made in the last four years, former President Bill Clinton said Thursday in an exclusive interview with the Miami Herald.
“He’s done a really good job,” Clinton said on the margins of his one-day Future of the Americas summit at the University of Miami. “The one thing that Haiti doesn’t want to get out of this process is looking like ‘Ok, we had four great years, we were growing like crazy so you think we’ll throw it all away and go back to the old ways. It won’t be good for the country.’ ”
Clinton, who served as U.N. Special Envoy for Haiti after the country’s devastating Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, is the most prominent person yet to weigh in on a series of far-reaching recommendations by a Haitian presidential commission calling for the resignations of Lamothe and other key government appointees, including members of the provisional electoral council, to ease rising political tensions in Haiti.
The commission, made up of 11 respected members of Haitian society and appointed by President Michel Martelly, released their recommendations this week. Martelly is expected to address the nation on Friday about whether he will fire Lamothe, his friend and confidante.
“No experience I’ve ever had in Haiti has been free of political complications; it’s a complicated country,” Clinton said, turning his attention to Lamothe, who became prime minister in May 2012.
“This is the most consistent and decisive government I’ve ever worked with across a broad range of issues. And I think if you look at the sheer volume of investments they’ve attracted, everything from hotels to clean energy to healthcare, you have to ask yourself, ‘Why is this being done?’ ” he added.
Lamothe supporters say he’s the target of special interests groups who don’t take kindly to his going after major drug traffickers.
“He has never been part of the problem and will always be part of the solution,” Lamothe’s spokesman Michel Brunache told the Herald.
Opponents, however, disagree, saying Lamothe has not running a tight financial ship. They say him and Martelly have intentionally delayed elections to allow Martelly to rule by decree in January, easing Lamothe’s expected presidential bid.
Clinton said Lamothe’s political fate isn’t up to him. But if he were the one making a decision, Clinton said, he would do it “in a way that would keep the doors to Haiti open and keep people wanting to be part of Haiti’s future.”
“They have to realize that the trust of other people, the support of other people and the involvement of other people is not a limitless commodity that is immune to what happens there,” he said. “We’ve gone through several governments, several incarnations. I’ve seen some changes happen, some I agreed with, some I disagreed with. But after every one, you could still see a path forward to build a country.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article4431060.html#storylink=cpy
********************************************************
Forwarded by Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
********************************************************
Borrowing from Hillary Clinton, Haiti Prime Minister raises profile
As an ongoing political stalemate in Haiti fuels an electoral crisis, many are focusing attention on Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamonthe’s constant campaign-style stops.
By Jacqueline Charles - 07/24/2014
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article1976959.html
For a man who says he’s not a presidential candidate, Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe is campaigning like one.
From visiting a remote central Haiti village with United Nations head Ban Ki-moon to stumping at a Haitian diaspora town hall in North Miami, Lamothe last week was everywhere a candidate needs to be — although the start of the 2015 Haitian presidential race is more than a year away.
“That is how prime ministers run,” said Robert Fatton, a University of Virginia politics professor and Haiti expert. “That is not a Haitian thing. This is politics.”
Lamothe, 41, the tech savvy businessman-turned-politician, insists that he’s not a candidate.
“This is part of my job; what I am doing as prime minister, it is to govern; it is to manage,” Lamothe said before joining more than a dozen flown-in members of his cabinet in front an overflow crowd for his televised town hall in North Miami. “I am prime minister today, and I am focusing on that.”
But Lamothe’s schedule reflects a Hillary Clinton-like method of raising a future candidate’s profile without officially announcing for office. And that is prompting concern and panic in Haiti where observers say the presidential posturing is intensifying a crisis prompted by legislative and local elections that are three years behind schedule.
In order to run, Lamothe would need certification that he has not misused government funds. But the opposition-controlled Senate is unlikely to support giving him the décharge, leaving opponents and some supporters of President Michel Martelly to see delaying the Oct. 26 elections until next year as key. Martelly will rule by decree, practically guaranteeing that Lamothe will get the needed clearance. Opponents believe the delay would lead to Martelly’s downfall.
