Martelly OUT! MINUSTAH OUT!

wo Parliamentary Special Commissions of Inquiry have urged that Haitis lawmakers impeach President Michel Martelly and his long-time business partner Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe. Both men were in a July 11 meeting where they threatened Judge Jean Serge Joseph, who was investigating corruption in the regime. Martelly and Lamothe publicly lied that they were at the meeting or ever met the judge, who died two days later from a brain hemorrhage due to stress or poison. Meanwhile, the Haitian Senate has unanimously demanded that the 9,000 soldier UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) be withdrawn no later than May 2014. The UN, however, wants to renew MINUSTAH when its one year Security Council mandate ends on October 15, 2013.

The Martelly regime illegally came to power in May 2011 after a March 2011 electoral coup engineered by Washington (Haitis Electoral Council never ratified the election). It has carried out a long list of illegal and provocative acts including: the arrest of peaceful protesters, of a sitting deputy, and of the plaintiffs in a suit against government corruption; the unilateral, illegal taxing of international money transfers and phone calls, proceeds from which go into an opaque presidential-controlled account; the formation of several private rightwing militias; the release or protection of known criminals who are close to the President; and the ramming through of Constitutional changes and an unlawful electoral council.
But the wholesale corruption of the regime, at levels breathtaking even by Haitian standards, is mainly what has brought the people to a boiling point. Highlights include: a $20,000 per diem for the President on his frequent trips abroad, on which he takes his family and large entourages who are given equally obscene per diems; 12 documented kickback payments totaling $2.6 million from Dominican Sen. Felix Bautista for post-earthquake construction contracts; the siphoning off of millions of dollars from the PetroCaribe fund set aside for social programs; and the disappearance into thin air of another $100 million in post-earthquake international funds for rebuilding of a devastated Port-au-Prince neighborhood, which still lie in shambles. The list goes on and on.

Meanwhile, MINUSTAH continues to repress, harrass, and infect the Haitian people at an average cost of about $800 million a year. MINUSTAH troops introduced cholera into Haiti in October 2010, an the ensuing epidemic, the worlds worst, has killed over 8,000 people. The UN refuses to accept responsibility or pay reparations to victims. New Yorks Haitian community will hold a picket in front of the UN every weekday until at least September 26, when a larger demonstration will protest Martellys speech before the UN General Assembly. Haitians are demanding the impeachment or resignation of President Martelly, and the immediate withdrawal of UN military occupation troops from Haiti. Please come out and JOIN US! Committe to Support the Haitian Peoples Struggle (KAKOLA), Hati Libert, International Support Haiti Network (ISHN), and the Base of the Lavalas Family in New York.

Information: 718.421.0162 or 917.251.6057