lo-de-alla.org

[Translation of an article from Haïti-Liberté for May 18, 2013. See original here.]

By Isabelle L. Papillon

May 14, 2013, is the second anniversary of the inauguration of President Michel Joseph Martelly as head of the country. This second anniversary is marked by catastrophe on political, economic and social levels. The situation of degradation moves inhabitants of poor neighborhoods to demonstrate in the streets of the capital to denounce the drift of tètkale-kaletèt Martelly-Lamothe rule.

Hundreds of people took to the streets at the call of the Mouvement de Liberté, d’Égalité et de la Fraternité des Haïtiens, the Parlement Populaire Haïtien and the Union Nationale des Normaliens d’Haïti to protest against the  tètkale regime, which has done nothing but increase the misery of the masses, the hunger, the unemployment. The demonstrators criticized the so-called priorities of the tètkale authorities, which rest on the “4-Es”: education, the rule of law (l’état de droit) employment and energy. According to the protesters, these priorities are so far nothing but words. Each of the organizations gave press conferences on Monday, May 13, to make an assessment of the government. The government’s tally is completely negative, according to the organizers. (more…)

((Leonel Fernández, Félix Bautista))

Author Aristy Escuder says Senator Félix Bautista used funds for personal and political expenses

[Translation of an article from Diario Digital of Santo Domingo for May 4. See original here and related articles here, here and here.]

Santo Domingo – Economist Jaime Aristy Escuder has released his long awaited book El Lado Oscuro de la Sun Land [The Dark Side of Sun Land], which reveals previously unknown details about the loan of 130 million dollars attained in a questionable manner for the construction of a series of projects at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) but which vanished, with no public explanation of the destination or use of the funds.

The 258-page work explains how the project was developed and how the bureaucratic procedure, which included approval by the president of the republic, Leonel Fernández, was carried out so that then director of the Oficina Supervisora de Obras del Estado [Supervising Office for Public Works], Félix Bautista, could arrange the loan without involvement of the national congress. (more…)

[Translation of an article from the Dominican/Haitian website Espacinsular.org for April 10. See original here and related articles here and here.]

Port-au-Prince, April 10 – Without a doubt, this is not the first time Dominican politicians and businessmen have financed electoral campaigns in foreign countries. The best known case in Dominican-Haitian relations is that of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and Elie Lescot, whom the Dominican dictator managed to bribe, according to [Dominican historian] Bernardo Vega, from the time he was minister of the interior under President Stenio Vincent in 1932 until he helped him become president in May, 1941.

Even more recently, during the last two decades, both Haitian and Dominican candidates, as a result of their connections in social and business circles, have benefited from donations coming from sources on the other side of the island and from the diaspora of both countries. This applies as much to the presidential level as in legislative and municipal elections. (more…)

[Translation of an article from the Dominican/Haitian web site Espacinsular.org for April 2. See original here and related article here.]

Port au Prince, April 2 – Just days after receiving the Dominican government’s highest decoration, the Haitian head of state finds himself implicated in one of the most serious cases of corruption known in the Dominican Republic, the central figure of which is Dominican Senator Félix Bautista.

The results of an investigation made public on the eve of Palm Sunday by prize-winning veteran journalist Nuria Piera on her program “Nuria en el 9,” confirm as facts charges widely circulated in Haiti since last year on the radio program of analyst Michel Soukar and involving leaders in both countries within the framework of the reconstruction of Haiti, devastated in the earthquake of 2010. (more…)

((Leonel Fernández - Cambio16 photo))

[Translation of an article from the Spanish magazine Cambio16 for February 26. See original here.]

The Dominican electoral campaign, which began officially on February 15, moves along a furrow well sown, and thoroughly irrigated, with reports that affect the government and President Leonel Fernández’s immediate environment. While his wife, Margarita Cedeño, vice presidential candidate for the PLD [Partido de la Liberación Dominicana], has been accused of having bank accounts in Denmark and Switzerland, now the US State Department has revoked the visas of four presidential officials because of their alleged links with drug trafficking and organized crime, repeated human rights violations and illicit enrichment and influence peddling. Involved is Leonel Fernández’s bodyguard, Víctor Manuel Crispín Zorrilla; the chief of military aids, General Héctor Belisario Medina y Medina; police adviser and former chief of the National Police, Rafael Guillermo Guzmán Fermín; and the director of border development, General Manuel de Jesús Florentino y Florentino. (more…)

((Michel Martelly, Jean Claude Duvalier))

Lesser charges of corruption remain

[Translation of an article by Agence Haïtienne de Presse for January 31. See original here.]