If the elections are not held, Haiti risks being thrust into chaos a decade after a U.N. Peacekeeping mission arrived to strengthen democracy, observers warn.
“I am particularly concerned that the political transition in Haiti will undergo regression,” Ban, the U.N. secretary general, warned last week at the end of an overnight visit. “Holding inclusive elections in October is essential for the continuity of parliament in 2015, and for the consolidation of democracy and the rule of law.”
With President Michel Martelly and the opposition still at logger heads over the delayed elections, analysts say the future doesn’t look bright for Haiti. Increasingly, October elections look impossible. And while a first-round in December remains do-able, there is growing fear the elections won’t take place until next fall alongside the presidential balloting.
That would leave Haiti with no lower chamber and just 10 out of 30 senators come the second Monday in January.
“That would be catastrophic for the country even if there are sectors who think it would work in their favor; a devastating political tsunami,” said Sauveur Pierre Etienne, national coordinator for the opposition Organization of People in Struggle (OPL), which has ended its boycott of the elections. “It feels as if the focus is no longer on the delayed local and legislative elections, but on the presidential elections.”
Fueling the political friction, say analysts, is Lamothe’s constant campaign-style stops that are generating suspicion and intrigue even among foreign diplomats about his presidential ambitions. One former prime minister, Jacques-Édouard Alexis, has even publicly called for “a common front” to stop Lamothe’s rise to the presidency, prompting push-back from Lamothe’s supporters.
“The prime minister is in an electoral campaign,” Etienne said, “and the political parties are panicking, other candidates are panicking.”
The major hurdle that elections supporters face is the lack of a law governing the election. Six senators have refused to support an amended law, saying they lack confidence in the nine-member provisional electoral council (CEP) that will have to oversee the balloting. Also, four of the largest opposition parties are boycotting the elections, saying they also have no confidence in the CEP.
“We changed the CEP four times in order to organize this election; we went 28 steps already,” Lamothe said. “Unfortunately, not all the cards are with us.”
“Everybody knows we will not have elections this year,” opposition Senator Steven Benoit said, accusing Martelly and Lamothe of “pretending they want to have elections but of course they know very well, they are not going to have it.” Benoit is not among the senators refusing to amend the election law.
For his part, Martelly has yet to officially anoint his successor.
Still, the singer-turned-president who overshadowed Lamothe at the North Miami meeting by singing and swinging his waist on stage, has made several veiled references that lead watchers to believe Lamothe will get his blessing — although nothing is guaranteed.
“The way Martelly was talking, he clearly said at one point, ‘I will put my hand on the anointed candidate,’” Fatton said about the North Miami gathering. “Clearly that was an indication that he’s going to put his hand on Lamothe.”
Fatton believes reports of conflict between the two friends have been grossly exaggerated.
“I think there is an agreement there. He is the logical candidate,” Fatton said of Lamothe. “The guy has a wonderful PR machine. You go to all of the social media, he’s there. He’s all over the country traveling, inaugurating things without saying he’s running and obviously, without also saying anything bad about Martelly, and pushing Martelly as ‘The Man,’ and then he’s just in the background.”
Lamothe’s schedule provides a textbook case in running for president:
Monday: Lamothe shook hands and distributed free government food to the poor as he hosted Ban amid a gaggle of TV cameras.
Tuesday: Lamothe played table tennis with Ban and other diplomats as he helped to inaugurate an Olympics-financed sports complex.
Friday: In Miami, he glad-handed with Haitian Americans, pitched post-earthquake progress and attended a reception in his honor, where he took no questions.
Saturday: Lamothe was center stage at a televised town hall in North Miami.
Sunday: He threw out the first pitch at a Miami Marlins game, much like any major U.S. candidate for office or cultural figure.
