U.S. Revokes Visas of Several Haitian Officials

United States has revoked the visa of an unspecified number of Haitian officials today announced the State Department, which reiterated its call for Haiti to advance in an election “free, fair and credible.”

“We have taken action against a number of Haitian citizens, and something that will continue to assess,” said State Department spokesman, Philip Crowley, in his daily briefing.  He clarified that it is the Haitian government officials, but declined to reveal how many have been affected by the revocation or agreed to be identified by name.

However, CNN says it would be “a couple dozen” of government officials. Crowley also declined to reveal the reason why the State Department has taken this decision because, he argued, “the specific reasons are confidential.”

However, Crowley referred to the electoral crisis when asked whether revocation of the visas had to do with presidential and legislative elections of November 28, whose first round was marked by irregularities, according to observers, and were denounced as fraudulent by the opposition.

“We focus now on ensuring that an electoral process free, fair and credible in Haiti,” he said.  An expert mission of the Organization of American States (OAS), which verified the preliminary results of the first round, recommended to the Haitian authorities to grant the second place candidate and singer Michel Martelly, to the detriment of the ruling Jude Celestin.

The OAS determined that a total of 234 leaves of the first round results did not meet the necessary conditions and thus recommended excluding them from the tabulation of votes.

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QUESTION: So can you be more specific? Are these government officials? You said citizens.

MR. CROWLEY: I will just simply say that we – you asked the question, have we revoked some visas of Haitian citizens; we have.

QUESTION: No, no. His question was officials, government officials.

MR. CROWLEY: Yes.

QUESTION: So yes?

MR. CROWLEY: Yes.

QUESTION: Haitian citizens and government officials?

MR. CROWLEY: And government officials.

QUESTION: Or just government officials?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, the – government officials.

QUESTION: Okay. And there are numerous visas that one can be ineligible for a visa. What specific ones – and I think you can answer this question – is it corruption, is it human rights abuses? What’s the --

MR. CROWLEY: The specific reasons actually are confidential.

QUESTION: No, no, no.

MR. CROWLEY: No.

QUESTION: I’m not asking for the specific reasons for each person, but there are reasons why people are ineligible for a visa. There are broad categories of ineligibility. So what is the category of ineligibility for these people?

MR. CROWLEY: I am going to decline to comment.

QUESTION: Because?

QUESTION: Is there some link to elections? Are you saying that they’ve not been cooperating with the elections?

MR. CROWLEY: We obviously continue to be in touch with the Government of Haiti. We want to see the Government of Haiti embrace the recommendations of the OAS verification mission report. We want to see security and stability sustained in Haiti. We want to see the election results reflect the will of the Haitian people. And to the extent that there are individuals who are connected with episodes of violence or corruption. We will not hesitate to take appropriate actions