Politics
Martelly displays passport to prove Haitian citizenship
In Haiti, when a person’s passport expires, the original does not have to be returned.
For the past three months, a Haitian senate committee has been investigating Martelly’s nationality and that of his government ministers. The committee has written to US and Italian authorities seeking data on Martelly’s nationality.
On Wednesday, the committee published a partial report stating that three cabinet officials were found holding a US, Spanish and Canadian passport, respectively.
On March 1, Martelly asked Foreign Minister Laurent Lamothe to become prime minister after Garry Conille resigned as prime minister on February 24, after just four months in office, amid tension over the dual nationality issue.
Martelly’s administration is trying to ramp up stalled reconstruction efforts following the devastating January 2010 earthquake that flattened large parts of Port-au-Prince and damaged much of the south of the country.
The magnitude 7.0 quake killed 250,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. According to UN figures, the quake killed, injured or displaced one in six of the Caribbean nation’s entire population of almost 10 million.
Copyright 2012 AFP.