“There is no one else in the cabinet who is a serious candidate. If he says he’s a candidate now, they can attack him more. It’s very much like Hillary,” Fatton said. “He’s looking at the scenery; he’s using the position of prime minister to be prime minister but obviously also to be a candidate.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article1976959.html#storylink=cpy
***
Demonstrators shot and tear gassed:
Video: The victims of the anti-government demonstrations in #Haiti tear gassed and some shot by police - Dec 13, 2014 #BlackLivesMatter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv1hwzWxZbQ
Video: UN troops (MINUSTAH) fire live ammo and tear gas grenade on protestors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38owUZrNHzA, Dec 12, 2014
UN "peacekeepers" attack protesters in Haiti
http://bit.ly/1GlmUGq
Photo essay: UN "peacekeepers" attack Haiti protesters with live ammo and chemical agents. As usual, the UN will "investigate" itself like it did with the cholera epidemic and not indict just like the US grand juries in Michael Brown and Eric Gardner cases #BlackLivesMatter https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10154882305365394
********
Laurent Lamothe resigns, Martelly next:
Video: Laurent Lamothe, premier ministre d'Haïti, démissionne
http://fr.canoe.ca/infos/international/archives/2014/12/20141214-020255.html
Video: Haiti PM Laurent Lamothe forced to resign amid protests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUfZjVH_QDI
(Photos) Desalin is rising worldwide: New York Haitians protest police brutality - We Need Justice, Let U.S.A Breathe! The Haitian community remembers the Abner Louima case amongst others..
Desalin debake nan Harlem, li sou zile Ilavach. Li toupatou.
#BlackLivesMatter #bannousouf #Icantbreathe
https://www.facebook.com/groups/annpale/permalink/902334883111391/
VIDEO: Haiti - Depute Arnel Belizaire kanpe Zam a la Main devan yon solda MINUSTAH jounen 12 Decembre 2014
Arnel Belizaire face a l'occupant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=strxOBJjglw
*************
Impeach Martelly to Avoid Further Bloodshed and Unconstitutionality http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2014/12/impeach-martelly/
(Haiti Photo Essay) The UN is a criminal organization. A tool of empire from Lumumba to Aristide
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.946777938672001.1073741831.179960898687046
Ezili Dantò on hidden US occupation, DR apartheid and Haiti resistance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5pVH321NeI
***************
??? "...Martelly is expected to name an interim prime minister from within his administration to address the country’s day-to-day affairs.???"
PORT-AU-PRINCE
Bowing to pressure, Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe resigned Saturday, paving the way for a new government to lead the country into long overdue legislative and local elections.
Lamothe announced his resignation in a speech that was recorded shortly after 11 p.m., but did not air until almost 2 a.m. Sunday because of technical difficulties. He thanked President Michel Martelly, parliament, ministers and the Haitian people as he gave an account of his accomplishments. They included everything from increasing the percentage of children enrolled in school, augmenting tourism and foreign investments, and cutting insecurity and extreme poverty.
Citing a recent World Bank study that looked at the drop in poverty in Haiti between 2000 and 2012, Lamothe who took office in May 2012, said, “We are happy, but we are not satisfied when we see the number of people in extreme poverty has dropped from 31 percent to 24 percent in 2014 thanks to [our] work.”
The Bank acknowledged the government’s investments in social programs, which Lamothe took credit for in his speech, but questioned the programs’ sustainability in the face of dwindling foreign aid nearly five years after Haiti’s Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake.
“We can say today, that after 31 months, the results are there,” Lamothe said. “We’re leaving. We are going with the sentiment that we did all we could for the country....I leave the post of prime minister this evening, with the feeling of accomplishment.”
Lamothe said he was making the sacrifice for Haiti because the country not only needs development but also political stability to advance.
“Despite all of these accomplishments, if this is what can truly unblock the political crisis, I’ve decided,” he said, “to hand President Martelly my resignation and that of the entire government.”
The government’s resignation came on yet another day of tense anti-government protests, which also spread to the cities of Cap-Haitien and Gonaives. In Port-au-Prince, protesters accused police of killing an unarmed demonstrator who had a visible bullet wound in his chest.
Police spokesman Gary Desrosiers said “no one died in today’s protests. There were no great incidents.” He said an investigation has been launched into the death of the unidentified man, but it looked like people “put the body there.”
