Canada announced sanctions Thursday against two more former members of Haiti’s Parliament, bringing the number of Haitians blacklisted by Ottawa for corruption and ties to violent gangs since September to 22.
Gracia Delva, a well-known singer who represented the Artibonite Valley in the Senate, along with Prophane Victor, a member of the Lower Chamber of Deputies for the Petite Rivière in the the same region, were named by Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly on Thursday during opening remarks of a 2023 Ministerial Meeting on Haiti that Ottawa is hosting.
“Haitians, supported by the international community, will no longer tolerate corruption and impunity,” Joly said.
Joly did not go into details about the specific allegations against the two ex-lawmakers that placed them on the list, only that they are being cited for “acts of corruption.”
Sanctions, she said, are an essential tool in Canada’s response to the security crisis in Haiti and “they send a strong message.”
“We are fighting corruption and we urge you all to join us and to take measures against those who support armed gangs and corruption,” Joly said, speaking to a meeting in Canada of foreign ministers. “Our message for zero tolerance for corruption and impunity will be much louder if we send it together.”
Canada’s aggressiveness with sanctions compared to the United States has been an issue between the two countries, and even raised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he met with President Joe Biden earlier this year on the sidelines of a summit in Mexico.
In a recorded message, played during the opening remarks of the ministerial meeting Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States “will continue to use sanctions, including those we’ve coordinated with Canada, and visa restrictions to deter and promote accountability against those who undermine the political dialogue and fund gang violence.”
Earlier this month, Blinken announced that the U.S. had added former Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Salvador Lamothe to its list of blacklisted Haitians. Accusing Lamothe of being involved in “significant corruption,” Blinken said the former head of Haiti’s government, who calls Miami home, will be “generally ineligible for entry into the United States.”
Lamothe has denied the allegations and vowed to fight to clear his name. He was also previously hit with financial sanctions by Canada, along with former President Michel Martelly, whom he worked for when he served as foreign minister, prime minister and minister of planning for Haiti between 2011 and 2014.
In his recorded address Thursday, Blinken said the Haitian people need the international community’s support and that it must start with making Haiti safe. Since July 2021, the State Department has invested $92 million to strengthen the Haiti National Police force’s anti-gang capacity and currently is working with Congress to get another $30 million.
The ministe’s meeting hosted by Canada is the latest on Haiti involving foreign partners who have been trying to find ways to address Haiti’s escalating gang violence and kidnappings. Ottawa announced a number of new measures to help bolster the Haitian police’s capacity to fight corruption. The assistance includes an additional $10 million Canadian dollars to a United Nations Development Program fund for the police and additional $3 million Canadian to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime’s anti-corruption program.
“Canada is also studying how to play a role” in strengthening the Haitian correctional system, Joly said.
Haiti’s foreign minister, Jean Victor Geneus, and the new head of the United Nations political office in Port-au-Prince, María Isabel Salvador, noted during their own opening remarks that eight months after Haiti asked for foreign forces to assist its national police, the aid still has not been provided.
“The security situation continues to be concerning,” Geneus said. “The Haitian national police need adequate equipment and ammunition in order to reestablish order and ensure stability.”
The government, he said, hopes that Haitian politicians will understand the urgency and do what they can to get the country out “of this situation of turbulence and desperation.”
“People in Haiti are being attacked daily by armed gangs and they deserve justice,” Geneus said.
Salvador said that gang-related violence remains the predominant source of insecurity in Haiti and its pervasive effects are the main concerns of Haitians. While 692 serious criminal incidents, including homicides, were reported the first quarter of 2022, that number during the same period year has more than doubled to 1,697, she said.
“The Haitian national police continues to be affected by operational and financial pressures that undermine its effectiveness and morale,” Salvador said. “The attrition rate among its ranks remains high, exacerbating the existing logistic intelligence and infrastructure constraints. If this attrition rate continues, the HNP would have even more serious difficulties in performing critical law enforcement functions by the end of the year.”
Police operations, she noted, are undermined by insufficient resources and capabilities. The force also faces challenges sustaining a presence in some areas and consolidating gains.
“Armed gangs have expanded their presence beyond just Port-au-Prince to other areas of the country,” Salvador said.
One of those areas is the Artibonite Valley region, just north of the capital, where both Delva and Victor are from. In recent months, a number of police officers have been killed in the Artibonite Valley and others have been forced to abandon police stations in the wake of attacks.
Delva, who heads the popular Haitian band Mass Konpa, is no stranger to controversies. In 2019, he was tied to a kidnapping carried out by a notorious Haitian gang leader Arnel Joseph.
Haiti National Police sources said an investigation into several kidnappings by Joseph revealed that during one of the kidnappings the gang leader was in contact with Delva. The victim was a neighbor of Delva’s who had been kidnapped along with two of his employees in March as they drove from Léogâne to Port-au-Prince. During negotiations to secure the group’s release, the businessman’s wife reached out to Delva for help.
Unbeknownst to the victim’s wife, police say, Delva had already spoken with the gang leader, first on his cellphone and then seconds later on the kidnapping victim’s phone. The kidnapped group was eventually released after a ransom of $110,500 was paid. Delva has always denied allegations of his involvement.
Victor, who has been tied to allegations of corruption involving Haiti’s custom and port operations, is the president of Bouclier, the original political party of former President Jovenel Moïse before he was handpicked by Martelly to run for president as the candidate of Martelly’s PHTK party.
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