Haiti’s constitutional horror show | San Francisco Bay View

8.10.12

Haiti’s constitutional horror show | San Francisco Bay View: Martelly won this fraudulent “runoff” with a voter turnout even lower than the first round’s 22.8 percent. The 716,989 votes cast for Martelly constitute only 15 percent of Haiti’s 4.7 million registered voters, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Martelly was a member of the Duvalier family’s death squad, the tonton macoutes, when he was 15 and a cadet in the former Haitian military academy as a youth. He supported both coups against President Aristide in 1991 and 2004 and was rumored to have accompanied the FRAPH death squads on their nightly raids after the first coup. A former musician, Martelly constantly demeaned and insulted Aristide in his stage performances.

Martelly welcomed the return of Duvalier to Haiti in January 2011. He socializes with him and has been openly photographed in his presence. He has not pursued any of the legal charges against Duvalier, and now his administration is beginning to look more and more like the despised Duvalier dictatorship. Martelly has brought many Duvalierists and members of Duvalierist families into his government in a variety of roles, including departmental D�l�gates (representatives of the president to the departments). Duvalier’s son is a close advisor.