The protests took place despite President Michel Martelly announcing Friday that he would accept Lamothe’s offer to resign as part of a series of far-reaching “calming” measures recommended by a presidential commission to quell rising political tensions.
But with no timetable on Lamothe’s resignation, opponents believed Martelly would try to outsmart them and took to the streets Saturday demanding both his and Lamothe’s resignations. Opponents accuse Martelly of intentionally delaying the vote so that he could rule by decree on Jan. 12, making it easier for Lamothe to become a presidential contender in next year’s presidential elections.
“Michel Martelly has allowed the crisis to rot and degenerate by not doing what he should have done months ago,” said Volcy Assad, a protest organizer, referring to the delayed local and legislative elections.
But his criticisms weren’t just about Martelly, who has accused opposition senators of blocking the vote of an electoral law needed to schedule the balloting. Assad and others criticized the U.S. support of Martelly. Some protesters even waved photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin while singing, “Long Live Putin, Down with Obama.”
They also strongly condemned former U.S. President and U.N. Haiti Envoy Bill Clinton for his recent defense of Lamothe in a Miami Herald interview.
“Bill Clinton says that this is ‘the most consistent and decisive government’ he has ever worked with, yet you have thousands of Haitians in the streets, who are hungry and protesting because they are not happy with the situation,” Assad said. “Yet he’s clapping, ‘Bravo.’ Economic interests are at play here, not Haitian interests. We are defending Haiti’s interests.”
Under increasing pressure to organize elections, Martelly, who took office in 2011, appointed an 11-member presidential commission late last month to help stem the crisis. They called for a new Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and several resignations including the controversial head of the Supreme Court.
At the top of their list, however, was the resignation of Martelly’s best friend and confidante, Lamothe. A tech-savvy entrepreneur, he was named prime minister with unusual swiftness after Martelly’s first prime minister, longtime U.N. diplomat Gary Conille, was forced to resign after only four months.
Lamothe’s energy on the job invigorated the government and captivated the international community. But his rigid personality, jet-setting and refusal to be accountable to parliament fired up opponents and the streets in a high-stakes, competitive and unforgiving Haitian political environment.
Adding to his woes were his political ambitions and allegations of government corruption amid rising discontent.
“Martelly had a Lamothe problem,” said Daly Valet, a local journalist and political analyst. “For emotional and political reasons, he couldn’t ask Lamothe to quit as prime minister. It’s not a good demonstration of leadership when a president is being forced to decide one way or another by events on the streets.”
And while some doubt that Lamothe’s resignation will quell tensions on the streets where U.N. peacekeepers opened fire on a crowd of protesters marching through Port-au-Prince Friday, triggering an investigation and condemnation of excessive use of force by the global body, Valet thinks the resignation is a good thing — at least for Martelly.
“Lamothe should have resigned three months ago to pave the way for his political future as a presidential candidate and to facilitate a comprehensive political settlement between President Martelly and the opposition,” he said.
Negotiations on a new prime minister and government more reflective of the political parties in parliament, per the commission’s recommendations, are expected to begin on Monday. Historically these have been protracted political battles in Haiti where the departure of a prime minister in the past has sometimes left a months-long political void and created further instability to the frustration of the international community.
As that search and negotiations get under way, Martelly is expected to name an interim prime minister from within his administration to address the country’s day-to-day affairs.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article4477734.html#storylink=cpy
******************
Former President and Haiti envoy Bill Clinton defends PM Lamothe
By Jacqueline Charles jcha...@MiamiHerald.com
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article4431060.html#storylink=cpy
The push to remove Haitian Prime Minister Laurent could erase the gains Haiti has made in the last four years, former President Bill Clinton said Thursday in an exclusive interview with the Miami Herald.
