It’s the evening of January 12, 2010 an earthquake hits the island of Hispaniola, Haiti to be specific. The capitol Port-au-Prince is completely destroyed and people are stuck under ruble. It’s estimated earthquake killed more than one hundred thousand people at MINIMUM. For the Haitians that were present it would be the worst day of their lives. Various countries from all over the world sent help to Haiti, from disaster specialists to sacks of rice. This crisis also attracted lots of unscrupulous individuals, lots of relief money would be “mismanaged” and items of historical significance probably ended up in private collections.
This would have to be the lowest point for the country right? Besides another natural disaster, there’s no way it could get any worst right? Right??
The Clown Business
For you understand the story I’m about to tell, we have to start in 2011. A singer named Michel Martelly won the presidential election. He ran against a woman called Mirlande Manigat, she was a law professor and former first lady. Martelly was third place in the first round of the election but the second place candidate Jude Célestin was pressured to withdraw from the race by the Organization of American States and France. The OAS is an organization that focuses on “electoral oversight, social and economic development” in the western hemisphere. The United States funds more than half of their budget.
Jude Celestin studied mechanical engineering in Switzerland and was a member of the INITE party. The US, France and OAS accused him of voter fraud and forced him out of the race. A US State Department official told The Guardian “It's not that we are picking one [candidate] over the other. It's that there are strong indications that there was significant voter fraud, that the preliminary findings do not reflect the actual voting of the Haitian people”. The Centre for Economic and Policy Research released a paper titled “Haiti’s Fatally Flawed Election” pointing out flaws in the OAS’s investigation and stated:
“It is simply impossible to determine who should advance to a second round. If there is a second round, it will be based on arbitrary assumptions and/or exclusions”
Michel Martelly would go on to win the second and final round of the election. There was of course a lot of fraud again, but Colin Granderson an official at the OAS stated:
“The mission has considered whether the irregularities it observed were of the magnitude and consistency that would invalidate the legitimacy of the process. Based on these observations in the 11 electoral departments, the joint mission does not believe that these irregularities, serious as some of them were, necessarily invalidated the process.”
Martelly “won” by more than 60% of the vote.
Candidate Martelly was supported by Bill Clinton who was UN Special Envoy to Haiti at the time. Martelly as president would go on to award Bill Clinton the National Order of Honour and Merit “for his various initiatives in Haiti and especially his high contribution to the reconstruction of the country after the earthquake of January 12, 2010”. Martelly also launched a Presidential Advisory Council that was co-chaired by Bill Clinton.
Reminder: Bill Clinton, husband of Hilary Clinton who was US Secretary of state at the time. Was put in charge of distributing the billions of dollars of earthquake aid money for Haiti and……… (link)
Definitely award worthy.
Doing It MAJOR
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made a very generous deal with Haiti and invited them to Petrocaribe. This deal allowed Haiti to get oil from Venezuela and deferred payment for up to 25 years. Chavez made this deal because he’s seemingly fond of Haitians and their shared history with Venezuela. Haiti supported Simon Bolivar during the Latin American wars of independence. Chavez stated “Haiti was the first nation of Latin America, gaining its independence in 1804. In the 19th century’s first example of international solidarity, Haitian revolutionary leaders like Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Alexandre Petion provided Francisco de Miranda and Simon Bolivar, South America’s “Great Liberator,” with guns, ships, and printing presses to carry out the anti-colonial struggle on the continent”.
Haitian governments were supposed to sell the oil and use the extra money to develop the economy and fund social programs. After that deal under three consecutive Haitian president’s to include Michel Martelly’s administration up to 2 billion dollars were embezzled from the program.
In 2022, Canada would go on to sanction Martelly for financing gangs, the US chose not to participate in those sanctions. Instead, they chose to sanction his appointed prime minister (stronger version of vice president) Laurent Lamothe for corruption and barred him from entering the country.
To be continued…
Could one say that OAS is neo-colonialism?