From Rags to Riches: Michel Martelly and the haitian El Dorado - Par Castro Desroches

Publié par siel sur 3 Mars 2015, 11:13am

“We are behind him. We have a great deal of enthusiasm. This is not only a goal of our foreign policy, but it is a personal priority for me, my husband, and many of us here in Washington.” Hillary Clinton talking about president-elect Michel Martelly (AFP, April 21, 2011).

From Rags to Riches: Michel Martelly and the Haitian El Dorado

By: Castro Desroches* "We are behind him. We have a great deal of enthusiasm. This is not only a goal of our foreign policy, but it is a personal priority for me, my husband, and many of us here in

http://www.haitialternative.org/homepage/from-rags-to-riches-michel-martelly-and-the-haitian-el-dorado/

Every day, millions of Haitians think about escaping poverty by going anywhere that is not Haiti. They cross the river of blood that separates their country to the Dominican Republic. A waterway that is officially named the Massacre River. They go to the jungle of Brazil, the atolls of Turks and Caicos Islands, you name it. When allowed to flee, they become fearless navigators in overloaded rickety boats in the Bermuda Triangle. Even the deserted Island of Cayo Lobos in the Bahamas seems to hold more promises than the slum of Cité Soleil, the largest shantytown of the Caribbean. Haitians have become the true wretched of the earth and the sea. In his novel Mûr à Crever (Ready to burst), published in 1968, world-renowned Haitian writer Frankétienne was already portraying boat-people captured by Bahamian marines who preferred to throw themselves at the sharks rather than returning to Papa Doc’s inferno. What has changed since that terrifying time? Without disappearing, the political killings have diminished drastically but the economic hardships have expanded.

Despite this gruesome and depressing situation, Michel Martelly knew exactly where to turn when he hit rock bottom in Florida. He had to go back to Haiti, the land of opportunity for those who know how to milk the system. As a matter of fact, the emblem of his newly acquired political party was a…cow.

It did not take him too long to reap the reward of this bold political move. The month of his inauguration, he was already offering a cool million dollars for a share on a resort in the tropical paradise of Ile à Vache. When the founding owner of Abaka Bay, Robert Dietrich, rejected the offer, he was under serious pressure: “President Martelly demanded a 40 percent stake holding from the Ile à Vache build-out profit potential. The build out potential was estimated at $100 million annually: meaning $40 million annually to ONE man! I walked away. I’m not selling my soul. It is not for sale at any profit level.”

Martelly was becoming very territorial. He was using strong-arm tactics to expand his estate. After many years of hard work in the US, Haitian-American Doctor André Morno thought it was a good idea to build a seven-apartment complex in his native land. He was very unlucky to be Martelly’s next door neighbor. He was invited twice to the palace. When the pressure to sell his house to the presidential family did not work, he suddenly received a 1.9 million dollars bill in “unpaid” property taxes. A law-abiding citizen, Doctor Morno was shocked to see his name listed on the most wanted for delinquency. Can you imagine Al Capone as President? This is what we are talking about, and then some. Richard Morse, the president’s first cousin, a fellow musician and special envoy in Washington slapped the door in 2013 and accused the Martelly regime of corruption. He was barred from participating in the carnival. Other musical groups that were unwilling to sing the gospel of St Michel received the same treatment in the past three years

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From Rags to Riches: Michel Martelly and the haitian El Dorado - Par Castro Desroches

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