“He’s done a really good job,” Clinton said on the margins of his one-day Future of the Americas summit at the University of Miami. “The one thing that Haiti doesn’t want to get out of this process is looking like ‘Ok, we had four great years, we were growing like crazy so you think we’ll throw it all away and go back to the old ways. It won’t be good for the country.’ ”
Clinton, who served as U.N. Special Envoy for Haiti after the country’s devastating Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, is the most prominent person yet to weigh in on a series of far-reaching recommendations by a Haitian presidential commission calling for the resignations of Lamothe and other key government appointees, including members of the provisional electoral council, to ease rising political tensions in Haiti.
The commission, made up of 11 respected members of Haitian society and appointed by President Michel Martelly, released their recommendations this week. Martelly is expected to address the nation on Friday about whether he will fire Lamothe, his friend and confidante.
“No experience I’ve ever had in Haiti has been free of political complications; it’s a complicated country,” Clinton said, turning his attention to Lamothe, who became prime minister in May 2012.
“This is the most consistent and decisive government I’ve ever worked with across a broad range of issues. And I think if you look at the sheer volume of investments they’ve attracted, everything from hotels to clean energy to healthcare, you have to ask yourself, ‘Why is this being done?’ ” he added.
Lamothe supporters say he’s the target of special interests groups who don’t take kindly to his going after major drug traffickers.
“He has never been part of the problem and will always be part of the solution,” Lamothe’s spokesman Michel Brunache told the Herald.
Opponents, however, disagree, saying Lamothe has not running a tight financial ship. They say him and Martelly have intentionally delayed elections to allow Martelly to rule by decree in January, easing Lamothe’s expected presidential bid.
Clinton said Lamothe’s political fate isn’t up to him. But if he were the one making a decision, Clinton said, he would do it “in a way that would keep the doors to Haiti open and keep people wanting to be part of Haiti’s future.”
“They have to realize that the trust of other people, the support of other people and the involvement of other people is not a limitless commodity that is immune to what happens there,” he said. “We’ve gone through several governments, several incarnations. I’ve seen some changes happen, some I agreed with, some I disagreed with. But after every one, you could still see a path forward to build a country.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article4431060.html#storylink=cpy
********************************************************
Forwarded by Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
********************************************************
Borrowing from Hillary Clinton, Haiti Prime Minister raises profile
As an ongoing political stalemate in Haiti fuels an electoral crisis, many are focusing attention on Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamonthe’s constant campaign-style stops.
By Jacqueline Charles - 07/24/2014
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article1976959.html
For a man who says he’s not a presidential candidate, Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe is campaigning like one.
From visiting a remote central Haiti village with United Nations head Ban Ki-moon to stumping at a Haitian diaspora town hall in North Miami, Lamothe last week was everywhere a candidate needs to be — although the start of the 2015 Haitian presidential race is more than a year away.
“That is how prime ministers run,” said Robert Fatton, a University of Virginia politics professor and Haiti expert. “That is not a Haitian thing. This is politics.”
Lamothe, 41, the tech savvy businessman-turned-politician, insists that he’s not a candidate.
“This is part of my job; what I am doing as prime minister, it is to govern; it is to manage,” Lamothe said before joining more than a dozen flown-in members of his cabinet in front an overflow crowd for his televised town hall in North Miami. “I am prime minister today, and I am focusing on that.”
But Lamothe’s schedule reflects a Hillary Clinton-like method of raising a future candidate’s profile without officially announcing for office. And that is prompting concern and panic in Haiti where observers say the presidential posturing is intensifying a crisis prompted by legislative and local elections that are three years behind schedule.
In order to run, Lamothe would need certification that he has not misused government funds. But the opposition-controlled Senate is unlikely to support giving him the décharge, leaving opponents and some supporters of President Michel Martelly to see delaying the Oct. 26 elections until next year as key. Martelly will rule by decree, practically guaranteeing that Lamothe will get the needed clearance. Opponents believe the delay would lead to Martelly’s downfall.
If the elections are not held, Haiti risks being thrust into chaos a decade after a U.N. Peacekeeping mission arrived to strengthen democracy, observers warn.
“I am particularly concerned that the political transition in Haiti will undergo regression,” Ban, the U.N. secretary general, warned last week at the end of an overnight visit. “Holding inclusive elections in October is essential for the continuity of parliament in 2015, and for the consolidation of democracy and the rule of law.”
