Venezuela
by Antonio Maria Delgado and
Jacqueline Charles
ORDER REPRINT→Former Haitian senator and presumptive presidential candidate Jean-Charles Moïse prides himself on being a leftist opposition leader and ideologue who has no problem boasting to the United States about his relationships with some of Latin America's most controversial leaders.
But his questionable contacts may have cost him his US visa.
Multiple sources cited a visit to an alleged Venezuelan drug cartel boss and others as the reason behind US authorities' decision Monday to revoke the Haitian political arsonist's visa and ban him from entering the United States for five years.
Moïse, who did not respond to multiple phone calls or requests from the Miami Herald for comment, confirmed the sanctions during several press conferences this week, accusing the United States of violating his dignity and challenging authorities to Reveal what led to the tough decision.
Although he shares the same last name as assassinated Haitian President Jovanel Moïse, it remains a mystery if the two are related.
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The saga of Jean-Charles Moïse, more popularly known as Moïse Jean-Charles, began on Monday when he arrived in Miami with members of a Haitian delegation that had accompanied him to Nigeria over the weekend.
While transiting through Miami International Airport (MIA), the former legislator was approached by agents from the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and taken to what he described as a frozen room for questioning. There, he was asked about the visit to Nigeria and about a visit to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, he said.
Sources familiar with the incident told the Herald that while he was in custody, officers searched Moïse's smartphone after he tried to hide it from them. During the search, they found “doubtful contacts” and photos of him with key members of the Venezuelan regime.
Other sources familiar with Moïse's visits to Venezuela said that during at least one of those trips he met with number two in the Caracas regime, Diosdado Cabello, the alleged head of a Venezuelan drug cartel. Cabello and Maduro face drug trafficking charges in the United States, and US justice is offering rewards of $10 million and $15 million, respectively, for their capture.
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#YourLocalNewsMoïse, 54, returned to Haiti Tuesday morning on an American Airlines flight. A photo of him boarding the flight, wearing a mask, gray suit and red shirt and looking visibly shaken, went viral almost immediately. In the background of the image appears a CPB officer.
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Upon arrival at Toussaint Louverture International Airport, Moïse told waiting reporters that he had been detained by US immigration agents and had a DNA smear taken on his mouth before he was deported and had his US visa cancelled. along with the issuance of a five-year ban. He received the sanctions, he said, because he had refused to discuss the visit to Nigeria and a November 2021 visit to Maduro.
Speaking more about the matter at a news conference on Wednesday, he accused US immigration agents of violating his human rights, humiliating him and threatening him with jail for his refusal to cooperate during the eight hours and 15 minutes they kept in a cold room.
Presumptive presidential candidate in Haiti's yet-to-be-scheduled general election, he is now taking advantage of his treatment to garner support and curry favor with anti-American elements in Haiti.
“Why have other leaders talked to Maduro and never approached them demanding to know what they talked about?” Moïse said.
A CBP spokesman, citing privacy regulations, declined to tell the Herald why the Haitian politician was deported and provided a list of more than 60 reasons why someone holding a US visa may be denied entry to the United States. .
Any traveling visitor, whether a US citizen or permanent resident, may be subject to secondary inspection upon entering the United States. It can be random or the result of prior information in the hands of CBP agents.
In Moïse's case, there was an alert on him. Asking for his phone, he initially presented a non-smart analog phone. Agents later located his fellow passengers and recovered his smartphone. Upon review, his photos and contacts did not help his cause.
Among them was a photo with Carolys Helena Pérez González, a former Venezuelan Minister for Women and Gender Equality in the Maduro government, who often functions as a problem solver and liaison between the Venezuelan regime and its contacts in Haiti. According to a source, Pérez had organized a meeting last June in Caracas between Moïse and Cabello.
Moïse, who regularly promotes his trips on social media, had not publicly disclosed the encounter, but a photo shared with the Herald shows the two men smiling and holding hands. Another photo shows the two men with Pérez standing in front of a Venezuelan flag.
According to his timeline on Twitter, Jean-Charles Moïse was in Venezuela the week of June 21, about two weeks before the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, whom he publicly considered a political enemy, to attend a celebration for “200 years of the Battle of Carabobo”, which sealed the independence of Venezuela.
The United States believes that both Cabello and Maduro run the so-called Cartel of the Suns, an organization in which high-ranking officials of the regime participate and that controls drug trafficking in Venezuela. In March 2020, the US Department of Justice indicted Maduro, Cabello and 13 other government officials on drug trafficking charges and offered large rewards for their capture.
Venezuela, long a diplomatic foe of the United States, has increasingly become a staging post for drug shipments leaving Colombia for the United States, often passing through Haiti or the Dominican Republic.
“Appearing in a photo with Diosdado Cabello is the Venezuelan equivalent of being photographed with 'El Chapo' Guzmán,” said a US intelligence source who monitors activities in Venezuela, referring to violent Mexican drug lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán who is now serving a life sentence in a US federal prison.
At his news conference on Wednesday, the former lawmaker, who has adopted Haiti's red and black flag from the Duvalier dictatorship and is known for waving a Russian flag during protests, accused the United States of threatening him.
While his fellow travelers were allowed to continue on to Haiti, he was held and taken to a room where he was “shivering” with cold. According to what he said, the agents offered to make a deal.
“They told me that if he collaborated there were sanctions that were going to be imposed on me that would no longer apply,” he said. “They told me that if I told them what I was discussing with Maduro in the month of November 2021, I would not have any problem. If I told them what I discussed with the Africans, I would have no problem. But if he didn't say so, they would impose four sanctions on me.”
He then listed the four penalties, which include the cancellation of his visa, a five-year ban on entering the United States, deportation, and imprisonment.
“I chose the prison one; I chose to cancel my visa; I chose to be deported; I chose to be humiliated,” he told reporters, adding that he hired a group of lawyers to sue the United States to defend his dignity.
He then demanded that US authorities "tell us what is behind this."
“It is not Moïse Jean-Charles who they did this to. They did it to the Haitian people,” he said.
Michael Wilner, Senior National Security Correspondent for the Washington Bureau, contributed to this article.