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News > Haiti

President of the Haitian Senate Exhorts President to Dialogue

  • Protesters march during a demonstration to demand the resignation of Haitian president Jovenel Moise, in the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti October 4, 2019.

    Protesters march during a demonstration to demand the resignation of Haitian president Jovenel Moise, in the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti October 4, 2019. | Photo: Reuters

Published 9 October 2019
Opinion

"The president must take the necessary measures to start immediately and without any delay a dialogue with all the political actors," Carl Cantave said.

The President of the Haitian Senate, Carl Murat Cantave, urged Tuesday in a statement that President Jovenel Moise create a dialogue roundtable with all the main stakeholders in the country to find a solution to the deep political, social and economic crisis the country has been enduring for months.

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Cantave presented a grim picture of the current situation in a Haiti marked by high indices of hunger, poverty, unemployment, gang wars, crime, rape of women and children, the closure of schools and hospitals countrywide, and the shortages of fuel and food.

In his message addressed to the senate and more broadly to the nation, Cantave demanded that all actors, including political leaders, commit to talks, warning that Haiti is “sitting on a barrel of gun powder; it's on the edge of an explosion.”

He strongly recommended “that the president take the necessary measures to start immediately and without any delay,” a dialogue with all political actors as well as with the international community.

“Dialogue is the only salvation for the resolution of our ills, and all options must be considered,” the president of the senate said, also advocating for a truce in the protests that are shaking since early September when fuel ran out across the country. Prior to that in June, a lengthy study found that Moise had embezzled large sums of money from a Venezuelan oil program meant for infrustructural programs. 

The politician, who has been running the upper house for eight months, acknowledged the seriousness of the latest events and the "imminent danger" that “weighs on the destiny of the nation." 

"It seems that we are not taking the whole dimension of the impending danger that looms over the destiny of our institution and the country," said the lawmaker.

“Any superficial solution to this political crisis will only lead to a dead-end and to an eternal restart of the crisis. The solution must be real, rational and urgent; adapted to the current economic situation, which is acquiring proportions that are more than alarming,” he warned.

Those involved “must leave their weapons to sit down, discuss, negotiate and agree on the direction that will be given to Haiti during the next 25 years through a formal pact of coexistence based exclusively on the interests of the country and the Haitian community,” he said.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, new protests in Port-au-Prince by those who promised to keep the demonstrations up until Moise was removed or stepped down.

Several opposition parties and political organizations announced they will hold a “mega protest” this Friday, taking the streets of the capital to go to the presidential residence and demand the president's resignation.

Opposition senator Antonio Cheramy said at a press conference that the mobilization is not just intended to overthrow Moise, but to change the system wrought with corruption and inequity.

“The battle we are fighting is not intended to take someone and place ourselves. If we follow this logic, people will never stop suffering. It is rather a battle for the poor classes, the people who live in remote places and all those forgotten. This battle will not be in vain. It's a battle to change the system,” Cheramy said.

According to a report published last Thursday by the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), at least 17 people have died and 189 have been injured in the Caribbean country since the last wave of protests broke out on Sept. 16.

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