{"id":3509,"date":"2020-12-23T06:38:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T06:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=142540"},"modified":"2020-12-23T06:38:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T06:38:20","slug":"canada-supports-unconstitutional-haitian-leader-as-it-seeks-to-overthrow-venezuelas-president-maduro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/23\/canada-supports-unconstitutional-haitian-leader-as-it-seeks-to-overthrow-venezuelas-president-maduro\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada supports Unconstitutional Haitian Leader as it seeks to overthrow Venezuela\u2019s President Maduro"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Add this to the \u201cyou can\u2019t make this stuff up\u201d file: Canada\u2019s foreign minister recently met his Haitian counterpart, who is part of a de facto administration illegally rewriting the constitution, to discuss Venezuela\u2019s supposed democracy deficiency. Apparently, Ottawa wants a Haitian regime extending its term and criminalizing protest to maintain its support for Juan Guaid\u00f3 as \u201cconstitutional\u201d president of Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Last week foreign affairs minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne spoke with his Haitian counterpart Claude Joseph. According to Champagne\u2019s tweet<\/a> about the conversation, they discussed COVID-19, Haiti\u2019s elections and Venezuela. Presumably, Champagne relayed Ottawa\u2019s position concerning Venezuela\u2019s recent National Assembly elections, which delivered a final blow to opposition politician Guaid\u00f3\u2019s farcical presidential claims. In August Joseph met his US and Canadian patrons in Washington on the sidelines of an anti-Venezuela Lima Group meeting. In response Ha\u00efti Libert\u00e9\u2019s<\/em> Kim Ives noted, \u201cwhat could<\/a> be more ironic and ludicrous than Haiti\u2019s President Jovenel Mo\u00efse accusing Venezuela\u2019s President Nicolas Maduro of being \u2018illegitimate and dictatorial\u2019 while demanding that he immediately \u2018hold free, fair, and transparent general elections\u2019? But that is exactly the position of the Lima Group, a collection of 15 Latin American states and Canada, which Haiti joined in January 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph is the representative of a prime minister appointed extra-constitutionally. His boss was picked by Mo\u00efse after parliament, which needs to endorse a prime minister, expired because the president failed to organize elections. Mo\u00efse is ruling by decree and pushing to extend his term by a year to February 7, 2022, against the wishes of most Haitians and constitutional experts.<\/p>\n

Canada is essentially supporting Mo\u00efse\u2019s bid to extend his mandate. Ottawa is also supporting an election process that most political actors in Haiti reject. In the summer Haiti\u2019s entire nine person electoral council resigned<\/a> in response to Mo\u00efse\u2019s pressure and few believe a fair election is possible under his direction.<\/p>\n

Canada is backing the elections and an illegal constitutional rewrite. After the call with Champagne, Joseph tweeted, \u201cI had a fruitful conversation today with my Canadian counterpart Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne. We discussed, among other things, Canada\u2019s support for constitutional reform and the holding of elections in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mo\u00efse is seeking to rewrite the constitution. Soon after parliament was disbanded, he picked individuals to rewrite the constitution in flagrant violation of the law. Mo\u00efse appointed former Supreme Court justice Boniface Alexandre to head the constitutional rewrite. Alexandre was made figurehead \u201cPresident\u201d after the US, France and Canada overthrew<\/a> elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. In another throwback to a period that saw thousands<\/a> killed in political violence, Mo\u00efse recently made L\u00e9on Charles head of police. The former military man oversaw the police in the 17 months<\/a> after the 2004 coup with Charles publicly referring to the \u201cwar\u201d the police waged against the pro-democracy sector.<\/p>\n

