IMAGE SOURCE: HaitiLumiere.com
By Anita Stewart for Challenging the Rhetoric and Wise Women Media
Corporate media again misses the facts behind the story in Haiti with the latest news that Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe, has resigned. His resignation came to appease the nation’s unrest and quell dissent against the current administration being led under President Martelly. Lamothe gave hisresignation speech in the early morning hours Sunday and gave an account of his accomplishments while holding office.
The US supported Martelly is being accused by his constituents of politically posturing, manipulating the voting laws, legislation and procedures and delaying the voting so he can be a contender in next year’s presidential election.
There are many reasons why the citizens are protesting against the administration under Martelly. To list a couple; he has not kept many of his promises regarding reconstruction and reform and the UN is still used to police the unrest in the streets.
The citizens are leery of having the UN continue to provide the policing as many of the them are still blaming the Nepalese UN Peacekeepers for the introduction of a virulent strain of cholera after January 2010’s devastating earthquake that destroyed most of Haiti’s infrastructure.
Corporate media and state officials have said that the UN has participated in violence against protestors and that there has been use of excessive force along with destruction of property. They also noted that the protestors themselves were also violent.
This weekend, videos have surfaced showing UN “Peacekeepers” threatening, tear gassing and aiming kill shots with live ammunition at peaceful protestors marching against President Martelly’s regime. Corporate and independent media, photographers and videographers were also in the line of fire.
Unrest has been going on in Port au Prince for months and has recently expanded to the cities of Cap Haitian and Gonaives. One man has lost his lifeover the weekend, but as of this writing it cannot be determined if he was taking part in the direct actions or not.
Following the money trail in Haiti is interesting. With the inception of theBush-Clinton Fund — a Haitian relief effort after the earthquake in 2010, one would imagine that after collecting $54 million dollars these monies would be used to directly help the people. Latest accounts show that 400,000 Haitians are still living in tents like refugees in their own country. Most have no sanitation, regular medical care, electricity, potable water or security.
The Bush/Clinton Fund has closed up shop and no longer exists. Where did all the money go?
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