by Anthony Fenton

(Third of three installments)

Kidnapping Reality and the Latortues
Before Jean Bertrand Aristide assumed the Presidency in early February, 2001, Youri Latortue was second-in-command at the General Security Unit of the National Palace (USGPN) under President René Préval. After Aristide's accession, other USGPN policemen found him "hostile" to his new President, who worried about his involvement in a "plot", according to Haiti's elite-owned radio station Signal FM on Feb, 21, 2001.

By this time, Youri Latortue’s friends Guy Philippe and Jackie Nau, son-in-law and security chief for today’s de facto Foreign Affairs Minister Hérard Abraham, had been implicated in a plot to overthrow Préval’s government in October 2000, one month in advance of Haiti’s Presidential elections. Nau’s brother-in-law, Roger Alteri, would be arrested for helping the coup-plotters escape to the Dominican Republic. At the time, Alteri was “a contractor for the U.S. embassy.”(Signal Radio, November 7, 2000) . Philippe and Nau ‘s names would come up in relation to other early coup attempts in July and December, 2001, and Philippe would emerge as a central figure in the February 2004 “uprising” against Aristide, where he stated quite openly that his idols were, fittingly enough, Augusto Pinochet and Ronald Reagan.

After being kicked out of the USGPN, Youri Latortue was transferred to the Haitian National Police (HNP). While there are numerous mentions of Youri Latortue the security agent in media prior to 2001, I found no reference to him in Haitian or international media from February 2001 to February 2004. After his transfer to the HNP, Youri Latortue disappeared from the media to reappear three years later, after the 2004 coup.

In a phone interview on Jun. 12, 2004, Youri Latortue explained this three year absence: he had lived in Miami, studied in Montreal for two years, and then returned to Haiti. Upon returning after the coup, he was offered various jobs in the interim government. “They tried to choose me as the Chief of Police when Aristide went,” he said. “I said I didn’t want to because I want to choose a political career, I don’t want to be chief of police.” Instead, Youri Latortue took the position as head of security for his uncle, de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue.

In September 2004, as Haiti was responding to the devastating flooding in Gonaïves caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne, which killed 3,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless, Youri Latortue appeared in that city to dictate the dispensation of aid. In Australia’s Daily Telegraph, he was the spokesperson describing how “only part of a government aid shipment was handed out because the crowd grew too unruly.” Two months later, he was “blacklisted” by Le Figaro, a French newspaper, who dubbed him “Mister 30 Per Cent,” and portrayed Youri Latortue as the de facto government's strongman. Le Figaro’s article, dated Dec. 21, 2004, was titled: "Drug traffickers help themselves to Haiti.”

French journalist Thierry Oberle made the obvious connection between uncle and nephew: “At a lower level, the virtuous Gérard Latortue must, for his part, face his critics. He is blamed for retaining in his entourage his nephew, Youri Latortue, a person nicknamed 'Mister 30 Per Cent' because of the percentage he demands in return for favors. Worried, not without reason, about his own security, the prime minister pays 20,000 euros a month to this former police officer implicated in various scandals for 'organizing an intelligence service'.”

Youri Latortue contested Oberle's claims of his corruption and theft of international aid, calling them false and suggesting that he had hired a lawyer to "pursue justice." He later admitted that he would not "pursue justice" because he did not want to pay the expensive legal fees.

Youri Latortue suggested the real motivation behind Oberle’s accusations was the French government's resentment towards him for shutting them out of the PM's security detail: “The French are not very happy with me because I said that Haitian police can do the security; we don’t need French now for the security. They were very angry and then they said something about me.”

A source close to Haitian government circles said “many people...have seen [“rebel” turned politician] Guy Philippe going in and out of Youri Latortue's office.” Others, such as Joel Deeb, a Haitian-American arms dealer who has reportedly brokered deals with Youri Latortue since the Feb. 29, 2004 ouster of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, call Youri Latortue a drug smuggling “kingpin,” with “close ties” to paramilitary leader Guy Philippe. Deeb also said that “everybody knows” about Youri Latortue’s involvement in kidnappings.

