Wednesday, February 19, 2014

US puppet regime in Haiti: 'We’re rebuilding trust'

WASHINGTON — Wrapping up a visit to Washington, Haiti President Michel Martelly said Friday he’s thankful for American support to his nation but wants the U.S. government to trust his country enough to provide direct aid to his administration.

“Haiti wants to move toward job creation and distance itself from charity,” Martelly said in an interview with McClatchy after two days of talks with President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and members of Congress. “Today we’re working at restoring confidence.”

The U.S. is the impoverished country’s biggest benefactor, but its $400 million in aid flows to non-government agencies, not to the Haitian government. That’s been a sticking point for the Martelly administration which, relies heavily on direct aid from Venezuela to carry out government tasks, from paving streets to building health clinics.

Martelly said the U.S. stance stems from the perception that the money will be wasted. Haiti ranks 163rd out of 177 countries on the nonprofit Transparency International’s Corruption Index.

“They didn’t do it because they wanted to hurt Haiti, they did it because there was corruption and lack of trust,” Martelly said of the U.S. “Now what we’re doing is building that trust, being more transparent, cooperating in that domain of fighting corruption.”

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