Port-au-Prince, January 30, 2012 – Carves Jean, the examining magistrate in charge of the case of former dictator Jean Claude Duvalier, has sent to the Port au Prince prosecutor’s office an order of closure in the Duvalier case, “sending the former president for life” to the criminal court on charges of corruption and misappropriation of public funds.

Besides the cases of corruption and misappropriation of public funds, Baby Doc is accused above all of crimes against humanity and violations of human rights committed during his regime.

Judge Carves Jean acknowledges handing down the ruling in the name of the republic, about which he chose not to comment, after hearing testimony from some 30 persons, he said. (more…)

((Página/12 photo))

[Translation of an article from Página/12 of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for January 14. See original here.]

By Eric Nepomuceno
In Río de Janeiro

It rains, and it rains hard. In several parts of Minas Gerais, in different regions of the Brazilian southeast and in the mountains neighboring Río, it is only with the help of the gods that one gets through the daily threat of being eliminated because nothing is to be expected from the government.

Exactly one year ago, the summer storms washed away two cities in the neighboring mountainous region – Teresópolis and Nova Friburgo – and caused heavy damage in a third, the most beautiful and important, Petrópolis. The tally of destruction was 918 dead and 215 missing, who surely are dead as well. It was the greatest disaster provoked by climate change ever recorded in Brazil. (more…)

[Translation of an article from La Hora of Guatemala for January 21. See original here.  Alfonso Portillo was president of Guatemala from 2000 to 2004. He was elected as the candidate of the Frente Republicano Guatemalteco, the party of brutal dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, the military ruler who had come to power through a coup d’état in 1982.  With political origins on the left, Portillo had pledged to support human rights and fight corruption but his administration was soon charged with serious abuse. He fled the country as soon as his term and the legal immunity it provided ended.]

by Gerson Ortiz

The historical trial of former President Alfonso Portillo and two officials of his government finally began this morning after a delay of several hours due to moves by the defense.

Along with the former president, former Defense Minister Eduardo Arévalo Lacs and former Finance Minister Manuel Maza Castellanos will also be tried, all three for the embezzlement during Portillo’s term in office of 120 million quetzales [about 15.6 million US dollars] from the Defense Ministry. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Revistazo.com of Honduras for May 6.]

Revistazo photo

A chronicle of firings foretold has emerged from the case of judges Ramón Enrique Barrios, Luis Alonso Chévez de la Rocha, Guillermo López Lone and Tirza Flores and public defender Osman Fajardo Morel, who were all dismissed from their jobs because they questioned and denounced irregularities reigning in the Honduran judiciary.

Darkness was a reliable witness at a meeting that ended near midnight in which the highest authorites of the Supreme Court decided to remove the handful of practitioners of the law who, joined together in the Asociación de Jueces por la Democracia (AJD – Association of Judges for Democracy), had already made public the threat of their dismissals. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Haïti-Progrès for March 23.

René Préval, Barack Obama

On Thursday, March 11, the day after the the end of President René Préval’s visit to Washington, the Barack Obama government issued a report through the state department concerning human rights and corruption in the Préval/Bellerive government. The report covered the year 2009. Unfortunately, no country that we know of has yet produced a report on human rights and corruption in the United States. That might have curbed the arrogance of the leaders in Washington.

Let’s take a brief look at the contents of the Washington report. It says in the introduction, “The civil authorities in general have effective control over security forces. But occasionally elements of the Police Nationale d’Haïti (PNH – Haitian National Police) act independently.” Farther along, in the second paragraph of the 21-page document, the US authorities broach the subject of human rights. “The following problems concerning human rights have been reported: parliamentary elections were not held on schedule… PNH agents are presumed to have engaged in killings… participation of the PNH in kidnappings… violence and social discrimination against women, abuse of children, human trafficking, violations of workers’ rights.” It seems like a fairy tale. What irony! Washington talking about violations of the rights of workers, children and women? When that country is the largest supplier of sophisticated weapons, which kill women and children in particular throughout the world. (more…)