It is also widely known that Youri Latortue and his deputy, Jean-Wener Jacquitte, who refused (on Jun. 24) to comment on this role, are, at the very least, funneling money associated with kidnappings. This has been confirmed by sources both in diplomatic circles, as well as sources inside and outside the de facto Haitian government.

Youri Latortue, like Guy Philippe, has political aspirations. One Haitian human rights activist said that Youri Latortue is in the middle of a scandal that finds “two political parties are buying electoral cards in Gonaïves for large sums of money.” The electoral cards are an initiative of the interim government. Ostensibly designed to regularize the electoral system in advance of October and November elections, the cards in fact open the door to corruption and vote-buying. Gonaïves happens to be where Youri Latortue himself says he plans to run for office. Another Haitian human rights activist said that Youri Latortue’s “name is around all the streets of Port-au-Prince as a drug dealer, kidnapper and other crimes... He wants to be a senator just to have a certain immunity to avoid being judged after the departure of the current government.”

Over the course of several interviews between April and June 2005, Joel Deeb stated that Youri Latortue presently has four sealed U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) indictments pending against him, and that the DEA has issued an extradition letter for Youri Latortue to the de facto government. Youri Latortue himself evaded questions about the DEA indictments, denying that he and Deeb, as Deeb claims, were in regular contact. Deeb speculated that U.S. authorities might soon pick up Youri Latortue, and that the de facto government has already been presented a letter requesting Youri Latortue’s extradition. Efforts to this end have been foiled thanks to the intervention of his uncle, who either relies on Youri Latortue or fears him too much to let him go. The ICG [International Crisis Group] report might lead us to conclude that if the DEA has not picked up Youri Latortue yet, his uncle aside, there is a political reason behind this. The U.S. Embassy would not comment on DEA activities, nor on the PM’s nephew’s reputation. Gérard Latortue also declined to speak about his nephew’s role in kidnapping rackets.

Youri Latortue himself responded directly to questions about his involvement in kidnappings. “I don’t know anything about kidnappings,” he said. “I am not in... I am responsible only for the security of the Prime Minister. I know that there are a lot of kidnappings in Port-au-Prince. I was very surprised when...[I was told] that you were talking about kidnapping.”

Deflecting further accusations, Youri Latortue responded: “If they hear we have kidnappings, and this is very bad for the government, and I work with the Prime Minister. We try to find a way to fight against kidnapping, we try, but it’s for that we try to find weapons, we try to find equipment for the police, we try to find information, training. We try to find everything for the police to fight.”

He then directly accused Lavalas partisans of involvement: “Everybody knows that Lavalas gangs organize kidnappings and went to Bel Air and Cité Soleil. These are two zones, areas, that Lavalas armed gangs took the persons. This is very impossible for the police to go in this area. It’s for that they are kidnapping, because the United Nations try to do something but until now it’s been difficult for the United Nations to put order in this area.”

Youri Latortue claims that reports of U.S. Marines already being in Port au Prince are “just rumors,” and claims not to have known that 150 Chilean Marines had just arrived, or that these Marines had been trained in close-quarter battle techniques in Chile by U.S. Marines before departing. The press release announcing these joint U.S. and Chilean Marine exercises was issued in late March. Xinhua News reported on their arrival on Jun. 11, delivered in the midst of the “kidnapping scourge.” Less than forthcoming on the issue of arming Haiti’s police or supporting the return of US soldiers, Youri Latortue would only say that he supports “every tool that can help the HNP secure the streets.”

Youri Latortue’s credibility on the question of kidnapping rackets is tenuous at best, given his involvement in illicit weapons transfers and drug trafficking. His name was mentioned on the US Flashpoints Radio program in connection with an alleged arms deal that involved him, arms broker Joel Deeb, and Lucy Orlando, a close friend of both President George W. and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and head of the Haitian-American Republican Caucus in Florida.