With President Michel Martelly and the opposition still at logger heads over the delayed elections, analysts say the future doesn’t look bright for Haiti. Increasingly, October elections look impossible. And while a first-round in December remains do-able, there is growing fear the elections won’t take place until next fall alongside the presidential balloting.
That would leave Haiti with no lower chamber and just 10 out of 30 senators come the second Monday in January.
“That would be catastrophic for the country even if there are sectors who think it would work in their favor; a devastating political tsunami,” said Sauveur Pierre Etienne, national coordinator for the opposition Organization of People in Struggle (OPL), which has ended its boycott of the elections. “It feels as if the focus is no longer on the delayed local and legislative elections, but on the presidential elections.”
Fueling the political friction, say analysts, is Lamothe’s constant campaign-style stops that are generating suspicion and intrigue even among foreign diplomats about his presidential ambitions. One former prime minister, Jacques-Édouard Alexis, has even publicly called for “a common front” to stop Lamothe’s rise to the presidency, prompting push-back from Lamothe’s supporters.
“The prime minister is in an electoral campaign,” Etienne said, “and the political parties are panicking, other candidates are panicking.”
The major hurdle that elections supporters face is the lack of a law governing the election. Six senators have refused to support an amended law, saying they lack confidence in the nine-member provisional electoral council (CEP) that will have to oversee the balloting. Also, four of the largest opposition parties are boycotting the elections, saying they also have no confidence in the CEP.
“We changed the CEP four times in order to organize this election; we went 28 steps already,” Lamothe said. “Unfortunately, not all the cards are with us.”
“Everybody knows we will not have elections this year,” opposition Senator Steven Benoit said, accusing Martelly and Lamothe of “pretending they want to have elections but of course they know very well, they are not going to have it.” Benoit is not among the senators refusing to amend the election law.
For his part, Martelly has yet to officially anoint his successor.
Still, the singer-turned-president who overshadowed Lamothe at the North Miami meeting by singing and swinging his waist on stage, has made several veiled references that lead watchers to believe Lamothe will get his blessing — although nothing is guaranteed.
“The way Martelly was talking, he clearly said at one point, ‘I will put my hand on the anointed candidate,’” Fatton said about the North Miami gathering. “Clearly that was an indication that he’s going to put his hand on Lamothe.”
Fatton believes reports of conflict between the two friends have been grossly exaggerated.
“I think there is an agreement there. He is the logical candidate,” Fatton said of Lamothe. “The guy has a wonderful PR machine. You go to all of the social media, he’s there. He’s all over the country traveling, inaugurating things without saying he’s running and obviously, without also saying anything bad about Martelly, and pushing Martelly as ‘The Man,’ and then he’s just in the background.”
Lamothe’s schedule provides a textbook case in running for president:
Monday: Lamothe shook hands and distributed free government food to the poor as he hosted Ban amid a gaggle of TV cameras.
Tuesday: Lamothe played table tennis with Ban and other diplomats as he helped to inaugurate an Olympics-financed sports complex.
Friday: In Miami, he glad-handed with Haitian Americans, pitched post-earthquake progress and attended a reception in his honor, where he took no questions.
Saturday: Lamothe was center stage at a televised town hall in North Miami.
Sunday: He threw out the first pitch at a Miami Marlins game, much like any major U.S. candidate for office or cultural figure.
“There is no one else in the cabinet who is a serious candidate. If he says he’s a candidate now, they can attack him more. It’s very much like Hillary,” Fatton said. “He’s looking at the scenery; he’s using the position of prime minister to be prime minister but obviously also to be a candidate.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article1976959.html#storylink=cpy
Lionel Legros
Dec 15, 2014, 3:01:53 PM12/15/14
to tout-...@googlegroups.com, erzil...@yahoo.com
SEE, WE DID NOT NEED PUTIN ,HE IS TOO BUSY EMBOLDING THE ULTRA RIGHT IN FRANCE !
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