The U.S. on Tuesday sanctioned former Haitian President Michel Martelly for alleged involvement with drugs and gangs 鈥� actions his critics contend laid the foundation for the virtual takeover of the country by violent and powerful criminal groups.
Many Haitians, though, say they want to see actual U.S. criminal punishment for Martelly.
The State Department said Martelly 鈥� who was Haiti鈥檚 president from 2011 to 2016 鈥� "abused his influence to facilitate drug trafficking and has sponsored multiple Haiti-based gangs." Canada issued a similar accusation two years ago 鈥� and many Haitians, both in country and in large diaspora communities like South Florida's, are asking why it took the U.S. so long to concur.
"Everybody knew it about this and the U.S. seemed to not take responsibility," Haitian-American restaurateur Odelin Celestin of North Miami, who is a plaintiff in a lawsuit accusing Martelly of embezzling Haitian education funds, told WLRN.
鈥淣ow the U.S. finally takes responsibility 鈥� but now what next? Martelly has to go to jail for what he did to the Haitian people.鈥�
Celestin said the U.S. needed to take responsibility for Martelly especially since then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly intervened to help Martelly assume a spot in the controversial 2011 presidential runoff election in the wake of Haiti's cataclysmic 2010 earthquake. Martelly won that vote.
It was a controversial U.S. move, considering Martelly turned out to be one of Haiti's most corrupt and erratic heads of state. A former carnival singer known as "Sweet Mickey," who often expressed admiration for Haiti's brutal 1957-86 Duvalier dictatorship, Martelly presided over the country's epic $2 billion oil aid embezzlement scandal.
In January, a Haitian judge issued an arrest warrant for Martelly and dozens of other former and current officials on corruption charges.
READ MORE: Haiti 'has a road map 鈥� but gangs are still the elephant in the room'
The Haitian expat lawsuit Celestin took part in, filed in a U.S. court, claims Martelly purloined millions of dollars in fees collected from foreign cell phone calls into Haiti, money that was supposed to be used to improve Haiti's threadbare schools.
A U.S. federal judge ruled in 2022 that the suit could proceed; but it was recently dropped in part because several witnesses in Haiti decided not to testify for fear of violent retaliation from Martelly loyalists.
Either way, argues Haitian-American Marcel Denis of Miramar, a lead plaintiffs attorney in the suit, since the gangs Martelly allegedly aided have paralyzed Haiti, Martelly should face a U.S. criminal indictment, not just financial and other sanctions.
鈥淭he U.S. has known for the longest [time] now that Martelly was at the center of gang activities in Haiti," Denis told 港澳天下彩from the Haiti-Dominican Republic border.
"Given what has been done to Haiti, what the Haitian people are really looking for is some real action behind the accusation.鈥�
Martelly largely resides in Miami now. But it was immediately unclear after the State Department announcement Tuesday afternoon what specific sanctions he faces.
Martelly could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, the gangs he allegedly helped sponsor and arm continue to terrorize Haiti 鈥� further complicating a transitional governing council's efforts to organize desperately needed new elections by early 2026.
The U.N. reports they were responsible for more than 2,500 murders in the first quarter of 2024 alone, and that their violence has displaced more than 300,000 Haitian children this year.
Last month a U.N.-initiated, U.S.-funded multinational security support force, led by some 1,000 Kenyan police, arrived in Haiti to help the country's beleaguered national police confront the gangs. But even that contingent is so far proving inadequate 鈥� prompting Haitians in the capital, Port-au-Prince, to stage protests calling for more aggressive police action.
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