A series of interviews with Orlando, Deeb, Latortues and others have revealed a complex series of events involving, at the least, incredibly shady deals taking place outside the scrutiny of public opinion. It is clear that the de facto Haitian government, with the probable knowledge and complicity of the U.S. government, has attempted to circumvent the 14-year U.S. arms embargo on Haiti..On May 25, 2004, Orlando hosted a fund-raiser in her home for President Bush’s reelection campaign. Orlando estimates up to 300 mostly Haitian-Americans attended her party, to which Alice Blanchet, Haiti Democracy Project’s (HDP) Development Director until Sept. 2004, came to help organize.

At the initiative of Youri Latortue, Orlando invited Joel Deeb to the party, who she says was accompanied by Lionel Desgranges, a former aide to Leslie Manigat, former President of Haiti (1988) and a long time ally of Washington with ties to the International Republican Institute. Desgranges had also attended the November 2002 opening of the Haiti Democracy Project, which was one of the key international backers of the 2004 coup. Also joining the party were Robert “Bobby’ Wawa, former vice-president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce, and ex-Haitian Army General Hérard Abraham, another long time U.S. asset. At the time, Abraham was Haiti’s interior minister, but has since been moved to Foreign Affairs.

With the exception of Blanchet, this group met in Lucy’s bedroom and discussed how to get weapons.

Orlando claims that on Dec. 31, 2004, Youri Latortue was present in Gérard Latortue’s office when Deeb was given a check for $1 million. Deeb denies receiving a check, though he acknowledges that there was a check made out to his company, Omega. Deeb maintains that the only money he received for weapons was the $533,333.33 deposited in the form of a letter of credit into a Panamanian account. He says that this money is frozen, but that Finance minister Henri Bazin has been hassling him lately to write a check in the amount that is frozen to Youri Latortue.

The first time Orlando was asked about her relationship with Joel Deeb, she responded, “Joel Deeb? I’ve never heard of that; I know Youri Latortue, and the government in Haiti, they are the ones involved with Joel Deeb, with the arms... They want to call my name, they should ask Youri Latortue, the nephew or the cousin of Gérard Latortue.” Orlando also claims that “[Gérard] Latortue put Youri to be the head of Haiti.”

Orlando takes credit for having helped install the Latortue regime, but thinks that they have come to resent her due to her close relations with the Republican Party. “They don’t like me because I’m a Republican,” she said. “Who put them there? I was the one talking to the Governor, to the President, to promote them. The first person they hate is you because they don’t want you to know their business... What I got for thank-you was ‘drop-dead Lucy.’”

Orlando considers herself a key activist in helping to facilitate the downfall of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Several individuals offered different versions of circumstances, which found Orlando meeting with President Bush in the weeks leading up to Aristide’s overthrow in February 2004. All agree that Orlando demanded that Bush personally intervene to “take Aristide out.” Interestingly, Orlando would not deny that this meeting took place and abruptly ended the interview when this question was raised.

Orlando’s connection to the Latortues was evidenced by her appearance at a December 2002 conference sponsored by USAID and IFES [International Foundation for Electoral Systems] in conjunction with the anti-Aristide Haitian Resource Development Foundation. Gérard Latortue and Bernard Gousse, as an IFES employee, were also in attendance. The University of Miami human rights report goes into great detail about how IFES, under the guise of “judicial reform” and “civil society strengthening” helped to destabilize and foster the conditions for the overthrow of Jean Bertrand Aristide. In 1999-2000 alone, IFES received close to $7 million for such efforts from USAID.

Orlando has devoted a lot of her life to the Republican Party. She says she went to Haiti and registered Haitian-Americans in Haiti who had never registered to vote, “with the Chairman of the Republican Party as my witness.” She says her allegiance to the Bush family goes back to the Reagan years. She takes pride in her work mobilizing Haitian-Americans to vote Republican. “I mobilized all the Haitian people, told them about the Republican Party, got them to vote,” she said. In this capacity she says she worked in Haiti with U.S.-backed de facto Minister for the Haitian Diaspora, Alix Baptiste. Baptiste refused to discuss his work with Lucy Orlando.

