Anarchopedia:Current events

Today that year

Anarchopedia:Current events archive
USA government decides on Haitian election candidates; Hillary Clinton draws the short straw, and breaks the bad news to Haiti: The guy you wrote in as a joke, Michel Martelly? He's now the other guy that you have to vote for instead of Aristide, or Fanmi Lavalas, or Rene Praval, or Jude Celestin, or whoever we get rid of next

• Way back in 2009, the Fanmi Lavalas party, closest to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was forbidden participation in Haiti's November '10 elections by the provisional election council created by the current president, Rene Praval. But not content with that assassination of democracy, and under cover of the Egyptian protests, the US, to the orchestrated swell of allegations of voter fraud as a pretext for runoff elections, pressured Haiti to remove Jude Celestin, the candidate least affiliated with right-wing Haitian government, US-backed Haitian governments, Haitian dictators, or all three. Michel Martelly and Mirlande Manigat will face each other in the revised election.

INITE campaign poster for the 2010 elections picturing Jude Celestin and his non-winning smile, with some of the heavy machinery that will soon no longer be at his disposal, but hopefully will not be sold off to the highest bidder before Haiti can rebuild itself, Photoshopped in behind him

• Jude Celestin, the ousted candidate, is a pretty boy with incumbent backing, an easy mark as the bad guy for lefties, but in addition to a lack of connections with the forces of darkness, he has a connection the US has already proven is on the top of their regime change To Do list: his work in the state-owned construction industry.

Celestin is leader of the National Equipment Center (CNE), the nationalized construction company in Haiti which instead of building rural roads, has had to switch to rescue and debris-clearing after the January earthquake 2010 earthquake. A relative newcomer to politics, he was nonetheless the pick of current president René Préval, if only because he was the only candidate without political connections and therefore interests outside of Haiti.

Celestin had his work cut out for him, being closely tied to the incumbent president who was prevented by two-term-limit laws from running again, in a country whose perception of the performance of its government must see through the calamity of an earthquake and a cholera epidemic. He may have been his own worst enemy with his refusal to campaign either hard or dirty; nonetheless, he made it to the top three, by hook or crook or just plain luck. Sometimes the right things happen for the wrong reasons.

Despite media that were following the race having narrowed it down to the three candidates, the media immediately after the elections was full of statements such as "Jude Celestin, who unexpectedly came in second place". But then, they had the benefit of something news agencies who had been paying attention did not have: the ability to take at face value both Martelly and Manigat's allegations of voter fraud by Celestin, on the same day of the elections, in what has turned out to be a winning strategy. Celestin's campaign headquarters was burned to the ground a day after the preliminary results were announced, which no doubt hampered the campaign's attempts to counter the voter fraud spin.

• Michel Martelly, 'popularly known as' (literally, 'popularly') "Sweet Micky" — a moniker sometimes used interchangeably to refer to himself as well as his band — is a Haitian performing and recording artist, composer, and musical sociopolitical activist, who breaks the expected lefty mold of American and British entertainers with his well-hidden support for the Duvalier regime. Between the time of the 1991 coup d'état and the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1994, he also supported the government of disbanded Haitian military and pro-US forces that deposed Aristide and took power. He ran on a platform of nothing much in particular, being described as a joke candidate by many reports, and of course nepotism and voter fraud by Celestin.

• Mirlande Manigat is the presidential candidate for the right of center Rally of Progressive National Democrats (RDNP) party. She is the wife of former president Leslie Manigat, who won the presidential election of January 17, 1988 with 50.29% of the votes, defeating ten other candidates. However, voter turnout was well under 10%. Few historians and vote monitors consider this election to have been democratic. She ran on a platform of education and change, and of course nepotism and voter fraud by Celestin.

"The decision was made after the Obama administration and the Organization of American States pressured Haiti not to include government-backed candidate Jude Celestin in the run-off, although he received more votes than Martelly. OAS claimed that Celestin had benefited from vote rigging and fraud. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Haiti to personally pressure Haitian President René Préval not to include Celestin in the runoff. But many organizations, including the Congressional Black Caucus, have criticized the Obama administration’s stance. Mark Weisbrot, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said it was a disgrace that, "the richest country in the world has forced one of the poorest to change the results of its presidential election, literally under the threat of starvation." Haiti’s presidential election process has also come under intense criticism in part because candidates of former President Juan-Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas Party were banned from running." - Democracy Now! - 4 Feb '11

Jude Celestin is the only candidate without a Wikipedia article.

• In response to the Egyptian street protests following the North African protest self-immolations, President Hosni Mubarak has sworn in a new cabinet. New vice president Omar Suleiman is Egypt’s former intelligence chief, with close ties to Washington. He played a key role in the U.S. extraordinary rendition program.
• The 14th Amendment may be reinterpreted if a current bill passes. The Arizona House bill HR 140 is the second such in a week; the first, introduced in Indiana.
• An unprecedented inquiry this week submitted evidence pertaining to the death of President Salvador Allende, and hundreds more unresolved deaths during the 1973 U.S.-backed military coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power.
• The FBI says it has executed 40+ search warrants as part of a probe into cyberattacks waged in support of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. Five people have also been arrested in the United Kingdom in a related probe.
• The Obama administration has publicly confirmed it is continuing the Bush-era policy of opposing the return of Haiti’s ousted former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Overthrown in a 2004 U.S.-backed coup, Aristide has renewed his pleas to return to Haiti following the recent re-emergence of exiled dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. In a statement issued through Twitter, U.S. Department of State spokesperson P.J. Crowley said, "We do not doubt President Aristide’s desire to help the people of Haiti. But today, Haiti needs to focus on its future, not its past." The Haitian government has refused to issue Aristide a new passport, reportedly under U.S.-led pressure. - Democracy Now!
• Just after his return this week, Jean-Claude Duvalier was indicted on corruption charges stemming from his embezzlement of millions in state funds before a popular uprising forced him to flee Haiti in 1986. Alleged victims of human rights abuses under his regime have also filed criminal complaints. Duvalier says he returned to assist Haiti’s rebuilding effort, but critics say he’s making a last-ditch attempt to recoup some $6 million frozen in a Swiss bank account. A Swiss law passed in response to Duvalier’s longtime effort to obtain the money goes into effect on February 1. Before the new rules kick in, Duvalier would be able to receive the money if he could prove he is not under criminal investigation in his home country. His return is seen as a gamble that he would have been able to enter Haiti and then depart without being charged, which he would then cite as proof to the Swiss he’s not under legal scrutiny. - Democracy Now!

One of the crowd 'celebrating' Duvalier's return told a reporter from The Telegraph that he had been paid $10 Haitian dollars to cheer. Duvalier "declared himself 'impressed by the welcome I have received, especially from the crowd of young people who don't know me.'"- The Telegraph

• (In January 2011), "a group of U.S.-based human rights groups and legal organizations filed an emergency petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to halt the roundups, detention and deportations of Haitian nationals by the U.S. government." - Democracy Now! On the 20th of January, the U.S. government resumed deportations to Haiti. Haitian refugees face a completely different standard than Cuban refugees for entry into the US, according to Human Rights Watch. Other human rights groups criticized deporting people into a triad of disasters: a cholera outbreak, violence surrounding the election and earthquake devastation.