DIPLOMATIE INTERNATIONALE & SOCIÉTÉ
- Another Jovenel Moïse decree, to launch a Duvalier-style Secret Service, indicative of a new wave of repression by Raymond Alcide Joseph
The “Agence d’Intelligence Nationale” (ANI), National Intelligence Agency in English, has been launched, following a decree published in a “Special edition” of Le Moniteur, the official government gazette, on November 26, supposedly to deal with rising gang violence that the government has failed to address because some of the gang leaders are protected by the authorities.
Through specious legalese, spread over 16 pages and an additional one for signatures, of an eight-chapter document, with 73 articles, President Jovenel Moïse tries to make the case for his intelligence agency. In the process, he admits indirectly that he failed, during his nearly four years in office, to address the ever-growing violence of the gangs that now threaten even the existence of the nation. But what if ANI were a pretext to officialize the bandits, whose mentor is the self-styled “Legal Bandit” Michel Martelly, who had chosen “The Banana Man” Moïse to warm the presidential chair for him, as he plans his return to power?
At the outset, Mr. Moïse claims he has the right to create ANI, because “Legislative Power is, for the moment, inoperative and that the Executive Power can legislate through decree on issues of interest to the public, . . . for the State must guarantee peace and national security, an obligation, to protect lives, properties and institutions, while taking all dispositions to ensure the defense of fundamental, geopolitical and strategic interests of the Nation.”
Not to forget, President Moïse engineered a coup d’état to benefit from his dictatorial prerogatives. When the mandate of all the Deputies, or Congressman, elapsed on the second January of this year because he failed to organize timely legislative elections, President Moïse, singlehandedly and illegally, also terminated the mandate of 10 Senators. Then he gloated about Parliament being “dysfunctional,” allowing him to govern since then by decree. And his friends in Washington kept applauding.
For years, the gangs have been causing havoc. Their action prompted the Haitian Episcopal Conference, the highest ruling body of the Catholic Church in Haiti, to issue a special Christmas message in 2018, warning that the situation was getting out of hand and appealed to the authorities to take appropriate action. Also all human rights organizations in Haiti issued scathing reports against the proliferation of gangs, some even testifying at a Congressional hearing in 2019 about the threats encountered by the nation.
However, it has taken this late decree for President Moïse to state the obvious: “. . . Faced with ever-growing acts of insecurity and increased threats of these criminal organizations against public freedom, intelligence activities have become more essential for our sovereignty and the protection of the citizens.”
As if the authorities were asleep and are now waking up, the presence of “illegally armed” individuals are finally noted. One wonders where has President Moïse been when the press, all or gans included, have reported the kidnappings, the torture and frequent killing of some citizens, like the recent scandalous kidnapping-murder of Evelyne Sincère, the 22-year-old student? No statement was forthcoming from the Palace.
Yet now, in a decree, one reads about “the presence of illegally armed individuals and criminal organizations [which] constitute a grave threat to national security, to political stability and to the implementation of national development programs.”
Unbelievable but true, suddenly President Moïse wakes up from his torpor and considers it a top “priority to dismantle the illegally armed groups and the criminal organizations, so that judicial authorities will have the possibility to hear the perpetrators of these acts that are punishable by law.” As if President Moïse forgets how he ordered Minister of Justice and Public Safety Lucmanne Delille fired last July 9, hours after he had taken a strong stand against armed gangs parading through the streets of Port-au-Prince!
Anyway, there it is, spelled out—repeatedly— in the Jovenel Moï se decree regarding the “urgency” to establish the National Intelligence Agency. Interestingly, through his decree, the president makes clear that the Palace (that is himself) will have direct control of the new intelligence agency, the agents of which will be recruited not by the Haitian National Police (French acronym PNH). This is reminiscent of the formation of the SD (Service Détectives), the repressive corps that the dictator François “Papa Doc” Duvalier recruited from among his “Tontons-Macoutes,” the infamous bogeymen who turned Haiti into a vast killing field and a cemetery, causing the flight of more than 80% of the country’s intellectual and professional classes in the 1960s through the 1970s. the disastrous repercussions of that era still haunting Haiti, which experienced heavy brain drain.