Orlando was also upset because Gérard Latortue had fired a close friend of hers, René Meroney, who had been appointed head of Haiti’s state-run but slated-for-privatization telephone company, TELECO. She had brought this friend with her to President Bush’s January 2005 inauguration. “If they get mad if you have a friend in the position for whatever, they fire them and destroy the name for people to know that they are thieves, they are this, they are that, because of me, because anybody who is my friend, they try to destroy them...They put them responsible for what I said in the newspaper.”

Asked if she thinks today’s violence is as bad as the previous (1991-94) coup period, Orlando replied: “I believe that Latortue has been doing the same thing and has been blaming it on the Aristide people... Everybody’s after one thing: fill their pockets and then blame the poor ones.”

“Youri Latortue has his own guns,” she continued. “Why do you think Latortue needs all the munitions right now? To give to all his guns. This way, when they want to go and do something, they can go and do it for him. That’s why the country’s not going anywhere.”

“But Latortue will pay one day,” Orlando prophesied. “One day the whole world will know the truth about the Latortues.”

This seems less likely now that Haiti’s de facto President Boniface Alexandre has recently characterized Lavalas supporters as “terrorists” and Roger Noriega, echoing his friend Andy Apaid, has openly blamed the violence and kidnappings on Aristide: "As a longtime observer of Haiti and a longtime consumer of information about Haiti, it is abundantly clear to me . . . that Aristide and his camp are singularly responsible for most of the violence and for the concerted nature of the violence.”

Until the world does know about what the evidence suggests is a government-run kidnap ring, Haiti will be condemned to ongoing, seemingly inexplicable “scourges.” Alternatively, the gangsters could be punished, the political prisoners freed, and democracy restored. But between there and here, there is, to use a word familiar to Coderre and Pettigrew, a lot of “propaganda” to be cleared away.

Anthony Fenton is an investigative journalist , and co-author with Yves Engler of the forthcoming “Canada in Haiti: Waging War Against the Poor Majority,” Fernwood/Red Press. Feedback is welcome: afenton@riseup.net.

Father Gérard Jean-Juste, the pastor of St. Claire's Catholic Church in Port-au-Prince, was harassed and briefly arrested on July 15 when returning to Haiti from Miami.

The incident came after a right-wing Haitian radio program in Miami accused him of smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars into Haiti on behalf of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. “The mission of this money is to make bombs and spread them everywhere,” said commentator Carline Sylvestre of the Radio Madoken program.

Father Jean-Juste had been in Miami to lead a demonstration against the Brazilian consulate to protest the massacre of some 60 civilians in Cité Soleil on July 6, 2005.

Passing through the Miami International Airport on his return to Haiti, Jean-Juste “was selected for vigorous screening and searches,” wrote lawyer Bill Quigley from Haiti in a press release. “When he arrived in Port au Prince, he was searched again and when again the authorities found nothing, they took him into custody and brought him to the police station where he was interrogated for hours. Father Jean-Juste refused to cooperate with the police and was finally released Friday evening and ordered to return for additional questioning on Monday morning at 10 a.m..”

When Jean-Juste went to the station on Monday morning July 18, he was left standing in a sweltering room without a fan or chairs for an hour and a half, Quigley reports. “Jean-Juste was finally advised that the police did not, after all, have any more questions about money or mercenaries or weapons for him,” Quigley wrote. “They told him they would get back in touch with him later if they wanted to see him.”

Following the incidents, Father Jean-Juste declared “these latest official and unofficial threats will not stop us, the Haitian people, from fighting for our human rights and the return of our democracy including the return of our President Aristide and the release of the political prisoners in Haiti.”