Stop the Massacres in Haiti! End U.S. and UN Support for the Criminal Regime of Jovenel Moise
OCTOBER 28, 2020
BY HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE
The human rights crisis under the US-backed dictatorship of Jovenel Moise has continued to widen and deepen with the proliferation of “Tonton Macoutes” style death squad repression across the country.
On October 2nd, 2020, university student leader, law student, and teacher-in-training Gregory Saint-Hilaire was shot in the back inside of the university by Jovenel Moise’s special security unit within the Haitian police that had illegally invaded the campus. Saint-Hilaire was an outspoken pro-democracy activist who had been calling upon students and faculty to denounce government corruption, massacres, and Haiti’s rapid descent into dictatorship. After being shot Saint-Hilaire was prevented from receiving medical care for 4 hours or more and died. The next day, university students accused the Haitian police of involvement in setting the school library on fire.
Gregory Saint-Hilaire’s murder came on the heels of the assassination of Monferrier Dorval, a well-respected Haitian lawyer, constitutional scholar, and head of the Port-au-Prince bar association, who was killed on August 28th, 2020, literally within hours of speaking out against the regime in a radio broadcast.
As noted by US Representative Maxine Waters in a powerful letter of protest directed to US Ambassador Michele Sison on October 5th, 2020, “Dorval had previously signed a statement denouncing more than two dozen presidential decrees signed by Moïse and calling for them to be recalled. Dorval’s murder followed the murder of at least two other prominent Haitians, Radio Caraibes host Frantz Adrien Bony and Haitian businessman Michel Saieh; all three were killed over a two-day period.”
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While the regime has escalated its repression and killings, the US government has increased its level of funding for and provision of weapons to the regime’s US-trained police. As reported on August 31st, 2020 by the Center for Economic and Policy Research: “Earlier this month [August], the State Department notified Congress that it was reallocating $8 million from last year’s budget to support the HNP [Haitian National Police]. Since Trump took office, the US has nearly quadrupled its support to Haiti’s — from $2.8 million in 2016 to more than $12.4 million last year. With the recent reallocation, the figure this year will likely be even higher. US funding for the Haitian police constitutes more than 10 percent of the institution’s overall budget.”[2]
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/28/stop-the-massacres-in-haiti-end-u-s-and-un-support-for-the-criminal-regime-of-jovenel-moise/
