Haiti leader alleges coup plot: 20 people arrested
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitian President Jovenel Moise announced Sunday that police have arrested more than 20 people he accused of trying to kill him and overthrow his government, including a Supreme Court judge who has the support of opposition leaders demanding that Moise step down.
Moise spoke at Haiti’s airport in Port-au-Prince, flanked by the country’s prime minister and the police chief as he prepared to leave for the southern coastal town of Jacmel for the opening ceremony of its yearly carnival, which is being held amid the pandemic.
“There was an attempt on my life,” he said.
Moise said the alleged plot began on Nov. 20 but did not provide further details or any evidence except to say a judge and an inspector general with the police were among those arrested. Moise then said other high-ranking officials would provide more information but other officials with Moise did not speak further to reporters.
Andre Michel, 44, a leader of the opposition coalition, the Democratic and Popular Sector, held a news conference hours after the arrests and called for civil disobedience and demanded that Moise be arrested.
Michel, an attorney, said it was illegal to arrest Supreme Court Judge Yvickel Dabrezil because he has automatic immunity.
Dabrezil is one of three judges that the opposition favors as a potential transitional president.
Reynold Georges, an attorney who once worked as a consultant for Moise’s administration but has since joined the opposition, denounced the arrests in an interview with radio station Zenith FM.
“We ask for his release immediately,” he said of Dabrezil, adding that the court system should shut down until he’s free.
Georges also called on people to rise up against Moise.
Also arrested was Police General Inspector Antoinette Gauthier, according to a statement from the Young Bar Association of Port-au-Prince, which accused Moise’s administration of sowing terror and said Sunday’s actions should not be tolerated.
The arrests come on the day that opposition leaders claim Moise should resign, saying that his term ends on Sunday. Moise has repeatedly stated that his five-year term ends in February 2022. Former President Michel Martelly’s term ended in 2016, but a chaotic election forced the appointment of a provisional president for one year until Moise was sworn in in 2017.
The president of Haiti’s Senate, Joseph Lambert, said he would speak about Moise’s presidential mandate on Sunday, at the same time the president is scheduled to deliver a public address.
The opposition has organized recent protests demanding that Moise step down, and normally congested streets in Haiti’s capital and elsewhere remained empty on Sunday except for some 100 protesters who gathered in Port-au-Prince and clashed with police.
On Friday, the U.S. government weighed in — an important opinion for many Haitians, who often look to their larger neighbor for guidance on the direction the political winds are blowing.
A State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, supported Moise’s argument that his term ends next February and added that only then “a new elected president should succeed President Moise.”
But Price also sent a warning to Moise about delaying elections and ruling by decree.
“The Haitian people deserve the opportunity to elect their leaders and restore Haiti’s democratic institutions,” Price added.
Moise has led by presidential decree since last year, after suspending two-thirds of the Senate, the entire lower Chamber of Deputies and every mayor throughout the country. Haiti now has only 11 elected officials in office to represent its 11 million people, with Moise having refused to hold any elections over the last four years.
Moise is seeking to expand his presidential powers in the coming months by changing the country’s Constitution. A referendum on the new Constitution is set for April, and the opposition fears the vote will not be free or fair and will only embolden his budding authoritarian tendencies — assertions Moise denies.
In December, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Moise’s close allies — including the former director general of the interior ministry — for providing political protection and weapons to gangs that targeted opposition areas.
The government denies providing support to any gangs.