This January 1, 2020, on the occasion of the 216th anniversary of the independence of Haiti, President Jovenel Moïse went to the Champ de Mars where he laid, in tribute to the heroes of independence, a wreath of flowers at the foot of the Toussaint Louverture monument. Then at the National Palace delivered a speech to the Nation which we invite you to read.

Extract from President Jovenel Moïse's speech :

"[...] each time we are divided, each time we are disunited we kill another time Dessalines, we kill Toussaint, we kill Pétion, we kill Christophe and the others. The path of division is the road of trouble, the road of trouble leads us into disorder, and disorder is the mother of violence, violence leads us directly into the holes of misery and poverty [...]

Our country never came out of the colonial pact [...] they [peasants descended from slaves] never had neither road, nor school, neither hospitals nor water, nor electricity, the State, our State has served only to guarantee the conditions of reproduction of this post-colonial order, the whole State served to perpetuate this state of things. Those who continue to get rich find it normal that they do not pay tax, find it normal that there can be no competition, find it normal that they set prices for consumers and especially when this consumer is the State itself.

In short, the State only exists as a source of rent in various forms. In this way groups are enriched without ever participating in the effort of production, creation of wealth, they are enriched for the benefit of the hinterland, the country outside, which now populates our disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Our elites never knew how to build the Nation where all can meet for the pursuit of dreams common to all of us

[...]"

Listen to President Jovenel Moïse's full speech :

HL/ HaitiLibre