To be reminded, the Tontons-Macoute goons originally were called “Cagoulards,” from the “cagoule” (face covering), they used in the early days as disguise, when carrying out their acts of banditry. Then, they were officialized with their blue denim uniform and red kerchief, plus dark glasses. Repeating history, the current bandits, in cahoots with the authorities, probably will be recycled in ANI. It’s a distinct possibility when considers how President Moïse has been protective of gangs, as shown by his treatment of Jimmy Chérizier, better known as Barbecue. This former policeman turned gang leader organized the “Federated Gangs” with its flagship unit “G9 Family and Associates.” They are registered at the Ministry of Social Affairs as a non-profit organization.
Moreover, Barbecue participated in the massacre of La Saline in November 2018 when more than 70 people, including women, children, and some elderlies, were gunned down or chopped to death with machetes, their bodies thrown on heaps of garbage for wild pigs and dogs to feast on. That was in reprisal for the alleged participation of people from that shantytown in an anti-Moïse demonstration at Pont Rouge on October 17, 2018. The presidential party was chased out under an avalanche of stones. The president escaped without carrying out the traditional wreath laying at the tomb of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the hero of Haiti’s independence who was assassinated there on that date in 1806. Since then, President Moïse has not been able to return to Pont Rouge.
Meanwhile, targeted in a report of the Central Directorate of the Judiciary Police (French acronym DCPJ) of being among the perpetrators of the La Saline massacre, Barbecue hasn’t worried about anything. Notwithstanding the outstanding Police warrant for his arrest since 2019! His case made it before the UN Security Council in 2019 and the UN human rights unit operating in Haiti also reported Barbecue’s participation in the massacre and demanded his arrest and that justice for the victims of La Saline. Lately, the Trump administration also called for Barbecue’s arrest. But he still roams around freely, probably being kept in reserve to lead, if not play a major role in ANI.
This is not far-fetched because recently Jimmy Chérizier released a video where he was presenting Obed “Kiki” Joseph who, he said, was the kidnapper-killer of the young woman Evelyne Sincère, and that he would delivering him to the Police. Subsequently, the Police did present Kiki on television, accompanied by three accomplices. In another video, Barbecue boasts about his support of President Moïse “until February 7, 2021, then we’ll appraise the situation.”
That there’s connection between the gangs and the Palace gain some credence with the kidnapping of Maritza Beaubrun Hérard, on Sunday, November 29, as she left church in Delmas, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. On being released, December 1st, Maritza, the wife of Dimitri Hérard, head of the USGPN, the special Police unit in charge of Palace Security, was heard in a Facebook posting praising her captors for their gallantry and the treatment she received while in capture. In fact, she said, “There were tears as we parted.” Get this, Maritza’s mother, praising her son-in-law, said: “Dimitri is the one who went to pick up his wife” at Village de Dieu, known as gang territory.
A protégé of President Moïse, Dimitri Hérard, who is responsible for the security of the “Supreme Leader,” who gave himself the nickname of “Aftergod,” has shown what could be interpreted as a working relationship with certain gangs. Undoubtedly, he will be indispensable in recruiting the ANI “intelligence agents” and could end up as the first leader of this repressive force wrapped in the mantle of an “intelligence agency.”
And Jovenel Moïse thinks he will be in an ideal position to thumb his nose at those who insist that he should vacate the Pa lace on February 7, 2021, as constitutionally required. But he claims that having assumed the presidency late, he is entitled to five years. He won’t leave till February 7, 2022, perhaps much later, if he were to succeed in imposing his new illegal Constitution. Despite rejection from all major sectors of the society of this bogus charter, still in the works, Mr. Moïse’s propaganda mill states that it will be approved in a referendum on March 2021.
RAJ 9 December 2020 raljo31@yahoo
Cet article est publié par l’hebdomadaire Haïti-Observateur, Édition du 9 décembre 2020, VOL. L No. 48 NYC USA et se trouve en P. 13 à : http://haiti-observateur.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/H-O-9-dec-2020.pdf
