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PetroCaribe: Haiti President Jovenel Moise comes clean in Miami Herald Op-Ed

According to an op-ed writen by president Jovenel Moise himself on the Miami Herald Friday, PetroCaribe is being used against him by "a small group of people who have been abusing weaknesses in the Haitian system for a long time" to further their own cynical political and financial interests.

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President Jovenel Moise writes:

The PetroCaribe corruption crisis has plagued our country... For my part, I took to the airwaves to directly answer allegations made against me in a report about PetroCaribe funds.

Before running for office, I was a banana farmer and then a successful agricultural entrepreneur in northern Haiti. In 2014, my company was contracted to renovate a road that had fallen into disrepair.

The report incorrectly alleges that the work was not done, and that the funds were therefore stolen. That is patently untrue -- Agritrans renovated three kilometres of unmetalled road, 85 percent of the total, despite being paid just 35 percent of the total due, or 15 million gourdes. I invite any interested observers to travel to the road and drive along it today.

I hope Haitians will see the accusations for what they are: a tool to further the cynical political and financial interests of a small group of people who have been abusing weaknesses in our system for a long time. The PetroCaribe wrongdoing is a decade-old problem, and genuine justice is long overdue.

Read the full op-ed by President Jovenel Moise on the Miami Herald.

"It's right for the public to hold me accountable for this country's governance," President Moise said. " I hold myself accountable as well, I accept my responsibility for that. It is time others do, too."

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