In another regressive throwback, Mo\u00efse unilaterally decreed the creation of a new National Intelligence Agency at the end of November. Kim Ives explains, \u201cthis secret<\/a> agency\u2019s completely anonymous officers (Article 43) will have false identities (Article 44), carry guns (Article 51), be legally untouchable (Article 49), and have the power not just to spy and infiltrate but to arrest<\/strong> anybody engaged in \u2018subversive\u2019 acts (Article 29) or threatening \u2018state security\u2019 i.e. the power of President Jovenel Mo\u00efse.\u201d The new agency appears analogous to the Duvalier dictatorship\u2019s Volontaires de la S\u00e9curit\u00e9 Nationale (Ton Ton Macoutes) or the Service d\u2019Intelligence National the CIA created after Baby Doc fled in 1986. Supposed to fight the cocaine trade, SIN members were involved in hundreds<\/a> of murders in subsequent years.<\/p>\n

Even most of Mo\u00efse\u2019s foreign patrons have nominally distanced themselves from the new intelligence agency, which reach beyond the constitutional powers of the president. The Core Group, a US and Canada led alliance of foreign ambassadors that heavily influences Haitian affairs, released a statement critical of Mo\u00efse\u2019s intelligence agency decree. (But, I could not find a mention of the Core Group statement on either the Canadian ambassador or Canada in Haiti Twitter accounts.)<\/p>\n

Alongside the intelligence agency announcement, Mo\u00efse decreed new legislation \u201cfor strengthening public security\u201d. It includes massive fines<\/a> and 50-year jail sentences for individuals convicted of \u201cterrorism\u201d related charges, which include the common protest tactic of blockading roads.<\/p>\n

As it seeks to overthrow Nicol\u00e1s Maduro for purported human rights violations and democratic deficiencies, the Trudeau government has endorsed Mo\u00efse\u2019s repressive measures. After a meeting with the president, Canada\u2019s ambassador Stuart Savage tweeted on December 10: \u201cImportant discussion<\/a> with Jovenel Mo\u00efse on this International Human Rights Day on the subject of democratic renewal, rule of law and food security.\u201d Savage failed to criticize Mo\u00efse\u2019s bid to extend his term, rewrite the constitution, establish an intelligence agency or label road blockades \u201cterrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even before these recent unconstitutional measures, partnering with Mo\u00efse to demand Maduro follow Canada\u2019s interpretation of the Venezuelan constitution was laughable. Mo\u00efse is the hand-picked successor of Michel Martelly who the US, Canada and Organization of American States inserted<\/a> into the presidency after the horrific 2010 earthquake. A relatively obscure businessman who had never held public office, Mo\u00efse benefited from two million dollars in public funds (ironically stolen from Venezuelan assistance) funneled his way by the Martelly administration. According to official figures, Mo\u00efse received 595,000<\/a> votes \u2014 just 9.6 percent of registered voters in the 2016 election. (For his part, Maduro received the support of 27% of registered voters in the May 2018 presidential election.)<\/p>\n

Mo\u00efse faced an unprecedented popular uprising against his presidency between July 2018 and late 2019. The country\u2019s urban areas were paralyzed by a handful of general strikes, including one that largely shuttered Port-au-Prince for a month. The only reason the unpopular president is still in office is because of diplomatic, financial and policing support from Ottawa and Washington.<\/p>\n

Shining a light on Canadian policy towards Haiti makes clear that its bid to replace Maduro as President of Venezuela is not about democracy. Ottawa is completely comfortable with an undemocratic government in Haiti.<\/p>\n

This article was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020 at 10:38pm and is filed under Canada<\/a>, Canada’s Foreign Policy<\/a>, Haiti<\/a>, Hypocrisy<\/a>, Legal\/Constitutional<\/a>, Organization of American States (OAS)<\/a>, President Nicolas Maduro<\/a>, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau<\/a>, Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Add this to the \u201cyou can\u2019t make this stuff up\u201d file: Canada\u2019s foreign minister recently met his Haitian counterpart, who is part of a de facto administration illegally\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,962,657,579,787,4,963,54,964,59],"tags":[95,965,658,587,966,967,66,968,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3510,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509\/revisions\/3510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}