The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. Congress supports human rights activist Pierre Esperance.
In a statement sent to ZoomHaitiNews, committee chairman Gregory Meeks, Congressman Albio Sires, and Haitian Caucus founder Andy Levin, among others, said they condemn threats against the executive director and staff of the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH).
According to officials of the largest committee in the U.S. Congress, “Reports of death threats against Mr. Espérance in retaliation for his work are extremely alarming.” Congressman Gregory Meeks, the founder of the Haitian Caucus in the lower house Andy Levin, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, Migration, and International Economic Policy, and other U.S. lawmakers pledge to take steps to “ensure the safety of Mr. Espérance and his colleagues.” Any further attempt to silence, intimidate, harass, threaten or harm Mr. Espérance or RNDDH staff is intolerable,” they denounced.
The signatories of the communiqué ask the Haitian authorities to open an investigation to shed light on the origin of the threats made against Mr. Esperance and “to take all necessary measures to ensure his safety and that of his colleagues.”
The human rights defender had, on several occasions, reported a plan to assassinate him. He had cited the name of former President Joseph Michel Martelly, who according to him, would be behind these criminal maneuvers. Several meetings were organized by Michel Martelly to plan the assassination of the human rights activist, according to Pierre Espérance.