U.S. lawmakers call for Haiti-led transition, support claim Moïse’s presidency ends Sunday
A group of U.S. lawmakers including Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the powerful president pro tempore of the Senate, is calling on the Biden administration to wash its hands of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and back a transition government to run Haiti.
Seven lawmakers made their positions known in a letter to recently confirmed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, while Leahy tweeted his position, which he later elaborated on to the Miami Herald. The members of Congress, like some Haitians, contend that Moïse’s presidential term ends Sunday, according to the Haitian constitution.
Moïse, who took office in 2017 and is currently in his second year of ruling by decree, says his term ends a year from now and has vowed to not go anywhere.
“We believe deeply in democracy and rule of law; we feel it is essential that the United States unambiguously reject any attempt by President Moïse to retain power in contravention of those principles,” the members of Congress said in their letter. “The time for a Haitian-led democratic transition is now.”
The lawmakers’ push for Moïse’s departure and a transition in Haiti, which opposition and civil society groups also support, comes a day after the Biden administration expressed support for Moïse’s claim that his presidential term does not end Sunday.
“A new elected president should succeed President Moïse when his term ends on February 7, 2022,” State Department Spokesman Ned Price said.
The U.S. is Haiti’s biggest donor, and the country could well become one of the front burner foreign policy problem of the Biden administration, which still doesn’t have all of its personnel in place in the State Department.
The administration, which has been in office for less than a month, is already catching heat over the recent deportations of hundreds of Haitians despite promising a 100-day moratorium on removals while campaigning for the Haitian-American community’s support in South Florida prior to the Nov. 3 presidential election.
The contentious dispute over when Moïse’s term has been roiling Haiti for weeks and is based on a reading of the country’s constitution, which the president is currently trying to change. The United Nations and Organization of American States Secretary Luis Almagro, have also concluded that Moïse’s term ends in 2022.
The president’s detractors, however, note that he used the same interpretation of the constitution that he is now rejecting for himself to dismiss all local mayors, the entire Lower chamber of Parliament and two-thirds of the Senate in January 2020, resulting in his ruling by decree without any checks on his power.
Opposition groups have launched anti-government protests demanding his departure, while human rights, civil society and religious organizations have written letters calling for the same.
They contend that under the constitution, the clock on Moïse’s five-year term started when his predecessor and mentor President Michel Martelly stepped down from power in May 2016 without a successor. The vote, months earlier in October 2015, were marred by fraud allegations, and the rerun wasn’t held until 14 months later. An interim president and government ruled Haiti during that time.
In their letter, lawmakers call on Blinken to pay close attention to Haiti, saying the human rights situation is perilous. They accuse Moïse of flouting democracy, unilaterally naming the country’s electoral council charged with staging elections, and carrying out “dubious constitutional reforms.”
Among those who signed onto the letter: Chairman of the House ForeignAffairs Committee Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. , Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings and Michigan Congressman Andy Levin.
“We hope that the State Department will closely monitor the unfolding events in Haiti, take swift steps to condemn President Moïse’s undemocratic actions and support the establishment of a transitional government,” the letter dated Saturday concluded.
In a tweet Leahy said the United States should join in calling for an inclusive transition in Haiti. The country, he said, “is in worse shape than when” Moïse began “with rampant poverty, corruption & gang violence in which the government is complicit.”
The senator later elaborated on his position in an email to the Herald.
“The first thing that needs to happen in Haiti is for the UN, the United States, Canada and other countries to unequivocally wash their hands of President Moïse, former President Martelly, and other corrupt Haitian officials who have cared far more about enriching themselves and holding onto power than improving the lives of their people,” Leahy said. “Only then will the country have a chance of dealing with the misery, kidnappings and assassinations, in which the government is complicit, that torment the Haitian people day and night.”
On Saturday, as Haitians in the country wondered about what kind of day they will wake up to, a crowd of about 30 Haitians gathered in Little Haiti to also demand the departure of Moïse.
“Today the country is naked; they have eaten up and wasted all of the country’s money,” Said Fred Joseph, 49, a teacher from New York who came to Miami for the protest. “They have created a lot of insecurity.”
Jason Joseph, 61, said Moïse has not governed the country.
“He has to go; all you see happening are kidnappings,” he said.
Organized by the local grassroots organization Veye Yo, the event was staged at the foot of the statue honoring Haiti’s founding father, Toussaint L’Overture, in Little Haiti. Wanted Posters of Moïse flanked the grass. Nearby, photos of individuals killed during his presidency hung between two trees and a sign made a plea to Biden: PRESIDENT BIDEN KEEP YOUR PROMISE Restore Democracy in Haiti .
This story was originally published February 6, 2021 at 9:35 PM.
