(OTTAWA) Canada announced on Friday the first sanctions surrounding the crisis in Haiti, which target a current Haitian politician and a former one.
Updated yesterday at 8:55 p.m.
In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs clarified that Ottawa has reason to believe that the President of the Senate in Haiti, Joseph Lambert, and his predecessor Youri Latortue used their status “to protect and enable the illegal activities of criminal gangs armed”. Money laundering is mentioned.
The Trudeau government, in conjunction with the United States, will therefore put in place a ban on transactions for these people, which aims to “freeze any assets they may hold in Canada”.
The US Department of the Treasury goes into more detail in its press release and indicates that the two men contributed to drug trafficking from Colombia to Haiti. It is also claimed that they asked other people to commit violence in their place.
Youri Latortue denied these allegations, claiming to have denounced violence and criminal gangs. He believes that this decision lacks rigor. “I have fought corruption and money laundering in many public reports,” he wrote on Twitter. I will defend myself with the law and the truth. »
A spokesperson for Joseph Lambert has been contacted for his reaction, but these messages have remained unanswered so far.
In the Canadian press release of the announcement, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, again condemned the violence perpetrated by armed gangs in Haiti, citing repeated rapes and acts that prevent the population from receiving essential services.
Ottawa has signaled that other people may soon be added to the list of those being sanctioned.
In addition to glaring security issues, the country is currently facing an outbreak of cholera and food insecurity. A blockage disrupts in particular the distribution of fuel throughout Haiti.
“The majority of the victim population is in great pain, increasingly deprived of the minimum subsistence, exposed to violence and feeling abandoned”, summarized Patrick Auguste, who works in particular within a youth association of the Haitian diaspora. .
He testified on Friday morning before federal elected officials on the International Human Rights Subcommittee, alongside academics and members of community groups.
Morgan Wienberg of the organization Little Footprints Big Steps called the crisis a “civil war”. “There are currently more than 100,000 internally displaced people in Haiti,” she said.
According to Mme Wienberg of “foreign pedophiles” sexually abuse children in Haiti with impunity, because the country is unable to control the networks of “illegal orphanages”.
She believes that the current government cannot be the interlocutor of the international community since it is very clear, according to her, that it does not act “in the best interest of the Haitian people”.
Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that “sanctions are not enough in themselves”.
Discussions are ongoing on a possible international intervention. The Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, asked that it be military.
“But you have to be very careful that an intervention is acceptable to the (Haitian) people and to help them,” Trudeau said on Wednesday.
He maintained that the Canadian mission recently returned to the country had made it possible to collect “a lot of information” on the ground and that his government was busy finding the best avenue to take.
“We understand how many Haitians there are who do not want to see international intervention,” continued Mr. Trudeau. It’s a reality. At the same time, we look at the crisis, the rapes, the violence, the poverty, the cholera, the health crisis and we say to ourselves ”We have to intervene in one way or another”. »
On Monday, Canada’s Ambassador to Haiti, Sébastien Carrière, said that no decision had yet been made on the role Canada will play in a future international intervention.
However, he said that many people in Haiti and the Caribbean region hope that Canada will assume a leadership role in supporting this country.
“The international community has an important role to play, and we must do everything in our power to help Haitians and uphold human rights, democracy and international peace,” Minister Joly said in writing. Friday.
The latter was in Germany to take part in a meeting of G7 foreign ministers.
With information from Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press