As we go to press on Dec. 3, the Haitian National Police (PNH) issued arrest warrants for three Haitians living in the U.S. and Canada for “criminal association” (associations de malfaiteurs), a classic tactic of political persecution and intimidation used by dictatorships in Haiti for decades.
The three Haitians targeted are Ralph Laurent (Max Louissaint), a popular YouTuber whose channel “Tele Live Tanbou Verite a” (Truth Drum Live Television) has over 21,000 subscribers; Kervens Louissaint, who is a popular broadcaster of livestreams on X, Instagram, and TikTok; and Beatha Prospère, another social media broadcaster on TikTok and Instagram.
The crime of these three citizen journalists? Political support and sympathy for the national liberation struggle being led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier at the head of an alliance of neighborhood armed groups called “Viv Ansanm” (Live Together).
The U.S. State Department, their puppet Haitian government, the PNH, and the mainstream media characterize the Viv Ansanm simply as “gangs” to be eradicated. The Haitian government has stepped up its offensive against the armed insurgency, which calls for revolutionary change in Haiti while also petitioning for dialogue with the U.S.-appointed Haitian politicians nominally running the country.
In the past two months, the three citizen journalists were among the most regular guests to have participated in numerous TikTok livestreams hosted by Cherizier or Christ-Roy “Krisla” Chéry, another Viv Ansanm leader, during which they took positions perceived as defending the popular uprising that Viv Ansanm has been leading. In the past week, TikTok has effectively shut down all the Viv Ansanm-related channels.
As for Laurent, Louissaint, and Prospère, a PNH video on its Facebook site claimed that “Interpol is looking for them” and called on Haitians to “be on the lookout for them.”
The warrants also charge the three with “inciting violence” and being “armed and dangerous.”
The charges are so patently absurd that several people contacted Haïti Liberté asking if the warrants were fake. Unfortunately, they are not.
Kervens Louissaint, for one, put out a long statement in French. It is applicable to all three victims of political persecution, intimidation, and threats.
“They accuse me. They point their finger at me. They try to sully my name. But why?” he wrote in part. “Because I represent a threat. Not to the people, but to their system. The simple fact that they use justice as an instrument of repression shows that they no longer have any arguments to defend their corruption. Why an accusation without evidence?
“Because evidence does not exist. What they blame me for is my voice, my ability to denounce. They know that the truth I carry is contagious, that it can open the eyes of the masses.
“Why target whistleblowers?
“Because each denunciation is a breach in their facade. Their attempts at repression are a signal of panic. A system that accuses without evidence is a morally bankrupt system. And a morally bankrupt system is doomed.
“I refuse to remain silent. I refuse to look the other way while my compatriots die under the bullets of an oppressive system. I will continue to reveal this disturbing truth: in Haiti, it is not the “gangs” that control the country, but a handful of corrupt people at the top.”
[…] Source link […]
[…] its issuance of warrants against three Haitian expatriates last week, including Kervens Louissaint, accusing them of “criminal association” because of their political views. One of the expatriates, Ralph Laurent (Max Louissaint), the […]
[…] d’arrêt contre trois expatriés haïtiens la semaine dernière, dont Kervens Louissaint, les accusant d’« association de malfaiteurs » en raison de leurs opinions politiques. L’un des expatriés, Ralph Laurent (Max Louissaint), […]
[…] Louissaint, erlassen und sie wegen ihrer politischen Ansichten der “kriminellen Vereinigung” beschuldigt. Einer von ihnen, Ralph Laurent (Max Louissaint), der Produzent des beliebten YouTube-Kanals Tele […]